Tropics Gold

2005, Tropics Add Legendary Coach And A Second Travel Team

In 2005, Tropics President Art "Pilin" Alvarez brought in his long-time friend, Shakey Rodriguez, and created a second Nike Travel Team.

The team, called the Tropics Gold, played for two years and won several tournaments.

But that should come as no surprise considering Rodriguez's brilliant resume.

He won five state titles at Miami High, earning six national top-10 rankings.

As the head coach at Florida International University, he led the Golden Panthers to the best winning percentage of any FIU coach in the program's history.

The word ""legend'' usually gets tossed about too loosely. But Rodriguez was all of that during his days at Miami High.

His teams won at least 20 games in each of his 14 years with the Stingarees. In fact, the Stings averaged a mind-boggling 31 wins per season during that span.

Rodriguez took over a program that had been in the shadows of the great Jackson Generals and turned the Stings into a national power with a winning percentage of .873 in his 14 years.

Rodriguez left Miami High in 1995 to become the head coach at FIU. At FIU, he inherited a program that ranked 301st out of 318 teams in NCAA Division I. When he resigned five years later, FIU had moved up to No. 164 and had elevated its conference standing by going from the TAAC to the Sun Belt.

Those were huge accomplishments. But he also engineered wins over Michigan, Penn State and at Alabama, among others.

His record was 79-66, and his winning percentage of .545 is easily the best in FIU history. His teams had winning records in three of his five seasons, including a 21-8 mark in 1997-98 that is still the best in school history in terms of total wins and percentage.

He also developed the two players largely considered the best in school history - current NBA standouts Carlos Arroyo and Raja Bell.

In 2007, Rodriguez led Krop High to its first-ever GMAC championship and had his team ranked No. 1 in the state. Three of his Krop former players signed major scholarships - center Luis Colon at Kansas State, point guard Javi Gonzalez at North Carolina State and small forward Max Groebe at Massachusetts.

""Shakey will always be a friend to our program," Alvarez said. ""Between us, we have won seven state titles. And we have a great friendship that goes back over 30 years.''