Forbes article on LS Alex Ward
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UCF Long Snapper Alex Ward Has Starred Academically, Athletically During Collegiate Career
by Tom Layberger
Contributor
Oct 12, 2022,10:05am EDT
UCF's Alex Ward was a Patrick Mannelly Award finalist (nation's top long snapper) in 2021.UCF ATHLETICS
While working on camera targeting for an Apache helicopter during his internship with Lockheed Martin, Alex Ward discovered that at minus-40 degrees Celsius the camera was not meeting a prescribed time requirement for it to properly focus at that temperature.
Ward, who participated in the UCF Lockheed Martin College Work Experience Program, went to work on testing a drive screw fixture and putting it through all the necessary system checks to achieve the desired result.
“It was both fascinating and challenging,” he said of a two-year internship, noting that the biggest challenge was typically the time demands of football practice, getting to and from UCF’s campus to Lockheed’s downtown Orlando office — often a 90-minute roundtrip — to go with whatever else he had lined up on a given day as a student-athlete.
Much like how the Knights’ long snapper has performed on the football field the past few years, Ward found a way to manage his schedule and manage it well. When it comes to snapping a football, few, if any in the college game, do it better.
The Fort Walton Beach, Fla. native, who last December received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering and Computer Science at UCF, had an opportunity to audition for NFL scouts at the Senior Bowl after last season. However, Ward wanted to return to UCF and take advantage of an additional season of eligibility that was granted by the NCAA as a result of virus-disrupted 2020.
A 2021 finalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award, given to the nation’s top long snapper, Ward set out to have an even better season in 2022.
“I knew I needed to improve my short snaps for field goals and extra points,” he said. “I wasn’t satisfied in my production with that last year. I worked a lot in the summer and got that to where it should be.”
Ward, who will play in his 42nd career game with the Knights on Thursday night against visiting Temple, also wanted to add about 10 pounds – he is up to 250 – while working on other areas of his craft.
“I started training hard and realized my feet were not as quick as I would have liked them to be,” he said. “I was not as proficient at blocking. That was something I have been stressing a lot to improve.”
The additional year of eligibility has allowed Ward to broaden his education as well. He is taking courses in business, including management, accounting and quantitative business tools.
“I am doing it to understand more of the business world than I did from engineering,” he said. “My plan in the future is to work toward an MBA.”
Such a level of dedication and commitment on and off the field has resulted in much recognition. Not only was Ward a Mannelly Award finalist last season, but in late September he was named a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy, which recognizes the nation’s top football-playing scholar athlete for his success on the gridiron, in the classroom and as a leader. Finalists will be announced October 26.
In addition, last spring Ward was named to the Order of Pegasus, UCF’s highest student honor that recognizes select graduating seniors and graduate students who have “demonstrated exemplary academic achievement, university involvement, leadership and community service.”
Such accolades are nice, for sure, as it serves as validation for a job well done in the various aspects of Ward’s collegiate career. However, he is not one to get wrapped up in the recognition.
“I keep my head down, go to work and do what I need to do while doing it at the highest level I can, like my dad,” he said, of Jim Ward, a county court judge in Okaloosa County, Fla. “I don’t know if it has really hit me how big these accolades are. However, I find them as assurance of the level of work I am putting in and the level of dedication that I have put toward the aspects of my life that I choose to really work hard at, and that I am doing something correctly and it is paying off.”
There is no doubting Ward has done plenty correctly since he arrived at UCF. When it was getting to be time to decide which university he wanted to attend, he had pretty much zeroed in on UCF because of the school’s mechanical engineering program, something other schools that expressed interest in him could not match, if they had a program at all.
As for his field of study, Ward was in grade school when he made up his mind. For that, he thanks his grandfather, the late Allen Koester, who served 28 years in the United State Air Force and retired as the Assistant Vice Commander for the Aeronautical Systems Center at Eglin Air Force Base.
“I always wanted to follow in his steps,” said Ward, whose other grandfather, James Ward, served in the Florida House of Representatives. “Since I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I decided that I wanted to be a mechanical and aerospace engineer. So, that is a path I have been on quite a while.”
It is not something he wants to pursue with respect to his career. At least not yet. Rather, Ward’s focus is on continuing to become the best long snapper he can possibly be while setting himself up for a career in the NFL.
Long snappers have lengthy careers. One such example is Don Muhlbach, who played 17 seasons and 260 games snapping the pigskin for the Detroit Lions before retiring after the 2020 season. Several others have spent well over a decade in the NFL, including the Tennessee Titans’ Morgan Cox, who is in his 13th season and whose mechanics Ward has studied.
“A long-snapper has quite a bit of tenure in the NFL, so that’s Plan A,” Ward said of his future. “Plan B, well, I honestly don’t know. But I am not backing off Plan A anytime soon.”
