The Spire

Aiden Konold ’26

Chief Sports Editor

Blink, and Alijah Cason’s gone, sprinting past defenders and finding open space. The track instincts kick in, and as soon as he finds that tiny sliver of green grass, he’s gone. 

His favorite childhood superheroes were the Flash and Spider-Man. His speed, which led him to win the individual Texas high school state track and field championship in the 100 meter, resembles the Flash. His ability to find and exploit gaps on the field equals Spider-Man’s spidey sense. 

Cason, a sophomore wide receiver and special teamer on the Holy Cross football team, has worked with a personal trainer to hone in on his footwork and increase his quickness for as long as he can remember. He started running track when, he says, he was “itty bitty.”

One look through Cason’s high school highlights at First Baptist Academy in Dallas, Texas reveals a 5’9” kid routinely outrunning defenders, turning on the jets, and tiptoeing down the sideline to avoid would-be tacklers. His lateral quickness and his stutter steps mirror the moves of Baltimore Ravens’ wide receiver Zay Flowers, one of the players Cason models his game after. 

“He’s elusive as anything, and he’s able to make cuts or change direction and stay at full speed,” said Holy Cross Associate Head Coach and Special Teams Coordinator Bryan Robbat. “That’s why he is truly gifted with this. He can just go and hit it at full speed, where most guys will slow down or kind of tiptoe getting through it. Whatever the hole might be, he just hits it.” 

Cason’s bursts of speed and playmaking ability were on display at every position in high school. In a game against Weatherford Christian, Cason played wide receiver, quarterback, and defensive back and returned several punts. When Cason took over as his team’s quarterback in that game after the starter went down, he scrambled all over the field, merely outhustling defenders.

He finished the game with 478 yards of total offense, six touchdowns, eight tackles, two tackles for a loss, a pass breakup, and three two-point conversions. The last of the conversions was the game-winner in a 35-7 comeback win. 

“My mindset is just, I want to score every time I get out there,” Cason said. “So that’s really it, you know, and then with our kickoff unit, I feel like it’s possible to do that every time.” 

In both his junior and senior seasons at First Baptist, Cason hauled in over 1000 receiving yards and totaled 63 all-purpose touchdowns. He ranks third all-time in receiving touchdowns in Texas high school football history. He was named First Team All-District and First Team All-State twice, and in his senior year, he earned District MVP honors. 

“Back then, I always wanted to make a play, every time, a big play,” Cason said. “But I know, in college, you can’t even do that because everybody’s faster, stronger, everybody’s the same. So that’s the big difference.” 

In high school, he could rely solely on his speed to make those big plays, but when he started playing college football last fall, he learned the importance of patience, how to see the holes develop and then run through them and into the open field. 

“At first he was always trying to bounce everything, trying to get everything outside, just use the speed,” Robbat said. “But then he figured out it’s not high school anymore, you got to trust the blocking. We say you got to run through the smoke. He runs through the smoke every week, and he trusts it, and those guys do a great job up front, really paving the way for him.” 

Last year, Cason showed flashes of the speed that opposing Texas high schools were so used to seeing under the lights on Friday nights. In 11 games last season, Cason caught 16 passes for 89 yards and added 30 yards on the ground. But the real glimpses of his quickness came on the special teams unit, where he added 187 yards on five kick returns, including 53- and 44-yard returns. 

When Cason came to Holy Cross last fall, he was already very athletic. He had one of the highest elasticities Holy Cross Head of Football Strength and Conditioning Shane Davenport has ever seen in his time coaching high school, college, and pro athletes. Cason’s high elasticity means that when his feet hit the ground on a jump, he’s immediately off the ground before the eye can even notice it. 

Davenport developed Cason a workout plan based on his ability to produce force using force plates. Though Cason typically uses lower weight, he moves it incredibly fast. Cason’s workout plan focuses a lot on velocity work, with an emphasis on the mechanics of sprinting, stopping and starting. 

“He’s already a freak athlete,” said Davenport. “If you can tune up and get those angles down a little bit better, they even get better and better.” 

Cason’s quickness makes him an elite kick returner. Paired with the patience he’s learned while at Holy Cross, he’s formed into one of the best return men that his coaches have ever coached. 

“I had an All-American kick returner, Donovan Wadley at my last stop [Merrimack]. He had three kick return touchdowns in a year [2023],” Robbat said. “They’re [Cason and Wadley] very similar in some ways, but very different in others, where I think Alijah can really hit it full speed, where Donnie was more so as soon as he gets into that open space, he starts pulling away from people. But Alijah, his acceleration and his cuts at full speed is really what separates him from pretty much any other guy I’ve ever coached.” 

Cason reminds Davenport of Deonte Harty, a player he coached at Assumption, who holds the NCAA record for combined touchdown returns with 14. Over six seasons in the NFL, Harty scored two return touchdowns, including a 96-yarder. 

“They’re both a little bit different, but the ability for him to be here and then here is kind of similar in terms of, it’s a rare skill,” Davenport said of Cason. “It’s a rare skill. Most people can stop and go, but he can go without even stopping. That’s that elastic component, it’s really hard to teach. It’s a lot of natural given talent, and then you can get it better. But it is very natural. He’s a freak.” 

So it was no surprise then that when Holy Cross played FBS-level Northern Illinois on Saturday, August 30, Cason returned a kickoff 97 yards to the house. He noticed the holes in the defense, and took off, his red mouthguard dangling from his facemask as he picked up speed. 

His teammates and coaches ran up and down the sideline as he raced towards the endzone, untouched. After Cason celebrated with his teammates, his coaches congratulated him, patting him on the helmet. 

“It was good to see it pay off because everyone knows he can do it, but in the game, it’s got to click and everyone has to block and they all did their job,” said Davenport. “And he did his. It was awesome! It was fun to watch.” 

Cason’s latest feat, which came by way of his feet, attained him Patriot League Special Teams Player of the Week honors. All of his accomplishments, testaments to his speed and the skills he’s developed while at Holy Cross, have come to be presumed by those around him. 

“Honestly, I hate to say it, it’s somewhat expected in a way. That’s just why we practice. That’s what we plan on. And so we expect that. And it was great, because even before he had two other big ones before the one for a touchdown,” Robbat said. “And, you know, unfortunately we got one scored on us, and he just came right back, and he told everybody, ‘Hey, I’m bringing this one back. Let’s go.’ And everybody was like, ‘Yeah, he is gonna bring it back.’ And that’s literally what happened. So it’s like he almost called the shot, in a way, but it’s the full on belief of that entire unit. And then with myself, I always want to give him a shot.” 

Blink again, and you might just miss Alijah Cason’s next move.

Featured image courtesy of Holy Cross Athletics 

Copy Edited by Sabine Hinkaty ’26