Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 11, 1995 TAG: 9506120023
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Afable family of Winston-Salem, N.C., never had served as a host family before Spanish exchange student Alvaro Tor arrived in August, and Sally Afable doesn't know if she would do it again.
``Alvaro would be a hard one to top,'' she said.
They could see that the moment he walked through the door.
``When we first started communicating, he was 6-foot-7 and we were going to put him in a spare room in the basement,'' Afable said. ``By the time he got here, he was 6-81/2 and couldn't fit in the basement anymore.
``He's 6-9 now. He's grown an inch and a shoe size since he got here. Right now, the spare room is still a spare room and we've got kids doubled on the second floor.''
Although he barely could speak a word of English when he arrived, Tor became a straight-A student at Reynolds High School and received numerous scholarship offers before signing a basketball letter of intent with Virginia Tech.
``He was here six weeks, and he literally could not find the room to take the SAT [Scholastic Assessment Test],'' Afable said. ``He couldn't follow the signs. My husband physically took him to the room and said, `You've got to do this,' and he made a 760, not speaking English.''
That's pretty much how Tor remembers the story, except he thinks he made 790.
``Every single thing was different,'' he said. ``In Spain, you're in the same class all day. Here, you change after each period. The language was very difficult, but the most difficult thing was not knowing anybody.
``I have a very good [host] family, so there were only two or three days when I was really homesick. It isn't hard learning the language when all the people around you are speaking English.''
There is a well-established exchange program in the Winston-Salem area and only two years earlier 6-10 Czech Republic native Jiri Formanek had played under Reynolds coach Howard West.
West first heard about Tor and his interest in basketball in the spring of 1994. However, he had only two weeks in which to find a host family.
``He called us and said, `We need to place this boy. Do you know anyone?''' Afable said. ``My husband is Spanish, so [West] assumed he spoke Spanish, which is not the truth anymore.
``West thought it was a perfect match and we just laughed and chuckled, `What are we going to do with this child?' But the more we thought about it, the more we decided, `Yeah, we'll give it a shot.'''
A few days later, the Afables received a call from Tor's older sister, Eva, who had been an exchange student in the United States and later studied at Oxford.
``She said Alvaro's club team would not release him,'' Afable said. ``His coach was threatening to cause trouble - trouble, meaning Alvaro couldn't try out for the Olympics - if he didn't play [in Spain] until he was 18.''
In hindsight, Tor was glad he waited. He remained on good terms with the coaches of his club team and he had more time to prepare for life with his new family - and it had time to prepare for him.
``My boys tell me I'm much easier on him,'' said Afable, who has three sons, ages 10 to 15, and a younger daughter, ``but he gets yelled at to take out the garbage and scolded when he's late to dinner.''
Tor was considered a member of the family by everybody, it seems, but the NCAA. A red flag was raised because Rick Afable, Sally's husband, is a doctor on the staff at Bowman-Gray Hospital and a member of the Wake Forest faculty.
``Alvaro is considered a member of our family legally and, as such, has access to everything at Wake Forest - the weight rooms, the gyms, everything,'' Sally said. ``Our whole family does.
``I thought to myself, `I think there's going to be a problem here.' So, I made a bunch of calls to secretaries who said, `No problem. No problem.'
``Then, Rick was giving an annual physical to the [Wake] athletic director [Ron Wellman] and said, `Well, wait till you meet our exchange student,' and he [Wellman] about fell off the table.''
At the time, Wake Forest's athletic program was prohibited from recruiting international students after being placed on probation for violations involving 1993 signee Makhtar Ndiaye from Senegal.
Tor played on a team in Spain with the brother of Deacons sophomore Ricardo Peral, but Tor was prohibited from making contact with Peral, one of the few people in Winston-Salem with whom he had anything in common.
``They had to call the NCAA to find out how and when Alvaro could talk with Ricardo Peral,'' Sally Afable said. ``It was so extreme, it was really quite comical. And Alvaro, of course, had no idea what was going on.''
By the time the Deacons were allowed to recruit international players again, they had used up all their scholarships. Because of the family connection, there was talk Tor could have gone to Wake tuition-free, but he wasn't interested.
``I wasn't looking at Wake Forest,'' Tor said. ``Wake Forest didn't have the academic program - architecture - that I wanted. That was one of the reasons I liked Virginia Tech.''
The Hokies knew little about Tor until assistant coach Bobby Hussey, acting on a tip from the coach at South Stokes High School in North Carolina, went to see him play.
When asked for a scouting report, West said Tor has the ball-handling and passing skills frequently associated with European big men and has shooting range to 15 feet. He does not shoot as well as Peral, but is less mechanical than Formanek, who plays at South Carolina.
``He's aggressive,'' said West, who projects Tor as a two-year starter for the Hokies. ``That's one thing I'll give him. He's not afraid. When he got over here, he was perimeter-oriented, like a lot of the European kids. But he's become more oriented to the `contact' positions.''
There might have been some surprise when Tor picked Tech over an ACC program, North Carolina State, but he was more concerned with ``family atmosphere'' than most college prospects.
``My husband and I were convinced long before Alvaro was,'' Sally Afable said. ``The players at Tech were so kind to Alvaro and so honestly interested in him. The coaches at both schools were great, but the players made all the difference.''
by CNB