Traveling Team Becomes Pipeline for KSU

Mar 10, 2010 | By: Cole Manbeck (cmanbeck@themercury.com)

 

When Frank Martin was growing up and needed someone to look out for him, Art Alvarez was always there. The pair grew up in Miami, and when Martin went to the park during his teenage years for recreational activities, Alvarez was the big brother Martin never had. "Art was in that group of guys - they beat you up but they wouldn't let anybody mess with you," Martin said. "When you tried to play basketball or football with them they put a hurtin' on you, but they wouldn't let you quit. They were trying to teach us the ropes so we could stay out of trouble and know how to defend ourselves and not back down from people. "We're one in the same. It's like calling my sister, asking her to help me in recruiting, she's gonna jump up and help - that's how Art is because there's faith in who I am because he helped raise me."

 

Alvarez, who was born in Cuba before he and his family immigrated to the United States when he was one month old, is one of the most successful coaches in the state of Florida. He won two state championships at Miami Christian High School, including recording a 38-2 record in 2002, setting the Florida single-season mark for wins. He left high school coaching after his son Danny graduated, but continued to run the Miami Tropics, one of just over 40 Nike Travel Teams in the nation. Alvarez remains the head coach and president of the Tropics to this day. He has sent more than 50 players on to play Division I basketball, several to the pros, and has at one time or another coached three players who are now in the NBA (J.J. Barea, Guillermo Diaz, O.J. Mayo). During his time with the Tropics, he has pulled kids out of bad neighborhoods and has housed, clothed and fed many of them at his own expense.

 

"I want to help kids," he said. "I don't get anything in return. People sometimes think there's an angle to this, but there's no angle to this. You either do it or not. I know that God has shown me for every dollar I've taken out of my pocket - he's somehow provided two dollars to me or given me the opportunity in the business world to make an extra dollar to help these kids. "A lot of these kids come here with no parents, so what happens is now you've gotta play the role of a basketball coach, mentor and father. You gotta sit with these kids, you've gotta advise them."

 

His players often have the pick of the crop when it comes to colleges. So it may have been a surprise to many when Barea, who had offers from Marquette and North Carolina State to name a few, chose to play his college basketball at Northeastern. There was one reason and one reason alone. Martin was an assistant coach under Ron Everhart at the time at Northeastern and the pair wanted Barea badly. "I said, 'Frank, I don't know man,'" recalled Alvarez. "I remember J.J. had gone on that visit and he called me back, he said 'Coach, I don't like Northeastern, it's cold, it's rainy, I don't know.' But I knew Northeastern was going to be a real good situation for him because of the fact that Frank was there and I trusted him."

 

Barea helped Everhart and Martin transform the program, which had averaged just nine wins in the previous six seasons, into a team that would win 59 games from 2003-06. "J.J. kind of got it done for them," Alvarez said. It has continued from there. Martin arrived at K-State in 2006 following a two-year stint at Cincinnati. Since 2006, Alvarez has sent Jason Bennett, Luis Colon and Denis Clemente to Martin. The Wildcats are currently recruiting coveted junior college forward Freddy Asprilla, who played for the Tropics before becoming the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year with Florida International in 2008-09. Since then, Asprilla has left the FIU program after not getting his release and is playing basketball at Miami Dade Junior College. Alvarez, who is Asprilla's legal guardian, said the Columbia native will sign with a Division I program by Nov. 18 and that K-State is currently the front-runner for his services.

 

K- State has also already extended a scholarship offer to 2011 recruit Angel Rodriguez, who is also one of Alvarez's players. "His connections in South Florida are just tremendous," Alvarez said. "He's always going to be great in those areas because he coached here and he's like a legend in that area. Anytime he goes to Miami - any player that he wants to recruit he's always gonna have, not just with me but with other coaches as well. "He's all about relationship-building and people love him because he takes care of people. He takes care of their kids, and you can't go wrong with that."

 

Alvarez said what makes Martin such a tremendous recruiter is his relentlessness and honesty. "He'll talk to the parents and he'll talk to the kids and everything he says he does," Alvarez said. "In this business, there's a lot of people who will talk to you, get in the living room and talk to your parents, some of them are not honest, some of them will tell you what you want to hear to get the kid and it doesn't happen. "Frank's honest and sincere. What he tells you is what he does. If you're in this type of business and you're like that, people will love you for it." Martin agrees. "I was an old high school coach and I was lucky to have good players that got recruited by all levels from the North Carolinas to Division II schools," Martin said. "As soon as guys come in and they're phony, you immediately know this doesn't need to work.

 

"A lot of guys come in and try to outsmart you and be creative and try to trick you into doing what they're asking you to do. As a high school coach I used to sit back and listen, and my whole theory is 'if you try to hustle me I'm gonna hustle you. If you're straight up with me then I'm straight up with you.' "I just felt the guys that came in and were relentless and with the efforts with which they recruited the player, that showed me that they were really committed to the young man, and they were honest with what they communicated. Then they earned my respect and usually that meant they earned the players' respects, so that's what we try to do as a staff."

 

One may consider it a pipeline, but in reality, it's a friendship built on trust - a trust that started back at the park near the Orange Bowl. "He wanted Barea, he got Barea," he said. "He wanted Luis when he was with Huggs - he got Luis. As soon as the Denis situation came about, the phone was ringing off the hook, he wanted Denis and he got Denis. "From that end, I've never said no. I trust him whole-heartedly because of who he is and what he does for kids. There's nobody really in the business - there's a lot of people in the business that I do trust - but with him it's more like a brother-to-brother relationship. He's never let me down."

 

 

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