By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
Even with 700 coaching victories decorating his résumé, Roy Garcia never expected an invitation into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor.
As a teenager, he picked cotton with his father and five older siblings in Los Fresnos, aspiring to someday find less grueling work indoors. So when a coaching opportunity later presented itself — after having graduated from East Texas State (now Texas A&M University-Commerce) — the 73-year-old coach jokes that he took it, in part, to avoid mosquitoes and the sweltering heat he encountered maintaining 20 acres of land.
“Working inside,” he said, “I didn’t have to worry about that.”
Throughout his career, Garcia has taken on an array of coaching assignments across various sports. He said he never wanted to wear out his welcome, yet he found comfort in Mission, where he worked 30 years. For 23 years, he was the boys basketball coach and athletic director — a rare marriage, even at that time.
After leaving there, he guided San Benito to its first playoff victory in 46 years. And for the past five years, he’s led PSJA Southwest boys basketball.
Today, Garcia will be enshrined into the THSCA Hall of Honor at a luncheon in Houston, along with former PSJA North football coach Bruce Bush, longtime Calallen football coach Phil Danaher, basketball coach Robert Hall and track coach Percy Hines, also a football assistant.
Garcia said news of his induction “surprised the life out of me.” When he accepted one of his first jobs, he remembers the superintendent telling him, “All you need is three things to be successful: be organized, budget and have good PR (public relations). You have those things and you’ll be all right.”
Garcia recently spoke to that superintendent, asking him to assess how well he heeded that advice throughout his career.
He said, “You did all right.”
The youngest of five brothers, Garcia was a standout athlete, earning the starting quarterback job at Los Fresnos. After graduating college, he returned to his alma mater in 1971 and joined as the head baseball coach and an assistant football coach.
Later, he took the job in Mission, which paved the way for his induction into the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
Garcia came out of retirement in 2003 to coach San Benito. He returned once again to his alma mater in Los Fresnos to record his 600th career victory.
On the heels of his enshrinement, Garcia credited his family — his father, in particular — for instilling in him one lasting philosophy.
“If you do something, don’t go through the motions,” he recalls. “Picking cotton in the cotton fields, I was always praying to God that one day he would help me get out and get a chance to be a head coach in whatever sport, and it happened.”
Like Garcia, Bush will also be inducted into the Hall of Honor today. His coaching career spanned 42 years before retiring in 2012.
At point or another, he’s coached or has given assistant jobs to David Duty (Hidalgo), Jaime Infante (Lyford), Tony Villarreal (Weslaco) and Jorge Peña (his successor at North), among others.
He coached for two years at PSJA High in the early 1980s before spending six years at Alice and six more at Gregory-Portland. In 1996, he returned to the Valley for two years to coach Donna. He left for San Marcos for seven years and closed out the last five years of his career at PSJA North.
“Certainly the Rio Grande Valley was an important part of my career, and I owe a lot to the PSJA school district,” said Bush, he compiled a 271-112-8 coaching record. “Coaching the (PSJA) Bears to two district champions, it was a really special time.
“At a time like this, you get a lot of calls and a lot texts and a lot of Facebook posts from your former players, and it’s great to see them successful. You hope that you had a real positive impact on their lives.”