DAILY PILOT HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PLAYER OF THE WEEK:Alejandre’s power gives Estancia a leg up

By all accounts, Rafael Alejandre expresses himself on the football field with actions, not words.

But, perhaps, the noise most indicative of the Estancia High senior standout’s leading attribute — toughness — was a series of cracks.

The cracks occurred while Alejandre, who had just been shifted to tailback, was tackled early in the game against Orange last season.

“Someone tackled me and, on my way down, someone else flew into the back of my heel,” Alejandre recalled. “Before I hit the ground, I heard three cracks and I thought ‘Uh, that didn’t sound good.’ ”

Alejandre missed the next two games with what he insisted was a bad sprain. Though unable to contribute in the backfield, he limped through the rest of the season at defensive end, never mentioning the painful injury that his coach now believes was a fracture.

“He said it was a sprain, but I don’t think he ever got it checked,” Coach Brian Barnes said. “It was sprained for about four months and usually sprains don’t last that long. He’s a fighter and I just don’t think he wanted to go into a cast.”

Alejandre downplays the severity of the ankle injury that all but ruined his junior season. But he did admit he might be the last person to suggest he needs to be sidelined, no matter how severe his pain.

“The thing about me is, sometimes I’m quiet,” Alejandre said. “I don’t tell people about my problems. If I told coach that I was hurt, I knew I wouldn’t be able to play. And I want every single second of playing time I can get, even when I’m hurt.”

Now fully recovered, the 5-foot-9, 190-pounder is starring at tailback and linebacker for the Eagles (4-1).

He rushed for 171 yards and four touchdowns in the Eagles’ 58-20 nonleague win over La Quinta Saturday. He also made two sacks against the Aztecs and remains a central figure in the team’s success after a 2-9 season in 2005.

“He’s a great player for us,” Barnes said of the Daily Pilot Player of the Week, who has rushed for 506 yards on 71 carries this season, an average of 7.1 yards per attempt. “He never says a word and he never complains. He just gets it done.”

Alejandre’s running style is as understated as his personality. If given the choice to avoid a tackler or run through one, he most often chooses the latter. His ability to extend runs beyond the point of initial contact has helped the Eagles establish themselves as a productive running offense, with 1,156 yards on the ground.

“He’s just a tough kid who runs hard and he has put on about 10 pounds of muscle in the weight room from last year,” Barnes said. “He’s one of our hardest workers. I wish I had a whole team of Rafaels.”

It seemingly takes a whole defense to bring Alejandre down.

“I refuse to go down,” said Alejandre, who credits his powerful drive to rigorous offseason leg workouts.

“We have this thing called a leg circuit,” Alejandre said. “It killed us. We did squats, leg presses, lunges, everything. By the fourth station, we were dead. And there were 26 stations.”

Alejandre’s power also serves him well on defense, where his move from end to linebacker was a no-brainer, Barnes said.

“That was done the day the season ended,” Barnes said of Alejandre’s defensive position change. “With our defense, we need our three best defensive players at linebacker. He has done a great job for us there.”

Alejandre never played football before high school, but it was clear from the way he played soccer that he was destined for a game centered on collisions.

“I guess you could have called me an aggressive soccer player,” he said. “I wasn’t a dirty player, but I was always knocking guys down. I just went full speed and, whenever anyone hit me, they bounced off.”

A growing list of would-be tacklers this season know the feeling.