[www.forbes.com]
by Tom Layberger
Contributor
Oct 12, 2022,10:05am EDT
UCF's Alex Ward was a Patrick Mannelly Award finalist (nation's top long snapper) in 2021.UCF ATHLETICS
While working on camera targeting for an Apache helicopter during his internship with Lockheed Martin, Alex Ward discovered that at minus-40 degrees Celsius the camera was not meeting a prescribed time requirement for it to properly focus at that temperature.
Ward, who participated in the UCF Lockheed Martin College Work Experience Program, went to work on testing a drive screw fixture and putting it through all the necessary system checks to achieve the desired result.
“It was both fascinating and challenging,” he said of a two-year internship, noting that the biggest challenge was typically the time demands of football practice, getting to and from UCF’s campus to Lockheed’s downtown Orlando office — often a 90-minute roundtrip — to go with whatever else he had lined up on a given day as a student-athlete.
Much like how the Knights’ long snapper has performed on the football field the past few years, Ward found a way to manage his schedule and manage it well. When it comes to snapping a football, few, if any in the college game, do it better.
The Fort Walton Beach, Fla. native, who last December received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering and Computer Science at UCF, had an opportunity to audition for NFL scouts at the Senior Bowl after last season. However, Ward wanted to return to UCF and take advantage of an additional season of eligibility that was granted by the NCAA as a result of virus-disrupted 2020.
A 2021 finalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award, given to the nation’s top long snapper, Ward set out to have an even better season in 2022.
“I knew I needed to improve my short snaps for field goals and extra points,” he said. “I wasn’t satisfied in my production with that last year. I worked a lot in the summer and got that to where it should be.”
Ward, who will play in his 42nd career game with the Knights on Thursday night against visiting Temple, also wanted to add about 10 pounds – he is up to 250 – while working on other areas of his craft.
“I started training hard and realized my feet were not as quick as I would have liked them to be,” he said. “I was not as proficient at blocking. That was something I have been stressing a lot to improve.”
The additional year of eligibility has allowed Ward to broaden his education as well. He is taking courses in business, including management, accounting and quantitative business tools.
“I am doing it to understand more of the business world than I did from engineering,” he said. “My plan in the future is to work toward an MBA.”
Such a level of dedication and commitment on and off the field has resulted in much recognition. Not only was Ward a Mannelly Award finalist last season, but in late September he was named a semifinalist for the Campbell Trophy, which recognizes the nation’s top football-playing scholar athlete for his success on the gridiron, in the classroom and as a leader. Finalists will be announced October 26.
In addition, last spring Ward was named to the Order of Pegasus, UCF’s highest student honor that recognizes select graduating seniors and graduate students who have “demonstrated exemplary academic achievement, university involvement, leadership and community service.”
Such accolades are nice, for sure, as it serves as validation for a job well done in the various aspects of Ward’s collegiate career. However, he is not one to get wrapped up in the recognition.
“I keep my head down, go to work and do what I need to do while doing it at the highest level I can, like my dad,” he said, of Jim Ward, a county court judge in Okaloosa County, Fla. “I don’t know if it has really hit me how big these accolades are. However, I find them as assurance of the level of work I am putting in and the level of dedication that I have put toward the aspects of my life that I choose to really work hard at, and that I am doing something correctly and it is paying off.”
There is no doubting Ward has done plenty correctly since he arrived at UCF. When it was getting to be time to decide which university he wanted to attend, he had pretty much zeroed in on UCF because of the school’s mechanical engineering program, something other schools that expressed interest in him could not match, if they had a program at all.
As for his field of study, Ward was in grade school when he made up his mind. For that, he thanks his grandfather, the late Allen Koester, who served 28 years in the United State Air Force and retired as the Assistant Vice Commander for the Aeronautical Systems Center at Eglin Air Force Base.
“I always wanted to follow in his steps,” said Ward, whose other grandfather, James Ward, served in the Florida House of Representatives. “Since I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I decided that I wanted to be a mechanical and aerospace engineer. So, that is a path I have been on quite a while.”
It is not something he wants to pursue with respect to his career. At least not yet. Rather, Ward’s focus is on continuing to become the best long snapper he can possibly be while setting himself up for a career in the NFL.
Long snappers have lengthy careers. One such example is Don Muhlbach, who played 17 seasons and 260 games snapping the pigskin for the Detroit Lions before retiring after the 2020 season. Several others have spent well over a decade in the NFL, including the Tennessee Titans’ Morgan Cox, who is in his 13th season and whose mechanics Ward has studied.
“A long-snapper has quite a bit of tenure in the NFL, so that’s Plan A,” Ward said of his future. “Plan B, well, I honestly don’t know. But I am not backing off Plan A anytime soon.”
[www.forbes.com]
