By: Roman O. Garcia Jr.

 

A new level of basketball will debut this weekend when Miami Prep School, a creation of local basketball legend Art “Pilin” Alvarez, debuts as they open play in the Battle at the Bay tournament in Tampa, Fla.

Alvarez, who led Miami Christian to two state championships as coach and three more as he led the program with coach Juan Cardona, opened the school this year for fifth-year seniors to get some last minute seasoning before going to college.

“I wanted to build a platform where it would help unsigned seniors have one post-grad year to get recruited,” said Alvarez, “Most of these student-athletes need an additional year to receive the proper exposure to play college basketball.”

The Tornadoes will open play against at 9:30 a.m. vs. host PHS Blue and then will play their second game at 11 a.m. against 4A Sports Academy in the tournament being held in Tampa.

“With much anticipation, I’m honored and excited to lead these young men in our inaugural season,” said Head coach Thomas Roque.

Norchard Omier, Petar Krivokapic, Lino Saez and Alejandro Santiago will look to lead the Tornadoes to victory this weekend and will be on display as college coaches have been attending practice for the past few weeks.

The school will also send a second team called the “Gold Team” to compete this weekend as the kids get ready to represent.