Chris Gaston, Mike Rosario and Jio Fontan play for three different colleges in three different conferences but are linked together by the same Puerto Rican national team that hopes to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Gaston, Rosario and Fontan all share the same St. Anthony’s pedigree that is considered basketball gold in the metropolitan area and have all gone on to play for Division I schools. Gaston and Fontan went on to play for Fordham University, with the latter transferring to USC early in his sophomore season, and Rosario, an All-American in high school landed at Florida after transferring from Rutgers.
Rosario and Gaston will share a court once again when both try out for the Puerto Rican National team on May 16, with Fontan pushing his former teammates to seize the opportunity.
“Jio is basically the main guy who orchestrated it,” Gaston said. “He called me and told me that he was talking to guys over [in Puerto Rico] and he was the one who put me onto it. He’s the one who has been handling everything for me.”
Fontan, who played with Rosario on the under-19 team three years ago, will not be playing for the Puerto Rican team as he rehabs following surgery to repair a torn ACL he suffered last August.
“I speak with Jio every day,” Gaston said. “He’s hurt right now, so he’s not going to play, but he is going to go over there to hang out with us.”
The Post learned that Gaston and Rosario would be trying out for the Puerto Rican National team last week, and the Fordham star thinks they both have a shot at making the team.
“I think we mesh well, I know what [Rosario] can do,” Gaston said. “We might have a chance of making the team, we just have to perform in the workouts. I think we’re capable of making the team, anything is possible.”
Even if he fails to make the team, just being considered for the team is something Gaston believes is an honor.
“To say that you are part of a national team it’s crazy. I don’t even care if I don’t play, just to be on the team [is an honor],” Gaston said. “I’d make everyone proud and happy, my family and my university. It would be a tremendous, tremendous thing.”
The tryouts take place on May 16, and Puerto Rico will take part in a qualifying tournament in early July.