Pine Crest Swimmer Has One Goal in Mind
By Joseph Goodman, The Miami Herald
Oct. 31–Yoelvis Pedraza learned of the cancer on Christmas Eve. Nothing could stop it now — a month at most.
Pedraza is a high school swimmer. He defines himself in seconds. He races time. But how do you stop time? How do you spend the last three weeks of your father’s life?
"You spend it thanking him," Pedraza said.
Pedraza is a senior on the Pine Crest swim team. Already a three-time individual state champion, Pedraza will race Saturday at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex for two more state championships. He will race for his father. Orelvis Pedraza left his youngest son with two requests: graduate college and break the high school state record in the 500-yard freestyle (4:23.90).
"I need two seconds," Yoelvis Pedraza said.
Orelvis Pedraza died of pancreatic cancer Jan. 15, 2006. Pedraza left this world much too early, but he was happy with what he had accomplished. He gave his family freedom.
Yoelvis Pedraza — his friends and teammates call him Joey — remembers the weekend his father smuggled his family out of Cuba. They floated to Miami in a canoe.
"They told me we were going camping," Pedraza said.
It wasn’t a lie, only a half-truth. The Pedraza family whispered away on the night of Nov. 25, 1998. It took them five days to reach Miami. The Pedrazas spent the final two days without food and water.
The Florida Straits — that narrow body of water that separates Cuba from the U.S. — had ruined the Pedrazas’ first two chances of escape. Orelvis Pedraza was determined that the third run at freedom would be his family’s last.
The first step in the Pedrazas’ window of opportunity involved a short but dangerous trip to Cayo Obispo, a Puerto Rican island. Esther Pedraza, Yoelvis Pedraza’s mother, described the island’s secret network as an underground railroad of sorts.
"Others joined us as we waited for the right time," Esther Pedraza said.
Calmer seas came on the fourth day. Like the tail of a kite drifting in the wind, a small fishing boat pulled three canoes of refugees linked by a single rope. If the plan turned sour, then the fishing boat could cut and run.
"The boat had most of the women and children," Yoelvis Pedraza said. "But our father didn’t want us separated so we were in the back of the very last canoe."
LEARNING TO SWIM
Yoelvis Pedraza started his high school career at Miami Columbus before transferring to St. Thomas Aquinas for his sophomore year.
After winning two Class 3A individual state titles with the Raiders, Pedraza was on the move again, this time to Pine Crest. As a junior, he won the 200 individual medley at the Class 1A state meet. Like at Columbus and St. Thomas, Pedraza attends Pine Crest with the help of financial aid.
Pedraza is a favorite to win individual state titles in the 200-yard individual medley and the 500-yard freestyle this weekend. He is a long-distance specialist and is being recruited by nearly every major collegiate swim team in the country. Not bad for a kid whose childhood was defined by severe asthma.
"The only reason I started swimming was because the doctor said swimming would be the best thing for my bronchials," Pedraza said.
Orelvis Pedraza didn’t know much about asthma, but he did have a good idea for how to teach his asthmatic son how to swim. All he needed was a rope and a deep end.
"I was only two years old, so I don’t remember, but they tell me that my father just tied a rope around my hips and tossed me in the deep end of a pool," Yoelvis Pedraza said. "I would start to sink, and he would just pull on the rope.
I guess it worked. I don’t have asthma anymore."
HELP FROM FRIENDS
Before the trip to the United States, Yoelvis Pedraza wasn’t the most athletic son in his family. That honor went to Yoandy Pedraza, the family’s oldest child. Yoandy was the top-rated cyclist in the Cuban providence of Santa Clara.
"Our father was so proud of my brother that he asked my brother if he wanted to leave Cuba," Yoelvis Pedraza said. "My brother said yes so we left."
Once in Florida, Yoandy Pedraza was forced to give up cycling.
"I walked into a bike shop and the prices were just too expensive," he said.
Like competitive cycling, competitive swimming doesn’t come cheap.
As a youngster, Yoelvis Pedraza joined the Miami Metro Aquatic Club. But the Pedrazas soon learned that they couldn’t afford the pricey monthly fee. That’s when Yoelvis Pedraza found his "godmother," Anna Maria Miyares, or rather, Miyares found him.
"Her son was swimming in the lane next to me, and she asked about me and learned the story," Yoelvis Pedraza said. "She has paid for me to swim ever since."
While competing for his club team, Pedraza networked with local swim coaches and secured enrollment at St. Thomas. He moved to Broward County his sophomore year of high school and lived with a family of another St. Thomas swimmer. Pedraza then jumped to Pine Crest. All the while, Pedraza’s father hid his illness.
"Everyone else knew," Pedraza said. "I found out all at once — cancer, inoperable — it all hit me so hard I didn’t know what to do. I got [mad] because I didn’t know and I went crazy and started tearing things up and punching things."
In the final days of Orelvis Pedraza’s life, Yoelvis Pedraza came to understand that his father hid the illness so that his son could focus on school and swimming.
"When I left for St. Thomas my father said that these were the most important years of my life," Yoelvis Pedraza said. "He wanted me to succeed in this life he gave me. He didn’t want anything to get in the way."
Pedraza will likely receive a full scholarship to swim in college. He is considering Yale and Florida. All that remains is one last trip across, a race for a record, a race for a memory, a race for time.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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