Playing for the Équipe d’Haiti U-14 national youth soccer team at 14 years old, Narcisse Alexis Dorval started “jwe foutbòl” at age 7. In 2018, the young teen looked forward to traveling with his U-14 teammates to the U.S. for a soccer tour. Despite having paid for the trip and obtaining a visa, plans fell through, dealing the talented teen a crushing blow. A year later, 15-year-old Alexis left Haiti for the U.S., alone. He had two goals: school and soccer. And only the faintest of plans for how to attain either.
But here’s where what the talented forward did on the pitch served him on the streets of New York: Alexis Dorval knew how to read the game.
“I like to play as a striker,” said Alexis. With not only technical proficiency, good strikers also possess tactical awareness to predict the flow of play. They anticipate scoring opportunities by positioning themselves for quick changes in direction, crosses and rebounds. Alexis has a canny sense of how to do this in life—being open to opportunity when it presents itself, and practice, practice, practice.
Practice Makes Progress
“Repetition. It’s how I learned English.” Back in Haiti, he learned a little English from missionaries who ran a local orphanage, but when he arrived in New York, he felt in every way that he was “starting from nothing.”
“Someone would say something to me, and I’d repeat it over and over to myself, until I could get someplace to look it up. I used my phone to translate everything.” He remembers with pride the first book he read in English, I am Malala, (by the youngest Nobel Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai). “After that, the librarian gave me a book every week and made me come back on Fridays with a summary.”
In 2022, at 18, Alexis graduated from Manhattan Comprehensive Night and Day High School and enrolled in Guttman at the suggestion of Darnell Benoit, director of Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project, a youth organization in Flatbush. “I had never heard of Guttman before, but Darnell said it was a good school. When I went to orientation, I could see that. It was like nothing I had experienced.”
As best he could, Alexis threw himself into his studies while maintaining a rigorous training regimen and competing with a semi-pro league. Highly focused, the science major applied for the CUNY Research Scholars Program (CRSP) and studied “The Neurological Effects of Per- And PolyFluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)” with Chemistry faculty Dr. Ji Kim. He maintained both a solid GPA and a structured training regimen consisting of daily drills and gym workouts. However, unable to make rent, he shuttled daily from soccer practice in Brooklyn, to Guttman’s campus in Midtown, to night matches across the city, not always sure where he’d stay afterwards, yet somehow pivoted with each set-back.
“He’s so disciplined,” said Associate Professor of Anthropology Andrea Morrell. Alexis was taking Dr. Morrell’s Sociology class. As she does every semester, she set up a schedule to meet with each student for a one-on-one conference before the course ends. It was Alexis’ turn, right before the Thanksgiving break.
“I don’t know—I just opened up to her,” he said of their meeting. “I don’t do that, but I did, for some reason. I told her everything. I remember what she said to me: ‘I believe a lot of people would like to have you as their son.’”
Professor Morrell invited Alexis to join her family for Thanksgiving, two days before his 18th birthday. After dinner, they brought out a cake with candles and everyone was singing “Happy Birthday” so Alexis started singing, too. “I didn’t know it was for me!” he said. “I went from not having a place to stay, to a room in her house!” he smiles. “And now we’ve celebrated two more birthdays.”
“Yeah, it’s funny how that happened,” recalled Dr. Morrell. “When Alexis came for Thanksgiving, he just hit it off with my husband and our kids, and our extended family. My sister and brother-in-law and their kids go to his soccer games, he visits my parents…And now he’s back home with us for Spring Break!” she laughs.
“Short steps, long vision”
Today, Alexis is a junior in Psychology at SUNY University at Albany and has set a goal of taking the MCAT for medical school. Despite sustaining a painful injury during a game which temporarily sidelined him during surgery and rehabilitation, Alexis remains committed to his very first goal. “I see myself as a professional soccer player,” the Brooklyn Italians Soccer Club member says with conviction.
“I don’t like to ask for things without putting in the work. But I tell myself I will survive, and I really believe everything happens for a reason. The people in our lives, we are here for a reason,” he reflects.
Alexis seems to have a knack for finding good people, taking their advice, and putting it to action—a habit grounded in goal-setting and guided by an inner wisdom which he calls “faith.” From his stepmom who raised him, to people who took time and interest to offer critical advice that strengthened his resolve and expanded his options, Alexis recounts a litany of names from a list as long as his arm: a school librarian who fed him books, an insightful counselor, a pastor whose words came at the right time, a retired administrator who helps with rent and school supplies, a dedicated youth worker who advocates for Haitian kids, a college president who helped him deal with the death of his father…the list goes on. Some were in his life for a moment or a season, but he sees each of them as on his team, on the same playing field, pressing forward, assisting each other, towards a goal.
