Thomas Alford hopes some of the magic that inspired his high school alma mater, St. Albans, to its historic win over Landon in the Interstate Athletic Conference Tournament on Wednesday, can spark Maryland in this weekend’s NCAA tournament first round game against UMBC.
“Because the school is really small, you never really graduate,” said Alford on Thursday. “You’re always part of the team so I feel like I was part of the team yesterday that won. I’m going to go watch them [in the final] Saturday. Hopefully, I’ll get a couple of those guys to come watch us play Sunday.”
Alford has his own reasons to draw a crowd. After playing second fiddle for most of his career, the Terrapins senior midfielder has enjoyed a magical, if bittersweetseason, scoring a career-high 10 goals and adding two assists, while identical twin and two-time All-American goalkeeper Harry Alford missed the first half of the year with a shoulder injury.
“I was kind of excited to know that he was going to be out for a while so that I could get a little of the limelight for the first time in a long time, not be in his shadow,” said Thomas Alford. “But then again, I was pretty sad because I wasn’t playing with my brother.”
The brother theme has been a recurring one for the Terps. Freshman goalkeeper Brian Phipps — younger brother of All-American candidate Michael Phipps — earned himself Atlantic Coast Conference rookie of the year honors filling in for Harry Alford.
Lately, as injuries have started to mount in the midfield, freshman Bryn Holmes — older brother, Travis, is a senior midfielder and team captain — has hauled in a team-high 45 ground balls and has a team-best .523 percentage (34 for 65) in faceoffs.
“I thought [Brian] Phipps did great,” said Holmes. “He could step right in there and do the same thing. But Harry’s also great.”
In the last couple of weeks, Harry Alford has started to regain the form that earned him so many accolades, but Thomas Alford isn’t quite finished garnering attention for himself.
“I’m still looking forward,” he said, “to making a mark in the playoffs for my own name.”
