Boys Soccer: Marmion tabs Gerardo Alvarez as new head coach

AURORA – Marmion Academy is turning to a familiar face to continue the resurgence of its soccer program in Gerardo Alvarez.

Alvarez, the 2003 Marmion alum and all-time program scoring leader with 90 goals and 48 assists, is returning to be its head coach.

Alvarez's hire was announced earlier this week, and he will replace James Romano after three seasons as head coach.

"It's always great to have somebody like him – probably our most decorated soccer athlete to ever walk our halls – to come back and take over the reins," Marmion Athletics Director Paul Chabura said of the hire. "It's tremendous. It's kind of like that stud athlete who comes back to coach a team."

"I'm trying to think of examples," Chabura continued. "Patrick Ewing going back to coach Georgetown [or] Chris Mullin at St. John's is that kind of a vibe to it. So, we're super excited. Obviously, he understands our school; the challenges both academically that our kids face on a day-to-day basis and how hard it is to be a student-athlete at Marmion. But, he understands how to deal with that."

Under Romano, the Cadets went 27-29-6, which includes their Class 2A sectional title and supersectional appearance in 2018.

"Jimmy had let me know just after we returned from Christmas break [this year] that he [was headed] back to grad school," Chabura said.

"We were certainly happy with the progression that he had the program in," Chabura continued. "Obviously, last year, we had three levels of soccer. We [were] coming off a sectional title and being a game away from state, so we were super happy with coach Romano and what he had done for the program."

Alvarez previously served in some assistant coaching roles at Aurora University from 2009-2012, and later at Benedictine University from 2012-2015.

During his junior season in high school, Alvarez hit the single-season school record for goals his junior year (then 27) and later broke his own record the following season with 46 goals.

In college, Alvarez starred at Northwestern University, where he scored 28 goals, 24 assists, and 80 points in his collegiate career. Alvarez earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors as well as All-Big Ten Honors. Alvarez was a three-year captain, and ranks second all-time in program history in assists and is tied for second in points.

Northwestern men's soccer coach Tim Lenahan coined Alvarez "the most transformational player in Northwestern history." Alvarez later began a brief professional soccer career with the Cleveland City Stars of the United Soccer League.

"We had some quality candidates," Chabura said. "We really had quality candidates. [Gerardo] is obviously just really a slam dunk for us when it was all said and done."