Carvalho proud of his blue & gold past

(The Wayland Baptist Athletics Hall of Honor will induct Rosemary Brown Bowser, Alexey Carvalho, Johnny Cobb, Brett Cook and Andrew Williamson in ceremonies set for 9 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4 in McClung University Center. The public is invited.)

Throughout his basketball playing career, Alexey Carvalho suited up for multiple teams in a variety of countries on three continents, but the Brazilian may not be more proud of any of the colors he wore than the blue and gold of Wayland Baptist University.

"I'm not the kind of person who remembers a lot, but I do remember a lot about my time at Wayland. Wayland really impacted my life," said Carvalho, who conversely made a huge impact during his playing days with the Pioneers. From 1987-91, Carvalho not only learned a new language and earned his degree but also developed into an all-American and became one of the leading scorers in WBU men's basketball history.

A hunger to improve himself both as a basketball player and a person stoked Carvalho's desire to move from Rio de Janeiro and enroll at Wayland. Initially, however, it appeared Carvalho would attend a nearby university.

After being the leading scorer in the 1986 Brazilian Junior Championships, averaging 28 points and seven rebounds a game to be named a South American Junior All-Star, Carvalho was training for Brazil's junior national team. Meanwhile, Mark Adams, after four years coaching at Wayland, was in his first season as head coach at West Texas A&M University. 

"Coach Adams tried to recruit me to WT. Unfortunately, I couldn't speak the language. I couldn't understand a word in English," Carvalho said. So he planned to come to the United States and take an intensive English course in order to become eligible to play for Adams and the Buffs, but he couldn't because of a commitment to play in the World Championships.

As a result, Adams referred Carvalho to his former assistant at Wayland, Rick Cooper, who had since been promoted to the Pioneers' head coach. Because the NAIA had different requirements than the NCAA, Carvalho could become eligible to play at Wayland.

"I got there in August of 1987, about a week before school started," said Carvalho, who recalls being picked up at the Lubbock airport by Cooper, assistant coach Tim Thomas and Gwenann Sprecher a WBU cheerleader who could speak Portuguese.

"The first thing Coach Cooper told them to tell me was, 'Welcome to the States, welcome to Wayland. Four years from now you will be going home with your degree.' Coach Cooper was very tough and a hard coach, which I liked. He also cared about my education."

That was the beginning of a coach/player relationship which, while sometimes combative between two strong-minded people, grew meaningful and continues to this day. Carvalho remembers not long after he arrived in Plainview that Coach Cooper had to leave town and asked if he would house sit. "He didn't really know me but he let me stay in his house while he was gone. That was proof of the trust he had. To me it was very touching."

While Carvalho learned English, he and the coaches spent several months communicating mostly through on-campus interpreters who could speak Spanish, including twin team trainers Tony and Tommy Ramos. Carvalho also became very familiar with a translation dictionary. "Everywhere I went I had it," he said.

Carvalho cared deeply about his education, proudly proclaiming, "I never failed a course and graduated in four years with 146 credits." He went home with a degree in business administration with a minor in marketing. "I worked very hard off the court."

Make no mistake, however, basketball was a top priority for Carvalho, too.

"I put basketball first. I went to the gym on weekends, from 2-5 on Sundays. I was there for three hours. It was more than just a game, it was a passion, something I loved to do."

And he was very good at it. A 6-foot-6, 215-pound power forward, Carvalho averaged 13.4 points throughout his 131-game career as a Pioneer, including 19.7 points his senior season when he shot 58 percent from the field and averaged 7.8 rebounds. That same season he scored a career-high 31 points against Schreiner and twice grabbed a career-best 15 rebounds. Carvalho was named District 8 Player of the Year and NAIA Honorable Mention All-American.

"To get that honor and respect from coaches, it was amazing. And then to receive my degree that same year, that was quite something."

During Carvalho's four-year tenure, the Pioneers produced a win-loss record of 103-29 and twice advanced to the national tournament, going 30-6 and 29-4 those seasons. He scored a total of 1,761 points, which at the time ranked No. 6 in program history; today, it's No. 8.

"I was very fast and used to jump a lot," Carvalho said of his game. "I loved to drive, loved to penetrate, loved to shoot, loved to get on the block and play with my back to the rim. I crashed the boards and loved to finish the fast break."

He said versatility and "playing smart" were encouraged by his father, but playing defense was never something Carvalho liked doing.

"I was 6-foot-6 so I could create difficulties for the shooter, but I was never a good defensive player," he admitted. "Nobody's perfect."

Carvalho said he returned to Brazil a much better basketball player than when he arrived in this country.

"When I first left to come to the U.S., my club coach, who was a former Olympic head coach in Brazil, told me I would be making a big mistake." But Carvalho knew he would be playing with and against some of the best basketball players in the world while also getting his degree. "I gave up four years of making money but invested in my education, and I became a better player."

Carvalho went on to play for the Brazilian national team and played professionally in Venezuela, Greece, Portugal and Spain, averaging more than 20 points a game. He played until 2006, retiring as a player at age 38.

In 2017, Carvalho returned to the U.S. and earned his MBA with a specialization in sports management from a school in Florida. While there, he was able to show his Pioneer pride by witnessing the WBU men's soccer team win the NAIA national championship in Delray Beach. Carvalho also has found his way back to campus on a couple of occasions, always making sure to catch a basketball game or two.

Today, Carvalho lives in Portugal (where his mother was born and raised) with his two children: 23-year-old Manuela, who is pursuing her master's degree, and Jose, who plays basketball and graduated high school last spring.

Carvalho works as a real estate consultant and recently received his coaching certification in Portugal.

Carvalho credits much of his success to the education he received at Wayland and to what he learned from the people there. Those people include former academic achievement program coordinator Susan Hardage and former English professor Christa Smith. "Mrs. Hardage was in charge of the international student program and the reading lab for foreigners, and Mrs. Smith taught me English. I spent Christmas with the Hardages and had many meals with Don and Christa Smith. I love those ladies to death. They not only took me as their student but as their own son. I had two extra moms."

Carvalho also mentioned former business professors Don Eversole and Emmitt Tipton. "What a friend and a big fan," he said of Tipton.

It's obvious that being inducted into the WBU Athletics Hall of Honor is special for Carvalho.

"It's very touching. I got emotional when Coach Cooper told me. I shared it with my mom first and my kids. I'm very thankful and blessed for the parents I had. (Success) comes from your home, God, school and education. I became a better person at Wayland."