A ‘little school in Hialeah’ is doing big things in boys’ basketball
Reece Randolph still gets the question often whenever he tells people where he goes to high school.
“It’s a little school in Hialeah,” Randolph tells them.
Randolph plays basketball for City of Hialeah Educational Academy, sometimes referred to as COHEA for short.
You might not have heard of it either.
But that may change very soon.
The Hialeah public charter school, which opened its doors in 2008 and has an enrollment of just under 1,000 students, could be in the process of becoming the next big name in South Florida boys’ basketball.
The Bulldogs just won the school’s first district championship on Saturday when it edged Doral’s Divine Savior to advance to the regional playoffs for the second consecutive season.
And the young squad is earning the respect of its peers following its first 20-win season that included victories against some of the state’s best, including Miami Norland, Lake Worth, Miami Belen Jesuit and Fort Lauderdale Calvary Christian.
“We’re making a name for ourselves and I’m happy to be a part of that,” said Randolph, who is one of six seniors on a 10player roster and is being recruited by St. Thomas University.
Randolph, a 5-9 point guard, began his high school career at Chaminade-Madonna in Hollywood, but transferred to COHEA before his junior season.
Several of his teammates, who all played ball for COHEA’s coach Alex Garcia, made the same decision and formed a core group that has powered the Bulldogs to a breakthrough season.
COHEA, a school which had only experienced similar success from its baseball team during a trip to the regional finals in 2021, had never made it past the district round until last season.
After losing in the regional quarterfinals against Miami Country Day following an 18-9 season, COHEA returned with more experience this season and has earned the No. 3 seed in a tough Region 4-3A that includes defending state champion Riviera Prep, the No. 2 seed, and Fort Lauderdale Westminster Academy, the top seed.
And the Bulldogs have done so without the luxury of playing or practicing at an on-campus gym.
COHEA players and coaches make the fiveminute trip to practice and play their home games at Bucky Dent Gym in Hialeah.
The Bulldogs (20-8) will host Miami Country Day on Thursday night at Bucky Dent at 7 p.m. in a rematch of last year’s playoff matchup.
“It’s been hard dealing with that and for the kids to understand what we’re building, but as the season went on, they knew why we are doing this,” Garcia said.
Garcia’s background coaching travel ball for the past two decades helped him build a close rapport with several of his current players.
Randolph has been playing on Garcia’s teams since he was in third grade.
“I trust him and he’s been able to build this around us and everything has felt good after that,” Randolph said. “We built chemistry from last year and we came back and all of us listened to coach Alex and we’ve been locked in. I feel like we’ve put in the work and we have all the confidence in the world for our team.”
Garcia, a Coral Gables High grad, coached the Miami City Ballers for several years. Both Rick Ross’ son and LeBron James’ son, Bronnie, once played for Garcia, who also coached with the late legendary former Miami High coach Shakey Rodriguez on the travel circuit.
“I learned a lot from Shakey and I knew the tradition at Miami High and fell in love with it,”
Garcia said. “My son played there for Marcus Carreno and my other son played there after that.”
Garcia has coached high school basketball in recent years with some success. He coached at SLAM when it advanced to the regional finals in 2019 and led Brito Miami Private to the regional finals in 2021.
But after the core group of players he had at Brito went their separate ways, Garcia thought he was done coaching until he was approached by COHEA.
Garcia jumped at the chance to build another program from scratch despite the challenges of not having a home facility.
“My experience in travel ball helped because on that side, you only get to work with the kids three days a week,” Garcia said. “Here I maximize the practice time we have together to get the most out of them.”
COHEA is breaking ground on a new gym this June, however, in the hopes of having a home gym ready for their teams by the 2024-25 season or the 2025-26 campaign. Bucky Dent gym is being refurbished and could have more space for their team to practice and host more fans by next season.
As the building process draws closer, Garcia has helped COHEA build something strong on the court.
It began in the offseason where Garcia and his players and coaches played over 50 games at camps at several colleges including FIU, Stetson and FSU.
The process has drawn interest and offers for several of his players.
In addition to Randolph, Frientley Francois, a 6-9 center, has an offer from Chicago State University. Chris Levy, a 6-1 guard, has drawn interest from Union College, a DivisionII school in Tennessee,
6-5 wing Isaiah Renaud has drawn interest from Rollins College and Ian Pascal, a 6-4 wing has interest from Palm Beach Atlantic and Florida Memorial.
COHEA also has three sophomores and 6-10 freshman Ronald Germeille already on the radar of some college recruiters.
The Bulldogs started to buy in that they could build something special even more after those early wins against established programs. The key since was building consistency and learning how to handle success, which is something COHEA has begun to show in recent weeks.
“The buy-in was even more after those wins early this year, especially among the juniors,” Garcia said. “Hopefully we can keep this Cinderella story going and finish it. I believe we have the height, athleticism and the chemistry to give [those great teams] a battle.”