Alex Havlicek is a business administration graduate student and pitcher for the UTRGV Baseball Team. Havlicek is from Oakland, New Jersey and moved to the Rio Grande Valley in 2022. He wants to pursue playing for a Major League Baseball team.
Q: What do you do for fun outside of baseball?
A: โI usually play with my two golden retrievers, take them for walks. My girlfriend and I take them for walks; we go hiking. Just anything outdoors really.โ
Q: What kind of music do you like?
A: โI pretty much like it all, but lately Iโve been on a lot of classical rock and metal lately. I like old-school, like, 90โs rap and hip-hop too. I would say Wolfmother and Wu-Tang Clan.โ
Q: What movies or shows do you like?
A: โMy favorite movie is โNational Securityโ with Martin Lawrence, 2003, I think. And my favorite TV show is โBreaking Badโ or โThe Sopranos,โ actually.
Q: What motivates you?
A: โI just play for the Lord. Heโs blessed me with the talent to play this game and be able to play this game for, now, my sixth year of college. So, Iโm grateful for that. On top of that, I have a great support system. My family, my mom and dad, have pretty much done everything for me to help me succeed and get me to where I want to be. I got a wonderful girlfriend too and just got really, really, awesome teammates at UTRGV and theyโre always positive with me. And when things are going bad, theyโre still with me. So, just my whole support system including my teammates, really.โ
Q: What are some current goals you have?
A: โCurrent goal long-term is to play Major League Baseball and then to be just a successful husband and father in the future, set a good example for my future kids and my future wife. Short term is this season, I want to help this team win a [Western Athletic Conference] Championship and get to a regional and take this program to a place itโs never been before.โ
Q: Who is one of your role models?
A: โMy mom for sure. She kind of instilled my work ethic in me. Sheโs an emergency room nurse, so she works kind of crazy hours overnight and she just does everything to kind of help provide for our family. My dad too, he works from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day doing MRIโs. My work ethic kind of evolves from them and seeing them every day. My mom. โฆ She was the one that was around to take me to baseball and stuff when I was in high school because my dad worked throughout the day and my mom at night.โ
Q: How did you get started with baseball?
A: โMy brother. He never really played baseball, but heโs 31 right now. Heโs eight or nine years older than me, but he always had the Mets on and ever since I was young, I would just watch the Mets with him and weโd go to games and kind of developed from there, really.โ
Q: Would you want to keep playing or do something with your degree?
A: โI would like to keep trying baseball but that canโt be forever, obviously. Thereโs a time when you gotta hang them up, so I thought about owning my own business, owning some gyms or owning a baseball facility or something like that.โ
Q: What do you like about UTRGV and the Rio Grande Valley?
A: โThis is my second year at UTRGV, so [I moved] August of 2022 I believe. Well, the people are very welcoming. I havenโt met anybody thatโs rude. I love the food down here. Even in restaurants that predominantly speak Spanish, they kind of bear with me and Iโve tried to learn a little bit on my own. Itโs just very welcoming. Itโs just a cool place to live. Everyoneโs pretty cool and everyoneโs really nice. The support system here at the school for our baseball games is second to none. I havenโt seen it anywhere else Iโve been.โ
Q: Do you have a fun fact about yourself?
A: โIโm pretty good at skateboarding. I started when I was, like, 10 and then, for about two years I did it and got pretty decent at it, I guess. And then I took a break from high school all through, pretty much, until last year is when I bought another skateboard. So yeah, Iโm not great, but Iโm pretty decent at it.โ
–Compiled by Jose Medina
