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The University of Winnipeg has announced the commitment of Alberto Gordo Miguelez for the upcoming Canada West season.
Gordo, a 6-foot-3 guard from Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, has committed to head coach Mike Raimbault’s Winnipeg Wesmen men’s basketball team as the newest member of the Class of 2022.
At 17 years old, Gordo’s age belies his skillset: He is a plus athlete, willing distributor, and talented shooter who helped his Canterbury School under-18 team into the coveted Spanish junior championship tournament earlier this month. That came after the Lions finished the season atop the Canarian Basketball Federation standings and finished second in the league’s playoff tournament.
Now he’ll prepare for the move from the sunny skies southwest of Spain and join fellow Spaniard Mike Mikhailov, a Madrid native who arrived in Winnipeg in January.
“Coach (Raimbault) was interested in me and the first time we talked we talked about our views of the game, everything in general,” Gordo said. “And I liked what he was talking about, he liked my answers, so there was a connection there that this was the right place that I could go to.”
Gordo, who is fluent in English and Spanish, and speaks some German, will enroll in Kinesiology and have five years of eligibility.
He joins John Taylor’s Ryan Luke and Miles Macdonell’s Elijah Mensah as members of the 2022 class.
“I’ve always wanted to go study somewhere far from home because I like the experience of being a student-athlete,” he said. “My options were mostly going to (North) America. … The degree you get is not easy to get and you have to put in work, and I’m happy to do it to get a career that I want.”
Gordo scored 30 points in a Canaria semifinal win over Santa Cruz in April and averaged 23.5 points per game in his provincial league. At the Spanish championships, he put up 26 against Barcelona, 14 in the team’s second game against Unicaja, and missed most of the team’s third game due to injury.
“We are really excited to add Alberto to our incoming recruiting class,” Raimbault said. “He has proven that he can run a team as well as score the ball against strong competition. He has a good combination of size, skill, and athleticism as well as experience making plays both on and off the ball.”
Between school and basketball, Gordo is at Canterbury from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., so while he admits to having some nerves about the big move, he is not someone who shies away from putting in the effort.
“It’s a completely new experience that I’ll have and I’ve never been too far away from home for too long,” he said. “I like these types of experiences where I have to go and … work my way from the bottom to the top. I like the independence a lot and working as much as I can to come to the best point that I can achieve. I’m very happy to go to university and play because for me the experience of a student-athlete is quite nice and I’m excited about living it.”
Source: https://wesmen.ca/general/2021-22/releases/20220513h6qw3n