BANGOR – Last summer Joe Alvarez wasn’t sure what he was going to do. Having just completed his junior year at the University of Maine, he knew one thing – golf at the school was no longer an option. The university had dropped the program as part of a cost-cutting measure.

“I knew they were going to. They told me when I was a freshman that it was a possibility,” Alvarez said.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The 22-year-old Alvarez transferred to Husson College in Bangor and recently received NAIA All-American honors when he finished 12th at the NAIA National championship in Palm Coast, Fla.

He was also part of a Husson team that finished 20th out of 27 teams.

“That was good. Actually there’s never been a team from our region that did better than last. And individually I wanted to make All-American because no one from Husson had been an All-American in golf,” Alvarez said.

The top 15 individual golfers were named to the NAIA All-American team.

Alvarez had two rounds of 75 and a third round of 76. He then went out and shot a 73 on the fourth day that would have moved him into the top 10 but a thunderstorm rolled through the Matanzas Woods Golf Club course before play had been completed and the tourney was shortened to three rounds.

“The team shot its best score that day, too. It would have been better if we hadn’t had that thunderstorm. We could have moved up a few spots,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez’s accomplishments were viewed by his parents Jeanne, who is a family nurse practitioner in Bangor, and his father Luis, a U.S. Navy Commander who has served as the executive officer aboard a Trident submarine and more recently was an ROTC officer at UMaine and Maine Maritime Academy in Castine.

“My dad had never seen me play and my mom had seen me play once. They walked around all four days. They knew I was pretty good because I’d been winning some tournaments. It was nice they could see because it was my last college tournament,” Alvarez said.

But the individual awards and the team accomplishments almost didn’t happen. When UMaine dropped golf Alvarez decided he was at a crossroads. He considered giving up the game.

“I wasn’t even sure I wanted to play. I thought I just might concentrate on getting through school and graduating,” the Veazie resident said.

But Alvarez spent his second summer in a row working at the York Golf and Tennis Club. He played golf and played well enough in the Maine Amateur to get the competitive juices flowing again.

He gave Husson golf coach Bruce MacGregor a call. Alvarez had met MacGregor when he tried recruiting him as a senior at Marshwood High School in Eliot.

“He had talked to me about coming to Husson out of high school but financially it wasn’t the right move at the time,” Alvarez explained.

But this time he decided Husson was the right fit. He earned his degree in business administration and graduated on May 11.

Alvarez said he won’t be returning to York this summer. He has a job here in Bangor and membership at Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono.

He plans to play in the Maine Amateur, the New England Amateur and attempt to qualify for the U.S. Amateur.

“If I play well in those, who knows what could happen,” Alvarez said.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net