We are father (Erio) and son (Eric) who race our pigeons from separate lofts at our homes in the Tampa, Florida area. The breeding lofts, including 15 individual breeding sections, are on 3 acres in Lutz, a suburb of Tampa. We call ourselves Team Alvarez because we do everything together with the pigeons. Additionally, I have been president of the Greater Tampa Bay Racing Pigeon Concourse, and I have generally been a club officer. In 2013, The American Racing Union recognized me as a "Legend of the Sport ". Eric is the president of our club at the time of our greatest growth in membership.

Born in Tampa, I started racing pigeons in 1957 with the All Tampa Racing Pigeon Club (THP). My father raced the pigeons while I was in the army from 1966-1968. Eric grew up racing the birds and has never stopped. We are Team Alvarez!

Over the years our lofts have won from 100 to 600 mile races, special young and old bird races, average speed, champion bird, champion loft, AU President's Cup, etc. Between 2011 and 2014 OB's we have bred 78 AU Qualified Ace Pigeons. Our pigeons continue winning for us as well as for other fanciers in Florida and around the country. We have visited top fanciers in Belgium and the Netherlands, we research race results, top racers, and breeders, and we study and refine our methods.

For us to breed from a bird it must feel right to us in the hand, have a performance pedigree up close, and ultimately produce performance pigeons. When we select imports, they come from lofts that are winning today; they must be winners or from top racers, and from birds with generations of winners in the pedigree. We select for pigeons that have the potential to excel. Then we test our results for performance.