Estrada Finds A Home

Estrada Finds A Home

By JIM ELLIOTT

Former West Virginia University and Ohio Valley Greyhound standout Angel Estrada has found a home.

Where it is might be a bit of a surprise, considering the 28-year-old grew up in the shadows of Yankee Stadium in New York. But these days, Brooke County is home to the current Arena Football League star.

How did that happen?

Well, it seems Estrada found more than just success in his only year as a member of the Greyhounds, when he picked off a league-high 14 passes, made 41 tackles and was honored with one National Indoor Football League Defensive award after another.

He found a girl.

Estrada met Carrie Metz that year and has since proposed to her and the couple have a daughter, Ava. They recently purchased a home in Brooke County, which is a long way from the Bronx.

‘‘If you go from New York City to this place, it’s really a culture shock,’’ said Estrada, who is entering his second season as a volunteer assistant football coach at Brooke High School. ‘‘But I went from New York to Morgantown so this slowly became my environment. I’m comfortable here, I can’t complain.’’

That’s no doubt been the case since he first made his way to West Virginia. He walked on at WVU, but was offered a scholarship four days into his Mountaineer career. This came one year after he earned Junior College All-American honors at Nassau Community College.

Estrada, who has quite a reputation for giving back — he spent at least one offseason as a residential counselor in the Bronx — says he’s enjoying helping out Dave Reitter and his staff at Brooke.

‘‘I met these guys last year,’’ Estrada said. ‘‘It’s a good group of coaches. We see progress. We just have to be around and help these kids as much as we can and hopefully we can be successful. We’re trying to teach these kids what we know about football. We have the talent, just slowly but surely we just have to get better every day and be productive.’’

The Brooke coaches can’t say enough about him, with Reitter noticing improved play in the Brooke secondary a year ago.

‘‘The kids love to talk to him, they love listening to him,’’ Reitter said. ‘‘If I tell them something, it’s like, ‘alright, there he goes again.’ If Angel starts to talk to them, they listen. He’s very good, he’s very knowledgeable, he knows what he’s doing.

‘‘Our secondary, I felt with him and Frank Sissini, did a great job of getting the kids to understand some of the game.’’

Estrada even brought a little help to the Bruins in the form of his half-brother, Scott Victorio, who is very much in the mix to be the Bruins’ starting tailback.

The rest of his family is back in New York, where they’re no doubt close enough to see Estrada continue his career as a wide receiver/defensive back for the AFL’s New York Dragons. That’s where he’s been since he left the Greyhounds, recently finishing his second AFL season with 19 catches for 183 yards and three touchdowns. He also intercepted a pass and recorded 35 tackles.

‘‘I’m trying to get a shot at the NFL,’’ he said. ‘‘But in the AFL, everything’s comfortable. I’m just having fun, enjoying myself and trying to help these kids as much as I can.’’