A native of the Philippines, Alex C. Ysrael was already a track and field star during his high school years. He was a member of the champion La Salle High School Booters team from 1949 to 1950. From 1950 to 1951, he was the NCAA 1500-meter champion and 800-meter runner-up, the 1500 and 100-meter All- Collegiate champion and a bronze medalist at the All National Team 1500-meter championships. He also played in the NCAA junior varsity basketball team in 1950 that won the championship. He became captain of the team in 1951.
In college, Alex was the 1500 and 800-meter All Collegiate champion, the runner up in the 1500-meter 800-meter and the 4x400 meter relay events in the 1952 NCAA. He was the NCAA and All Collegiate Champion during the whole of his college years from 1952 to 1955. He also received the gold in the National Championships from 1951 to 1952 and back-to-back championship titles from 1953 to 1955. He became a part of the Philippine Footbal Team that played in the Hong Kong Asian games. Alex also played for the University of San Francisco Dons that won soccer championships form 1957-1959 and runner-up awards from 1960-1961 under Gus Donaghue. The same team won the 1959 U.S. West Coast Championships. Alex was selected to the second team of the Collegiate Soccer Team of the United States of America. He was inducted into the DLSAA Sports Hall of Fame in 2008 for soccer (DeLaSalleAlumni).
The rest of the starting eleven is filled out by booters playing their first league game for the Dons. They are Serge Brennan, Alex Ysrael, J.J. Pou, Jerry Lobregat, Bob Papara, and Joey Stevens. Reserves who are slated to see action are Harun Usman, George Tubman, Tim Brophy, Emil Gabriel, and Sal Iharhetea. Pronouncing his team as ready, Coach Donoghue stated that "good spirit will compensate lack of experience." Not too much is known about the Stanford team which finished out last year in sixth place in the conference. Priddle, their coach, characterizes them as "well-balanced, but nothing spectacular." The Indians were also hit hard by graduation, losing seven starters off of last year's team. Priddle predicts that the Indians will "give a good account of themselves (TheFoghorn)."Â
