Apopka, FL
Central Florida Preparatory School will play the first home basketball game in its history on Tuesday, November 3, when the Mariners host Apopka Christian Academy at 5:15 p.m. inside the Robert A. Flanders Athletic & Performing Arts Center on the school's Marden Road campus.
The game opens CFP's first high school basketball season. The school was founded in 1990 and spent its first 36 years without a gymnasium, so every game its teams played was somewhere else. That changed on August 28, when the school dedicated the 24,000 square foot center named for co-founder Robert A. Flanders. Its 11,000 square foot competition gym has stadium seating and new scoreboards, and Tuesday night is the first time a CFP basketball team will tip off on its own floor.
Home opener
- Date
- Tuesday, November 3, 2026
- Doors
- 4:45 p.m.
- Tip-off
- 5:15 p.m.
- Opponent
- Apopka Christian Academy
- Where
- Robert A. Flanders Athletic & Performing Arts Center, 1800 Marden Road, Apopka, FL 32703
- Concessions
- The Compass Café will be open
Head coach Mark Washington leads the program with assistant coaches Quantary Roberson and Dannie Moore. Athletic director Steve Mazzilli oversees CFP athletics. The inaugural roster carries ten players, and the first-year schedule is being built gradually, with home games against Glad Tidings Academy on November 12 at 5 p.m. and Cristo Rey High School on December 1 at 5:30 p.m., and more games being added.
"For most of these kids, every game they've ever played has been a road game. Walking out of our own locker room into our own gym on Tuesday is going to mean something, and I think the building is going to be loud."
Mark Washington, Head Basketball CoachThe basketball debut follows a fall in which CFP's six volleyball teams won four league championships across three leagues, three of them with undefeated records. The junior varsity team won the UACL title after finishing third in the regular season, and the grades 7 and 8 Maroon team won the UACL middle school title as the top seed.
"My parents talked about a gym on this campus for 25 years. Watching our students play the first home game in school history, in a building that carries my father's name, is a night our whole community has been waiting for."
Julia Najera, Head of SchoolFamilies, alumni and neighbors are invited. Doors open at 4:45 p.m., and the Compass Café concession stand will be open through the game.
Nothing a student does at Central Florida Prep is considered extracurricular, and the new center was built so that athletics, performing arts and culinary arts could happen on campus rather than away from it. Information on CFP athletics is at cfprep.org/athletics, and details on the center are at cfprep.org/athletics/center. The Apopka Chief previewed the season: Central Florida Prep launches inaugural basketball season (October 29, 2026).
About Central Florida Prep
Central Florida Preparatory School is an independent, nonprofit PreK-12 school in Apopka, Florida, founded in 1990. Known for small class sizes, hands-on STEM labs, farm-to-table culinary arts and experiential learning, CFP prepares students for college, career and life. Learn more at cfprep.org.