Finished Strong

As the Beaver football team emerged from the locker room after the Emerald Bowl, I stood with fellow KBVR sports member Eric Bartz across the hall. The 21-14 win was the icing on the cake for another Beaver football season. A football season, much like last year, that started out roughly. It was a great way to finish off the season for all of the seniors.

I stood outside the post game party in the locker room. I watched the coaches come out, talk to families and receive enthusiastic praise, hugs and congratulations. I watched the players’ surface, some with smiles from ear-to-ear, to accept hugs, kisses, take part in post game photo-ops and then grab their post game pizza and walk out to the bus still singing along to the music in the locker room. Some players, you could tell, had shed a few tears in the process.

That’s when Alexis Serna walked out.

Kickers aren’t usually the spotlight on a team and when they are, there are issues. Like Mike Vanderjagt. Serna wasn’t in the spotlight but, in this game, he should have been. The 5’8″ 170-pound senior from Upland, Calif. had endured a wild ride during his college career.

In his first game he missed three extra points that cost the Beavers the game against JaMarcus Russell, Joesph Addai, Marcus Spears and the defending national champion LSU Tigers, and wasn’t even in the lineup the next week. But that’s when Alexis showed his true colors. That’s when Serna’s Oregon State career started to change into a movie script or something made for Disney to copyright and sell paraphernalia because he has been nails ever since.

He befriended a young boy with bone cancer in Spokane, Wash. who gave Serna words of encouragement. He finished the rest of the 2004 season a perfect 29-for-29. He was a Lou Groza finalist three times and won the award in 2005. He has only missed one field goal inside of 30 yards in his career – and it was blocked. He finished his career with 144 consecutive extra point attempts made and during his career the Beavers were 28-8 when he scored at least five points.

Alexis Serna deserved to finish his career with a game winning extra point to top off a game that was filled with numerous 40-plus yard field goals. Maybe it wasn’t what he deserved but it did have a sprinkle of irony. When he commented on the field conditions after the game, he said, “The only other field that I can think of that was like that was the LSU field.”

That damn LSU field, Serna must think. I was in class with Serna on that first day of school after the LSU game. And that morning he looked like a kid that was afraid to turn around and see anything but his own shadow. Then the professor decided to take attendance. After his named echoed out in that writing class you could hear a pin drop. About three desks away from my desk and one row over I see a hand go up from a young man slumped down in his desk. He didn’t bother to say “here,” probably because he wished he wasn’t.

While he did make all his extra points in San Francisco, he missed a 48-yard field goal attempt. It was the exact opposite in terms of performance from the first game he ever played in black and orange down in Louisiana, when he made a 40-yard attempt and missed three extra points.

In the hallway outside the locker room, he hugged Mike Riley and they exchanged words, smiles, and laughter. While this game was not the storybook ending Serna deserved, he was happy to finish on a win.

When Serna turned to walk away, I grabbed him for the last post game interview. For the last three years he has been one of the best when walking off the field. Sure, on the field he was as dependable as the sunrise. But that’s not why I interview him after games. He wasn’t the one to give the inside info on the team or the guy that would trash talk the opposition after the game. But the great thing about Alexis was that he was happy to answer every question I could ever ask.

I always asked about football – the kicking game in particular, but I imagine if I asked about world history or his favorite brownie recipe he would have answered it with the same amount of enthusiasm and with the same smile on his face.

So maybe I don’t know his middle name. I don’t know his favorite color or meal. I don’t know his family, if he has a girlfriend or even the neighborhood where he lives. But I’m going to miss Serna, both on and running off the field when the clock hits triple zero’s. He was a hell of a kicker and a great post game interview, and really an overall genuine good guy.