Cathedral Prep will be without one of its top returning basketball players this winter as senior Michael Lucarotti has transferred to Andrews Osborne in Cleveland.
Lucarotti, a 6-foot 4-inch guard, has been a big part of the Prep basketball program over the past few years and has verbally committed to Youngstown State. He was Prep’s third-leading scorer as a freshman with 6.6 points per game and led the team with 14.5 ppg as a sophomore.
Lucarotti averaged 15.1 points per game as a junior and had 840 career points after three seasons with the Ramblers. He had a chance to join a strong list of 1,000-point scorers in Prep history, which includes RaSean Thrower, Sheldon Zablotny and Matt Harris in the past decade.
Lucarotti is a two-time all-region selection, an all-district selection and was named to the all-state team this past winter for the Ramblers.
Andrews Osborne, which is also known as the International Sports Academy, has several teams in its basketball program. There is a high school team, a national team that plays in big tournaments on ESPN and a post-graduate team for athletes who need another year to become eligible for college or need another year of recruiting.
Mercyhurst Prep graduate Matt Bengel will play on the post-graduate team this year because he wanted another year of recruiting, which was affected by COVID-19.
Andrews Osborne sent its high school team to the McDowell tip off tournament and the Burger King Classic this past season. It also plays Erie High now and then in non-region games.