Volleyball player Ben Stuerman going to Simpson, while wrestler Santino Alvaro picks Southern Oregon
Two senior student-athletes from Santa Ynez High School are make plans for the next level.
Joined by their families, teammates, and friends, volleyball player Ben Stuerman and wrestler Santino Alvaro made their intentions known during a signing ceremony on the SYHS campus May 6. Both are headed for similar destinations: smaller NAIA schools on the West Coast.
Stuerman, team co-captain of the Pirates’ boys volleyball team that just won the CIF Central Section Division II championship, is going to Simpson University in Redding, California.
Stuerman, who also played water polo at SYHS, said he got on Simpson’s radar thanks to a couple of former teammates on Flight Academy, his club volleyball team.
“A couple of guys, my very best friends, were up there and said the coach was asking about me constantly,” he said. “I met with the coach (Steven Brasher), and he was really great. Plus, it’s a Christian school and I’m very religious, so that was awesome, and it seemed to good to be true.”
However, it was a visit to the Simpson campus that clinched it for Stuerman.
“I went up and had an amazing tour, and an amazing practice with the team,” he said. “The teammates were awesome, and the area was just really pretty. After that everything just kind of fell into place I had no doubt after the visit that I would be going there.”
Simpson is an NAIA school that competes in the California Pacific Conference with four other in-state college programs. The Red Hawks finished 7-17 overall this season, although they were .500 (4-4) within the CalPac. Stuerman said he plans to study kinesiology at the school and aspires to be a firefighter after graduation.
Alvaro, meanwhile, is coming off a high-school wrestling career that saw him win back-to-back CIF Central Section titles, having won the 126-pound championship this past February. He will continue wrestling at Southern Oregon a public university in Ashland, Oregon.
Alvaro had been hearing about SOU for awhile from a personal connection.
“My sister’s boyfriend went to school there, and she was always telling me how nice it was, and she took me for a visit,” Alvaro said. “It was really nice, and there were a lot of things to do outside of school. It’s real outdoorsy there, and I really liked that.”
The interest in Southern Oregon, as it turns out, was mutual.
“I had contacted a number of schools about joining their program,” Alvaro said. “And Southern Oregon was the one school that got back to me very quickly and showed a lot of interest.”
Alvaro said as far as a major and field of study, he is still undeclared and plans to take general requirement classes his first year while he decides.
The wrestler will be joining an SOU program that finished ninth in the NAIA Championships, it’s best finish in eight years. The Raiders had a 19-3 overall record in duals, including a 12-1 mark in the Cascade Collegiate Conference and a first-place finish in the conference championships.
Before Alvaro and Stuerman signed their letters of intent, they both took the time to thank their respective parents for their part in helping them along in this journey.
The parents of both were pleased with the schools that their sons selected.
“It’s great to see him reach this point — he’s been working toward this since he was 8 and started wrestling,” said Rudy Alvaro, Santino’s father. “We took him up to Southern Oregon and he like it right away; he’s gotten to know those guys up there and I think he’ll do well.”
With Santino ready to leave in a few months for SOU, the Alvaros are expecting more excursions up north.
“We’ll be taking trips, a lot of trips,” said his mother Isabella. “Me might even be looking at houses when we’re up there.”
For Stuerman’s parents, Shawn and Krista Sue, the process was made easier once Ben took a look at Simpson.
“It was a blast, but we just wondering what kind of school would be best for him, but once we went to Simpson we all knew that would be the best for him,” Shawn said.
“I actually went to school at Westmont [in Santa Barbara] years ago and was hoping he’d go there, too,” Shawn said laughing, “but they didn’t have a volleyball team, so that was out. However, we’re all very happy with Simpson.”
