Like current UGA athlete Randon Jernigan, Joey Alfonso played baseball for Georgia and walked on the school’s football team. Yet, Alfonso’s road to being a UGA athlete in the late 1980s—in both sports—is one of the most unconventional and awe-inspiring journeys in becoming a Bulldog.
A native of nearby Bishop in Oconee County, Alfonso attended and played baseball at Georgia College in Milledgeville before transferring to UGA. After having not played the sport for a few years, he walked on the Bulldog football squad in 1988. In Vince Dooley’s final campaign as head coach, Alfonso was named Georgia’s scout team player of the week for each week of the season. At 139 pounds, it was discovered he was the lightest player to have ever played under Dooley. As the Bulldogs’ starting second baseman in 1989 and 1990, Alfonso led the team in stolen bases both seasons and still holds the school record for putouts at the position for a season and career. As a senior on Georgia’s 1990 national championship team, he was the recipient of the program’s Jim Umbricht Award as the squad’s most competitive player.
UGASports caught up with Alfonso at Apalachee High School in Winder, where he is a PE teacher and the head volleyball coach.
UGASports: Joey, we noticed that you were a star baseball player at Oconee County High School and named First Team All-State in football as a senior in 1984. So, surely you were recruited, at least, somewhat?
Alfonso: “Not really (laughing). Simply, my biggest flaw was my size. As a senior at Oconee, I was 5-foot-9 and weighed only 125 pounds. But, although I was small, I had a lot of heart and played really hard. I just loved being around sports. I think that's why I'm a PE teacher today. So, in the end, my coaches got me to where I was a guaranteed walk on at Georgia Southern for both football and baseball.”
UGASports: How did you go from being nearly a walk-on football and baseball player at Georgia Southern to being on a baseball scholarship at Georgia College?
Alfonso: “Soon before I was to leave for Georgia Southern, John Kurtz, the head baseball coach at Georgia College, saw me play in my final American Legion baseball game. He told me that if I attended Georgia College, he’d be able to give me a little bit of scholarship money. So, I wound up playing baseball for two seasons down there, starting at multiple positions. (Alfonso’s 34 stolen bases in 1987 remains one of the top single-season marks for stolen bases in Bobcat baseball history.)
UGASports: Georgia College is a four-year institution. So, why and how did you decide to attend UGA?
Alfonso: “First off, Coach Kurtz was a great man and coach. I learned a lot from him. But my second season at Georgia College ended kind of abruptly and there was some uneasiness amongst the players. I was home that summer in Oconee County with my then-girlfriend, now-wife, Misty. From her house, I suddenly called up Coach [Steve] Webber (Georgia’s head baseball coach at the time) to tell him I was thinking about transferring and find out what my options would be. Coach Webber asked me if I was on scholarship. I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He responded, ‘Well, then, it's against NCAA regulations for me to talk to you. So, this conversation is over now.’ He hung up the phone. I looked over at my girlfriend and said, ‘Well, that didn't go well.’ I was thinking, well, no big deal. I guess I'll just go back to Georgia College. But, a few days later, I get a letter in the mail from Coach Kurtz, saying Coach Webber had contacted him about me thinking about transferring. He ended his letter by saying I had three days to let him know my intentions, so he could give my scholarship away if need be. So, I spoke with my parents for a long time. We probably spent three hours going back and forth on all the things that could happen—the good and bad—if I transferred. But, in the end, I decided to transfer to Georgia with no guarantee of anything. I started classes the fall of 1987 and went to Coach Webber’s office the first day of classes. I introduced myself, said I had transferred, and he responded that since I had ‘left’ scholarship money, I’d be ineligible [in 1988] to play baseball anyway. That was the second time I had been rejected by Coach Webber.”
UGASports: Is that when you decided to walk on the Georgia football team?
Alfonso: “Well, I had a few friends who had played on the junior varsity Bullpups team at Georgia. They had told me what it was like. Actually, most of them had left the program after one year. Still, I wanted to see if I could make the Bullpups team, which I thought would have indicated I was good enough to have played football at Georgia Southern. Remember, two-three years earlier I could have walked on at Georgia Southern—and Southern had won a couple of I-AA national titles under Erk Russell by then. That was my thought process at the time.”
UGASports: It had been nearly four years since you had last played football. How did you go about walking on?
