Before he was an All Star, Rookie of the Year, or the guy whose joyful home run celebration against the Atlanta Braves went viral, Jose Fernandez was a local prep star leading Tampa’s Alonso Ravens to two state championships.
Fernandez fled Cuba as a teen in 2007 with his mother and sister, an ordeal that included jail time in Cuba and a difficult trip across the Gulf to Mexico, as he recounted in this 2009 profile and in even greater detail here. They eventually made their way to the Tampa area. Fernandez had played youth baseball in Cuba, and once here, his step-father settled the family in the Alonso school district so that Jose could train with their coach, a veteran of Cuban baseball.