Journey from the Dominican has become dream come true for Reading’s Yadiel Cruz

Felix Cruz’s dream was to one day see his son Yadiel play basketball at the storied Geigle Complex, the court where future NBA players Donyell Marshall and Lonnie Walker IV once graced.

Felix came to the United States more than a decade ago; he attended a Red Knights’ home game and was overwhelmed by the facility, the fans and level of play. He sent pictures to Yadiel, who remained in the Dominican Republic with his mother.

“He said: ‘I want to see you here playing one day,’ ” Yadiel said.

That became Yadiel’s dream, too. He wanted to live with his father, whom he had not seen since he was a little boy; he wanted to play basketball in the United States.

That dream began to unfold last spring when Yadiel left home and reunited with his padre, whom he hadn’t seen in more than a decade. The reunion lasted only a few weeks before Felix Cruz was arrested and then incarcerated. Yadiel was devastated.

“It hurt” to see that, he said.

He was left to live with his stepmother in Florida but didn’t feel welcome. He felt alone. He wanted to return to his homeland. Instead, a family member purchased a plane ticket to Pennsylvania so that Yadiel could live with his sister, 24-year-old Natasha, who has lived in Reading for two years.

(Perez was told his mother couldn’t afford to keep him because of her financial straits; that’s why he was initially sent to the U.S.)

Yadiel wasn’t happy in Reading, either. He was depressed. Alone. Homesick. His missed his mama, Yisell.

“I just wanted somebody to buy me a ticket to go back to the Dominican,” he said through an interpreter, Milta Saturria-Torres, a parent outreach assistant at Reading High.

Yadiel, a basketball star in his hometown, Tamboril, needed to play again. He called Uber and asked the driver to take him to a court where he could find a game.

As fate would have it the driver was Kelvin Rodriguez, whose brother Aris is a senior and a top player on the team.

Kelvin, who played for the Red Knights, took Yadiel to City Park. He decided to stay and watch a little. A few minutes later Reading High coach Rick Perez got a phone call.

“Hey, this guy’s pretty good,” Perez was told.

Perez instructed Rodriguez to bring Yadiel to the Red Knights’ workout the next morning. He took part in drills, played one-on-one, and shot the ball.

“He went 10-for-10,” Perez recalled. “I put my arm around him and said: ‘You don’t need to look for a coach any more, I’ll take care of you.’ It was beautiful.”

If the 6-3 junior helps the Red Knights win a state title this story could end up on “Netflix.” It’s that good.

And so is Cruz. He played with the Red Knights throughout the summer and fall and was in the starting lineup when they opened the season Dec. 6 against Central York.

“From that (first) day on, he just really fit in,” Perez said. “The guys love him. He can really play.”

The second act of Cruz’s story wasn’t quite as uplifting. He soon began to struggle with the intensity of the game the way the Red Knights and their top opponents play it; he found it difficult to communicate with his teammates and coaches. He speaks very little English.

“The game is very different here,” he said. “Very strict. There are a lot of rules. Over there, there’s not as much of a system: You shoot the ball, you run down the court, and you shoot again.”

Not for Rick Perez, you don’t. The game is much more structured, the workouts and games much more physical. Defense is emphasized. So is keeping up with your school work.

Cruz wasn’t accustomed to that. He didn’t play as well early in the season as he had when he first joined the team and eventually lost his starting spot. He said he feared making a mistake and became reluctant to shoot the ball.

“When you come here (to Pennsylvania), you’re between Jersey and DC — the best (high school) basketball in the world,” Perez said. “He’s becoming more accustomed to the style of basketball, the physicality. He struggled with that (at first); now I see him embrace that.”

Cruz has grown into his role as the first player off Reading’s bench. Maybe, Perez thinks, it fired him up to be bumped from the starting five. He was, after all, a star in his homeland.

He was good enough to be invited to try out with the Dominican Republic’s FIBA U18 international team (one that Muhlenberg’s Edwin Suarez played with). He took part in the early tryouts but left the country shortly thereafter.

Cruz has always been at the top of his class when it comes to basketball. In junior high he was offered a scholarship to play at a local private school; that fell through when COVID-19 hit the island and the season was scrapped.

He was such an elite player he earned the nickname “La Sensacion” in his homeland. No translation needed there.

Cruz was a guard and perimeter shooter on at Eugenio De Jesus high school; those roles were adequately filled when he arrived in Reading: Ruben Rodriguez and Myles Grey handle those jobs with aplomb.

He eventually found his niche as a rebounder and inside scorer, something the Red Knights lacked. He began to assert himself a few weeks ago when he had a monster game against Muhlenberg, with 15 points and 14 rebounds. He followed that with 20 and 14 against Twin Valley. He’s averaging 8.1 points, fourth on the team.

“The light bulb went off in terms of what we need from him,” Perez said. “He’s undersized, but he does an outstanding job rebounding, and he’s a great finisher. He’s embracing that physicality now, throwing his body around. This is what our team needs.”

Communication remains a roadblock, though Cruz couldn’t have landed in a better spot. Perez speaks Spanish; so are teammates Aris Rodriguez and Nick Chapman, who speak it at home. They’re always close by to assist him in tackling the learning curve.

Perez often has to explain things twice at practice: First in English, then in Spanish.

“I might be able to coach in Puerto Rico after this,” Perez joked. “My Spanish has improved 10 times.”

Yadiel Cruz no longer wants to return to the Dominican – he’s enjoying his new home too much.

“It’s been a long journey for him,” Perez said. “Emotionally, it has been a challenge. Basketball gives him a bit of reprieve.”

Every time Yadiel Cruz walks onto the floor at the Geigle he thinks about his father and how proud he would be to see him wearing a Red Knights uniform.

“It’s a very, very emotional feeling when you walk onto that court,” he said. “It’s a good feeling to hear the people cheering.”