Alfonso: “Well, it took me about a week to get up enough courage to finally take action. The day of tryouts, rubber met the road, and it was my last chance to speak to someone about walking on. I entered the Butts-Mehre building’s first floor and walked the long hallway which had an elevator at the end of it. I was, and still am very much, a God-believing and fearing man. As I walked down the hallway, I thought to myself, God, this is the deal: I’m going to push the ‘Up’ button on the elevator. If it opens immediately, I’ll get into the elevator and go find out about how to try out for the football team. If it doesn’t open immediately, I’ll turn around and head back down the hall for home. Well, I stuck out my finger to touch the button, and before I even touched it, the elevator flew open. I took that as a sign that I needed to go forth and walk on. I rode up the elevator and was told I needed to go see Coach [Joe] Tereshinski, who told me I first needed to get a physical at the infirmary. After I got my physical, I was issued pads. I hadn’t worn football pads in years, so I hardly remembered how to put them on.”
UGASports: What was it like to first hit the practice field as a walk on at the University of Georgia?
Alfonso: “A little nerve-racking, you could say (laughing). Before I ran out on the field, Rusty Beasley (a senior defensive back) had pointed out to me where I needed to go—to the receivers group with new receivers coach Bob Harrison. You have to picture this: That year (1988), there were 162 players out for the team in the spring. And every single last one of them was seated on the field in their position groups, each doing the hurdler stretch. Besides a few coaches, I’m the only one standing on the entire field as I jogged towards the receivers group, which was located on the far side of the field. I get to Coach Harrison and say, ‘Excuse me, sir. Is this the receiving corps?’ Well, he looked at me and just started cussing me out. I mean, I got dog cussed out! He really laid into me. Coach Harrison was basically saying, ‘Who do you think you are? You think you can miss the first 45 minutes of practice?’ Well, remember, I had to go to the infirmary to get my physical. At the time, I was just glad I had my helmet on so nobody could see what I looked like. I remember another walk-on receiver, Mark Hyer, who was so kind to me. He made me feel better after my run-in with Coach Harrison. But, still, that first practice introduced me to what it was like to be a football walk on. And, after about two weeks, I had realized why some of my friends, who had walked on and played for the Bullpups’ junior varsity team, had left the program after only one year.”
UGASports: Please explain further.
Alfonso: “If you were not actually in the drills at practice as a walk on, you were not really doing anything. At practice, we’d meet for about 30 minutes with our position coaches and then we’d go out on the field and stretch as a group. Then, the receivers would receive some balls from the machine. We’d run some routes, maybe do some one-on-one stuff with the defensive backs, but that took only about 30 minutes. So, at that point, you're just an hour in. From there, those of us not involved in the drills would just stand there the rest of the time. And the rules were that walk-ons couldn't take a knee and couldn’t remove their helmet. So, most walk-ons were just standing there for two-and-a-half hours. Honestly, it was miserable standing there for a guy who just loved to play football. I'd rather you beat on me and knock me silly for more than two hours than make me stand still the entire time.”
UGASports: What did you do?
Alfonso: “So, I almost quit before Misty talked me out of it. I decided to finish out the spring [of 1988] with 10 practices remaining. At the next practice, I’m getting settled into my position along the sidelines, like always, ready to just stand there for a couple of hours before I hear my name being called. But, when the coach said, ‘Alfonso!’ I thought he was talking about Alphonso Ellis, a standout fullback we had back then. So, I didn't move—and he kept yelling for ‘Alfonso.’ In fact, at one point, I actually turned around looking behind me to see where Alphonso Ellis was. After realizing I was the one whose name was getting called, I finally get lined up for my first play, and I look across and I see I’m going up against Ben Smith. Now, I’m not sure if you remember Ben Smith… (Smith was a feared, hard-hitting cornerback who would eventually be a first-round selection in the NFL Draft.) And, I had only seen Ben kill wide receivers for the first half of spring practice. For that first play, I swam at Ben, and he caught me on the chin with a forearm—and he knocked me onto my back about three yards backwards.”
UGASports: Still, from a discussion we had beforehand, your first practice wound up going pretty well, correct?
Alfonso: “Yeah, it did. I ended up catching six passes that day in that drill. You know, it was the first time I really just had fun being out there. At one point, I went to go get some water and Coach Dooley actually grabbed me by the shoulder and asked for my name. After I told him, he told me I did a great job out there and for me to keep up the good work. Well, I was elated obviously. More so, I was all in! I think I caught one pass in the spring game. And, at that point, my goal coming back in the fall was not to be some great football player at Georgia—but really to just dress for one game in 1988.”
UGASports: Let’s be honest, you wound up accomplishing much more than that. You were Georgia’s scout team player of the week for every week of the 1988 season, which allowed you to dress out for games. You were named the Bulldogs’ offensive scout team player of the year (defensive tackle Tommy Ingalsbe was named defensive scout team player of the year), which automatically granted you a scholarship for the following year. You appeared in several plays on Homecoming against William & Mary. And, a week after catching a touchdown pass in the Bullpups versus Baby Jackets junior varsity game, you appeared for a few plays in the Georgia-Georgia Tech varsity game, Vince Dooley’s final home and regular-season game as the Bulldogs’ head coach.
