coach@PaladinBasketball.com
Coach Marino is in his second year as the head coach of the varsity team. In his first year, he guided the team to an 18-8 season record, and finished by reaching the State Regional Semi-Finals. Two milestones were set that season, the first being that South won their first playoff game since 1984, and the second in that reaching the Regional Semi-Finals was the furthest the school had advanced since the mid-80s.
Some of the other accomplishments in the 2010-2011 season was reaching the District Finals for the first time since 2006, playing in the Broward County Big 8, and participating and winning a game in the Florida Prospects Invitational which was held in Gainesville, FL. Since the South had such success, Coach Marino and his staff were selected to coach in the BCAA All-Star Game.
Coach Marino bring a level of excitement to the program and is committed to making South Plantation yearly state contenders. From his past experiences, he is a firm believer that hard work can beat talent when talent doesn’t work hard. So the first thing Coach Marino expects from his players is that they will give nothing less than 100% commitment to the team and to their academics.
Ricardo Marino has been an educator and coach in Broward County for over 12 years. He started coaching at Driftwood Middle School in1998, where he lead both the basketball and volleyball teams to perennial winning seasons.
In 2003, Coach Marino helped establish the boys basketball program in the inaugural year of Everglades High School. During his time at Everglades, his teams were extremely successful and were the first team in the state of Florida to play in the Walter Wong Holiday Tournament in Honolulu, Hawaii.
After two years, Coach Marino moved to American Heritage School in Plantation. There he helped rebuild the boys basketball program and take it to heights they have never reached. During his three years at Heritage, Coach Marino helped coached the team to the most wins in school history, assisted in the creation of a Summer College Tour to help players get exposure, and coached 10 players that received college scholarships to play basketball.
Coach Marino is a graduate of the University of Florida and is an alumnus of Chaminade-Madonna College Preparatory.
