ORANGE PARK - One guy from Clay County that challenged one of the nation's best athletes and scored a decisive and resounding victory is returning to his roots to put that attitude into the upcoming football season at Ridgeview High.

"I'm at the point in my life with my situation that I want to give back to the people that knew me and let people know that I'm still on top of my game," said Alex Collier, a 400-meter state champion at Orange Park High and an All-American sprinter at Florida State University. "I'm not really allowed to have a job because of my condition, but I still want to be on the field."

Collier, who has been one of the more renowned track sprinters as well as a breakaway football threat for the Raiders, has recently been diagnosed with Lupus.

"I went on a merchant boat to make some money after college and then all of a sudden, my world changed," Collier said. "I go to dialysis three times a week and am on a kidney waiting list with a catheter in my chest."

As a sudden shocking change of life, Collier put forth the same fight and reaction to adversity as he did as an athlete on his own.

"When they told me, I was like, yeah, there's nothing I can do about it, so I'm either going to give up or I'm going to fight. I've been a disciplined athlete all my life and that's how I approach my condition," Collier said. "I believe God sat me down because I was pushing my body too hard and always injured. God sat me down in a crazy way."

For Collier, a second-place showdown with then No. 1 ranked sprinter in the county Tyrese Cooper of Miami Norland, who was entertaining major colleges all over the country turned into a teachable moment for Collier that he thinks he can teach his Ridgeview brethren.

"He blasted that first 200 of the Bob Hayes 400 to try and get away from me, but I caught him at the end and I think that told him I was going to be there at the state meet," said Collier, who finished with a 47.33 split to Cooper's winning 47.16 with both nearly two seconds ahead of third place. "Coach Smith and I went to work and, at the state, we worked to make him hurt all the way around the track."

In the Bob Hayes prelims, Collier had the fastest time of all the heats with a 47.86 with Cooper second at a distant 48.54.

At the Class 3A championship meet, with Cooper hitting 47.19 for the top prelim time ahead of Collier's second best 47.83, the championship race had Collier at the top of his game.

"We kind of knew we were in his head because he was trying to show the world that he was the fastest guy, but we knew the medals were won in the championship race, not the prelim," Collier said. "We took care of business in the final."

Collier blitzed the field with a scintillating 46.33 split, his best and seventh best in Florida history, more than a second up in second place Jovan Ferguson, with Cooper in second, but Cooper was disqualified for his finish line antics.

"It was a shock," said Collier, still just a junior at the time, in a post-race interview with Duval Sports. "Nobody thought it would happen, but he was coming to my backyard (at University of North Florida) and I trained hard to change the way I raced him at Bob Hayes. Everyone was talking about him going to Oregon and all and [nobody] thought I could win."

Collier also finished third in the 100 with both Cooper and Collier making the final but Cooper again was disqualified after a fifth-place finish.

In 2020, with the COVID affecting the nation, Collier was unable to earn his repeat gold medal.

For Collier, the highlight of the meet, besides taking out Cooper twice, was the 4 x 400 team that Orange Park fielded; Sean Dixon, Diego Soto and John Abate, that finished fourth. Collier anchored the team to a school record at the time.

"That was the biggest race of high school," said Collier. "And coach Smith and coach Garcia (then-coach Robert Garcia) put that together."

For Collier, his relationship as a sprinter started getting attention with then Orange Park sprint coach Jason Smith, now the head football coach at Ridgeview.

"I owe a lot to coach Smith because he got me in great shape in high school and that pretty much saved my life," Collier said. "I've been told if i wasn't in such great shape, things might be different."

Collier returned to Orange Park and joined Smith's staff at Ridgeview as a running backs coach and is still very active on the practice field.

"I get to tell them quit whining when they say they are tired or it's too hot," Collier said. "Some know my story and what I have gone through and the team has embraced it as a motivational force. Coach Smith has given me wide latitude when I have bad days and just can't get on the field."

