LARAMIE — This is all too familiar for Alonzo Velazquez.
Wyoming’s veteran offensive tackle is working his way back from yet another injury. He knows when this one happened and to which part of his body. But how exactly the injury occurred? That’s not as easy for Velazquez to pinpoint.
“We were doing these walk-throughs, and it was just a weird, freak accident where I hit my shoulder weird and it just felt wrong,” Velazquez said.
In 2018, it was a lesion stemming from osteochondritis dissecans, or OCD, in his knee that left Velazquez baffled as to how it happened. But his most recent injury was more common: a torn labrum.
Those walk-throughs Velazquez and the rest of the Cowboys were participating in last year were part of their preparation for a season that hadn’t yet been canceled in response to the coronavirus pandemic, so Velazquez said his original plan was to tough it out and put surgery off until after the season. But once the Mountain West pulled the plug on the fall season in early August, Velazquez heeded the advice of UW’s training staff to undergo surgery immediately.
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So when the conference reversed course on that decision weeks later, Velazquez was already out of commission. The fifth-year senior missed all of UW’s abbreviated season, but Velazquez got the year of eligibility back thanks to the NCAA’s decision to grant eligibility relief to all fall-sport athletes.
Velazquez has returned to the practice field this spring, though the 6-foot-6, 313-pounder admitted to being frustrated with an injury bug that’s taken several bites out of him throughout his time at UW, limiting him to just 24 games the last four seasons. The year after that first knee injury, Velazquez suffered a torn meniscus that forced him to miss five games during the 2019 season.
Velazquez’s tough luck in the injury department is similar to that of one of his teammates, quarterback Sean Chambers, who admitted earlier this year that he briefly thought about giving up football after sustaining three season-ending injuries in as many seasons. Velazquez said he had similar discussions with his family.
But a life without football? That’s not something Velazquez wants to experience any sooner than he has to. As long as he felt like his body could still physically hold up, Velazquez said he wanted to keep that bond intact.
“I think the relationship between me and football is that football is probably one of the first times I ever felt like part of a friend group and a new family, especially even in high school,” Velazquez said. “So coming here, playing for the University of Wyoming and meeting all my friends for a lifetime and all these coaches that have done a great job coaching me, I think the least I could do is keep playing. And I think, in my heart, that playing football is just who I am. It’s a huge part of what I’ve done for most of my life, and it’s one part of me that I can’t leave behind.”
Velazquez said he’s fully recovered from his shoulder surgery and is feeling “probably the best I’ve ever felt in a long time,” though he hasn’t played in a game since UW’s Arizona Bowl win to cap the 2019 season. He admitted it’s taken some time this spring to shake off some rust after that long of a layoff, but he’s done enough to put himself in position to reclaim his starting job up front.
UW coach Craig Bohl said Velazquez and sophomore Frank Crum have separated themselves from Rudy Stofer in the competition to be the starting tackles. Velazquez has been the starting right tackle in recent years when healthy, but Crum started all six games there last season in Velazquez’s absence.
With last year’s starting left tackle, Latrell Bible, moving back inside this spring, that means Velazquez could be switching sides on an offensive line that returns every starter and all of its two-deep from last season.
“I’m really glad he’s here,” Bohl said. “His knowledge, what he’s doing and his perseverance are certainly important. He adds great value to our offensive line. I know (offensive line) coach (Derek) Frazier is really happy with him, and I am as well.”
Velazquez has also traded his flowing locks of black hair for a buzzcut this offseason, though he insisted that was a change he made in order to appease his mother rather than trying to get rid of any bad juju. But Velazquez said he does view the extra year and another clean bill of health as a chance to start fresh.
Now he wants to make the most of it.
“I think this is a great and new opportunity for me to just show who I am as a football player and a person off the field,” Velazquez said.