Miami Herald High School Athlete of the Week 19: Alejandro Bird of Belen basketball

By James Varsallone

January 30, 2026 8:45 PM

Alejandro Bird of the Belen boys’ basketball team is the Miami Herald Athlete of the Week for Week 19.

The junior was the Player of the Game for scoring 12 points with 4 assists and 8 steals in a big win over Miami High.

Other nominees were: Noah Lara, Coral Park basketball; Tiffany Francisco, Western wrestling; Arianna Ruiz, Mater Lakes Academy wrestling; Danetchy Janvier, North Miami wrestling; Sidney Katz, Somerset Pembroke Pines wrestling; Henry Copelin, Cardinal Gibbons soccer.

To be considered for a nomination (Broward and Miami-Dade high school varsity athletes only), email hssports@miamiherald.com.

Jim Varsallone

Miami Herald

305-376-3621

Jim Varsallone writes a high school sports column twice a week, featuring top performers in all varsity sports (boys and girls) in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. He also covers pro wrestling, something he’s done since his college days in the late 1980s. Now in his fifth decade of coverage, he currently follows WWE (Raw, SmackDown and NXT), AEW, Ring of Honor, TNA Impact Wrestling, MLW, WOW, NWA, and the South Florida indies, mainly CCW. He writes MMA, too -- mostly profile stories and video interviews with American Top Team and Sanford MMA fighters in South Florida. As for pro wrestling, he writes feature stories and profile pieces, updates upcoming show schedules in South Florida, photographs the action and interviews talent (audio and video) -- sharing the content here and via social media on his Facebook, Twitter and YouTube channel: jim varsallone (jimmyv3 channel). Support my work with a digital subscription

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