May 16, 2002

Notre Dame, Ind. – University of Notre Dame men’s basketball coach Mike Brey has announced that Omari Peterkin (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands), a 6-8, 255-pound forward/center, has signed a national letter of intent to play basketball for Notre Dame beginning in the fall of 2002. Peterkin becomes the fourth high school senior to sign with the Irish program.

He will join forwards Rick Cornett (Country Club Hills, Ill.) and Torin Francis (Roslindale, Mass.) and guard Chris Quinn (Dublin, Ohio) as members of Notre Dame’s class of 2006. Cornett, Francis and Quinn signed their national letters of intent during the early signing period in November of 2001.

A two-time first team all-district honoree, Peterkin averaged 25.0 points and 15.0 rebounds at the Antilles School in St. Thomas during his senior year. A unanimous first-team All-Island honors, he earned All-Island MVP honors following his junior and senior seasons and was selected the District MVP in ’02. Peterkin was named Most Valuable Player at the Good Hope Holiday Invitational Basketball Tournament in December after registering a 26-point performance in the championship game and leading Antilles to the tournament crown, the first-ever tournament title in school history.

He has been a member of the Virgin Islands Junior National Team for two years.

“This is a great story because Omari really emerged as an option for us about a month ago,” Brey says. “There’s always so much talk about recruiting being such an exact science, but this is certainly not the case with Omari. He is a great investment for our program. We’re going to be patient with his development.

“Omari has great natural ability and has good hands and footwork for a player his size. He’s an ideal fit for this place (Notre Dame) because he is a good student. Omari fell in love with Notre Dame on the weekend he visited the campus with his parents and is anxious for the start of the upcoming school year.”