By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
When summer began, Yamil Rondon had no idea he would be spending the Fourth of July holiday in Puerto Rico. If everything goes right, the Cooper High School basketball player will be even farther away from home at the end of this month.
Rondon has been training with Puerto Rico’s under-17 boys national team since the last week of May. He was eligible for the team because both of his parents were born on the Caribbean island that has been a United States commonwealth since 1957.
If he makes the team, Rondon will get his first exposure to international competition at the Centrobasket U17 Championship that begins July 26 in Belize, a country located below Mexico in Central America.
The tournament field will include teams from Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama and Puerto Rico. After three days of pool play, four teams will compete in the semifinals on July 29. The championship game is set for July 30.
“I’m still confident,” Rondo said when asked about his chances of making the Puerto Rican roster during a phone interview. “I think I’ve done better than a couple of players.”
Rondon said he’s the youngest player training with the U17 team, but Cooper coach Tim Sullivan would not be surprised if the 16-year-old college prospect makes the roster and goes on to play in Belize.
“He’s just got that crafty resiliency about him on the floor that he finds a way to affect the game,” Sullivan said. “When you watch him, he doesn’t jump real high and he doesn’t run real fast, but somehow he always gets by people to get somebody a shot or get all the way to the rim.”
Cooper made it to the championship game of the 9th Region tournament last March with Rondon as the team’s floor leader. His three-game totals included 55 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds. He was also 19-of-38 from the field with six 3-point goals and 11-of-15 at the foul line.
Newport won the 9th Region championship game, 44-42, on a last-second shot. If Cooper had come out on top, Rondon would’ve been named the tournament’s most valuable player and gone on to play in the “Sweet 16” state tournament.
“I think this was kind of his coming-out year as far as people around here knowing about him,” coach Sullivan said. “We made it to the region finals and more people got to see him play. I think this (next one) will be a year where he’s recognized across the state a little bit more.”
Rondon said he originally made the trip to Puerto Rico with his father, aunt and younger brother. They’ve all returned home and he’s now living with his grandmother.
Unlike his parents and older relatives, Rondon was born and raised in the United States and grew up speaking English. There was a language barrier when he got to Puerto Rico for training sessions that take place two or three times a day.
“When I first came here, my coach would say something and I didn’t know what he was saying,” Rondon explained. “Now I’ll listen to it in Spanish and he’ll tell me again in English. Then I just keep repeating over and over in my head, ‘That’s what this means and that’s what that means.’”
The 5-foot-11, 140-pound junior has not been able to play on the AAU summer circuit while he’s in Puerto Rico. But his basketball resume should look good to college recruiters if he makes the national team and gets to play on the international level at the age of 16.
The weeks he spent training with the national team have already been an education in itself.
“It’s a whole different ball game in Puerto Rico than in Kentucky,” he said. “It’s a lot more aggressive. They don’t care who they’re playing.”