By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
Sylvia Torres was competitive, and she didn’t like to lose.
She approached her life with the same spirit as she did as a cross country and track & field coach at Port Isabel high school.
When she was stricken with breast cancer (and later brain cancer) eight years ago, Torres embraced the battle with the same mentality that she always did.
She was going to be successful, no matter the circumstances.
“Sylvia had a phenomenal attitude about the battle she fought,” said Dr. Lisa Garcia, Port Isabel Independent School District superintendent. “She fought it to the end, and I think she truly thought she would beat it. She took the same approach to fighting cancer as she would facing a track meet, that same determination that we’re going to win no matter what.”
After 27 years in the P.I. school district as a teacher and coach, Torres died from the disease earlier this month. But true to form, she fought until the very end.
Torres loved to coach and, most of all, her student-athletes. They were a driving force for her, something that kept her going. And she pushed them to reach their potential.
“She had a great love, a great passion of coaching and for her kids and what she did. She was very good at it,” said Monty Stumbaugh, the Port Isabel athletic coordinator and football coach. “She was laid back, loved to win, always dedicated to make those kids the best they could be. She did a great job with our kids.
“Coach Torres was a fighter, she fought hard. But as terrible as it is to say, it finally won.”
Torres was also an educator. She taught Spanish and had the same enthusiasm for teaching as she did as a coach and, for the same reasons, her kids.
“She was a dynamic, energetic teacher who really cared about every single student,” Dr. Garcia said.
Torres showed her dedication to her profession even in the midst of some of her toughest times. She would go for chemotherapy treatments and come back to school as soon as she able because her students needed her.
Even after dealing with the effects of the treatments and the side effects that came with it, Torres was back at school as if nothing was wrong. It was just her character.
“She was back at school with a smile on her face,” Dr. Garcia said. “I never once heard her complain. You never saw her feeling sorry for herself or focusing on herself, it was always about what I can do, I can’t miss school, I can’t miss my kids, my class needs me.”
Torres also was a mother to three daughters, Ariel, Lauren and Taylor, and a son, Aiden. Along with her husband Juan, her family was the most important aspect of her life. That came before everything, even her illness.
“Her family came first, her health was secondary,” Stumbaugh said.
Torres always made sure that they had everything they needed, even at times when she was fighting her hardest to battle the cancer.
“Even when she felt ill, she put everyone before her,” Port Isabel athletic secretary Laura Orive said.
But occasionally, her duties as a mother and coach overlapped. Her son was born very close to the same time as a regional meet for cross-country. Torres took off a few weeks and then got a release from her doctor. She wanted to be in San Antonio, where the meet was going to be held, and proceeded to drive herself.
“Nothing was going to be an obstacle for her,” Orive said. “If I had just a few words to describe her, Sylvia Torres is the real deal.”
Torres never stop fighting as her cancer gradually took over. And she did so silently.
“She never let on about anything and kept fighting through it,” Stumbaugh said.
Because Torres didn’t want to change the way she lived.
“She didn’t really want anyone to know she was sick, she didn’t want any sympathy or anyone’s pity,” Dr. Garcia said. “She wanted to keep living her life to the very last minute she was able to.
Orive learned a lesson from Torres that will stick with her for life.
“She took the bull by the horns,” Orive said. “She said, ‘God’s not going to give me what I can’t handle.’ That’s what I really admire from her: Go and get it, this isn’t going to take me down. It was that type of mentality and attitude she had that helped her. Her life, her way on her account, that’s the way she wanted it and that’s what she was going to do.”
Torres touched the lives of many students, faculty and administration over the years.
“She was an amazing lady, we’re all going to miss her, we already miss her,” Port Isabel principal William Roach said on a voicemail. “She was an outstanding lady, outstanding mother, outstanding teacher and we’re all going to miss her.”
Her life passes, but she leaves behind a few lessons for the rest of us to ponder.
“What she taught all of us is to have a positive attitude,” Dr. Garcia said. “Regardless of the struggles we each face in life, we can still show up every day and give it your best and have a smile on your face. I think that’s her lasting lesson to all of us, is the way she dealt with that adversity.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @andrewmcrum.