Alfonso: “My thought was if I could put on the Georgia football uniform just one time and run out on the field ‘Between the Hedges,’ how cool would that be? So, I worked hard, worked hard every day. And, you know, I got to be kind of a ‘fly on the wall’ for Vince Dooley’s final season and the hoopla which surrounded it. Media coverage was pretty heavy anyway because it’s Georgia. But, when Coach Dooley announced that 1988 would be his final season, the coverage was beefed up. So, it was a real unique, crazy season. I have a lot of great memories and stories from that year—what would be my only football season at Georgia.”
UGASports: Later that year, you’d play on the Georgia baseball team for the 1989 season. How did that happen, especially considering Coach Webber had essentially rejected you twice already?
Alfonso: “Right after the football season had ended, I went into Coach Webber’s office and introduced myself again as someone hoping to walk on. I was thinking the whole time that if he rejects me for a third time, that’s okay because I could keep playing football. But, this time, he said, ‘Yeah, we’ve been watching you and we think you'd be a great addition to our team.’ So, I didn’t even have to try out. I was on the team and hadn’t played baseball for a year and a half. It was intended for me to be a backup utility infielder, but the guy supposed to start at second base, David Perno, broke his ankle two weeks before the start of the season when he stepped into a hole while getting out of a car. I wound up starting at second base for every game in 1989. So, I go from playing football at Georgia to being a starter on the baseball team. For me, it was one of those ‘I’m just happy to be here’ kind of things.”
UGASports: How did things go for you after having not played baseball for two seasons?
Alfonso: “We were one game—and a 2-1 loss to Auburn [in the SEC Tournament] at that—from being invited to the NCAA Tournament (Georgia finished 37-25 overall, including 15-11 in the SEC). But for me, I struggled at the plate. I was used to seeing NAIA pitching at Georgia College. So, although I hit .333 for the last one-third of the season in 1989, I finished with a .167 batting average for the year. So, entering the 1989 football season with a new head coach, Ray Goff, I didn’t know what the football situation was going to look like. But I knew I also played baseball for Georgia and had a starting position to defend, especially after hitting only .167 the year before. I decided to solely concentrate on baseball, which, because of fall baseball practice, meant me having to drop football.”
UGASports: And, after splitting time with Perno for the first week of the season, you wound up being the starting second basemen for the national champion Georgia Bulldogs. Can you describe how that 1990 team became national champions?
Alfonso: “I’ll say, it was an unbelievable time for a small-town kid from Bishop, Georgia. We were a group of guys who just loved to play the game of baseball. Playing around and having fun has always been a characteristic of baseball, but I think with the ’90 team, everybody loved to play and had fun doing so. Sometimes I think when you get in these big-time programs where everybody's supposed to be that good, they forget the simplicity and the simpleness of the game. In 1990, we did not forget, and had a fun time in the process. I think that was a major reason why we ended up doing as well as we did.”
UGASports: Where did you go from there, including your professional career up to now?
Alfonso: “I graduated from UGA’s business school, which was a goal of mine. I'm still the only college graduate on my side of the family. Misty eventually graduated from Georgia as well. After she graduated, we got married. I had gotten my degree in risk management and insurance but wanted to coach. I eventually got a coaching position at Athens Academy when I was also getting my Master’s in education at Georgia. I was at Athens Academy for nine years before teaching and coaching at Oconee County High School for a couple of years. I started at Apalachee High School in 2002 and have been here for 20 years. I currently teach PE and am the head volleyball coach. I also have been professionally painting for about 40 years. Kevin Morris, the head boy’s basketball coach at Jefferson High School, and I have had a painting business for about 20 years. Also, I became an ordained minister in 2007 and, since then, I’ve been preaching out at a small campground in Greensboro, Georgia.”
UGASports: You mentioned Misty. Do you two have children?
Alfonso: “We have three girls: Avery (27), Cammie (26), and Ellie (20). And, I’ll say, in my 11 years as the volleyball coach at Apalachee, what a blessing it was for the Lord to give me the opportunity to coach two of my kids (Cammie and Ellie). Our youngest is a boy, Josiah, and he’s 14.”
UGASports: Finally, based on your unique experience of attending UGA while playing two sports for the Bulldogs, what advice can you give young people?
Alfonso: “Personally, I know at 54 years old that life moves fast—and people should find the best life they can while they still can. There’s troubles, trials, and tribulations in life. There’s the good, but there’s some bad as well. Still, young people should try to live their best life while enjoying it to the fullest. Live in this moment, I say, because you don’t know how many moments you’ll have in your life.”