Collier said his explosive drills and exercises in the weight room and on the practice field is moving the Panthers into a new level of competitiveness that could alter the county football hierarchy this fall.

"Our spring game was a very dramatic shift in the energy level on and off the field," Collier said. "The boys are fighting every play and chasing everything on the field. They don't get to make excuses."

Smith and Collier bring a special bond to the Panthers team with both reveling in developing speed.

"It's a much, much higher level than Ridgeview in the past," Collier said. "I mean, the defense was flying too, though, I am the running backs coach, everyone is liking the fast and furious pace we are going to be setting."

Smith concurred that with Collier on the sideline, the look of speed will be one thing Ridgeview will not be lacking.

"We had 16 days to change the culture before the spring game and I liked what I saw," said Smith, who orchestrated a 6-0 first half en route to a 24-0 win over Crescent City in that spring game. "We get the offensive line a little beefed up so we can release the speed in the fall, and we are going to be dangerous. Alex is a big part of that equation because he has been there and done that. The kids know what he did as a high school athlete."

For now, one aspect of his fight with Lupus is to find a matching kidney for transplant and 4 x 400 teammate Sean Dixon, recently a third-place finisher at the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championship 400-meter hurdles finisher for Texas Tech, could be the key for Collier. Dixon, 21st at the NCAA West Regions, won a NCAA Division II national title in the 400 hurdles at Oklahoma Baptist University before transferring to Texas Tech.

"He has said if he matches, he'll give me his kidney," Collier said. "If not, if his kidney matches with another that matches me, he may give his kidney to that person so I can get a healthy kidney. That's a special friend and teammate."

For Dixon, returning after finishing his track college at the NCAA regions with a season best time, said the kidney donation was a no-brainer.

"He's been my friend since we were probably fifth graders and I would give him my kidney in a heartbeat," Dixon said. "We've been like brothers forever, my day one friend. I'll see a doctor and see if we match, then go from there."

Indians' Alvarez Class 1A Coach of the Year select

Courtesy of Dairy Farmer

TAMPA – Keystone Heights boys weightlifting coach Leavy Alvarez took top honors as the Class 1A Dairy Farmer's Coach of the Year after guiding the Indians to a triple play district, region and state title run in 2026.

Alvarez was included in the 2026 Florida Dairy Farmers Mr. Weightlifting awards selections for coach of year with the Florida Dairy Farmers also selecting a Mr. Weightlifting individual award.

"We just tried to keep the standard as high as we could given the history of the weightlifting programs at Keystone Heights," said Alvarez, who joins former Keystone Heights weightlifting coach Lantz Lowery as a coach of year selection with Lowery winning the Mr. Weightlifting Coach of Year award during his tenure. "We push the kids to just get all three lifts and let the rest of the field figure out how to compete against us."

Alvarez had three state champions this year, his first as head coach, with seniors Elijah Mize, Kyle Perkins and Colton Hollingsworth all getting gold in their respective weight classes.

In the statewide Dairy Farmer selections, senior Sebastian Stodel of Beachside High was selected as the winner of the 2026 Florida Dairy Farmers Mr. Weightlifting award.

Stodel won the 154-pound Class 2A state titles in both Traditional (615 pounds combined lifts) and Olympic-style competition (580 pounds). He set a state record in the 154-pound class with his 335-pound clean-and-jerk lift.

The other finalists included Peyton McKenzie of DeLand, who won both the Traditional and Olympic titles in the Class 3A 238-pound division and Jay’s Chase Dooley, who won both titles in the Class 1A Unlimited division.

Chris Gauntlett of South Sumter High School was named the 2026 Boys’ Weightlifting Coach-of-the-Year after leading his squad to the Class 2A state title in Olympic competition with 28 points, the school’s first state championship.

The other coaching finalists included Class 3A COY Ty Wise of Pace and with Alvarez in Class 1A.