Friday Features: UWG’s Armah plays both ways to give Wolves boost
By Mike Perrin
Like a kickoff man with a tendency to take a leisurely jog downfield while mayhem ensues all around, fans of Alex Armah need to have their heads on a swivel when they attend a West Georgia Wolves football game this season.
There’s No. 8 at defensive end. No, there he is at fullback. Wait, he’s playing linebacker now. Or, could it be? Yep, there’s the 6-foot-2, 253-pounder at tight end.
Armah, who was a second-team All-America and first-team All-Gulf South Conference pick last season as a defensive end, doesn’t mind bouncing around the field from week to week – even series to series.
“My favorite is playing linebacker and I love playing on the defensive side of the ball,” the senior from Lawrenceville, Ga., said. “But, it is always fun to get a knockdown block or make a big play on the offensive side as well.
“This is a team thing for me. It started in the spring when we were short of tight ends on offense and the coaches came to me to see if I would be willing to fill that role. I stepped up and said that I would do what was necessary. My personal goals are much different than playing multiple positions, but if this helps the Wolves reach our team goals then it will be well worth the sacrifice.”
Armah burst on the scene as a redshirt freshman in 2013 with 10 tackles in his first start in the season-opener. Like many, if not most, redshirts Armah wasn’t sure sitting for a year was what he wanted. “Looking back on it, when I first came in I did not have an expectation that I would redshirt,” he said. “Even though there were so many older guys who were playing at a high level in my position, I did not understand why they wanted me to redshirt.
“Now I see that it was the best decision for me, because it allowed me to get bigger, stronger and faster and gain a much greater understanding of my position and the game of football in general.”
He registered back-to-back seasons of 14.5 tackles behind the line of scrimmage as a sophomore and junior. He had nine sacks last season – second on the team – and his 52 total tackles ranked fourth for the Wolves. Thus far, Armah has 17.5 sacks in his career at West Georgia and 182 total tackles.
So far this season, the Dacula (Ga.) High School product has 19 tackles, 4.5 for a loss including credit for half a sack. He has one pass break-up and a fumble recovery. On offense, Armah has caught five passes for 92 yards – sixth best on the squad – and a touchdown. In spot duty on offense a year ago, he scored one TD and had a couple of two-point conversions.
Armah comes from an athletic family, he said, including an uncle who played on the national soccer team for Ghana. “My dad played soccer and my mom played basketball – more on a recreational level – so my siblings and I were exposed to sports that way,” he said. “I had two older brothers who played basketball and a sister (Alexandria) who played basketball and ran track at West Georgia.”
Armah is a fan of the West Georgia family, too. “I love West Georgia because of the support we receive from the campus community and the city of Carrollton. I came to school to get a business degree and the business program here is excellent.”
After two straight years of falling in the NCAA Division II playoffs semifinals to the eventual national champion and back-to-back 12-win seasons, the Wolves experienced back-to-back-to-back losses at midseason this year. Coach Will Hall’s squad bounced back with two straight wins to pull to 6-3 overall (3-3 in the GSC) and a No. 8 Super Region Two ranking.
“Any time a team loses, it hurts, but especially the way we lost in such close games this year and we knew that we, as a whole, were not playing to our potential as a team,” Armah said. “There was no finger-pointing, but it was more of a personal internal struggle in trying to figure out a solution to get back on the right track.”
“The playoffs have always been a goal for us, especially with the success we have had over the past two seasons. But right now, we have to focus on Florida Tech, then West Florida, in that order. If we don’t, then all of the hard work we put in will be for nothing.”
While returning to the playoffs is Armah’s goal and completing his management and marketing degree is on the horizon this December, football and school work isn’t all that occupies his time. The 22-year-old son of Alexander and Tina Armah is one of the founders of a campus group called Men of Courage.
“The main purpose of the group,” he said, “is to acknowledge and bring light the problem of sexual violence toward women on campus and in general. It gained national attention as it became part of the ‘It’s On Us’ campaign and got mentioned at the White House.”
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