BY JON R. LaFOLLETTE | STAFF WRITER
For Roberto Garza, it was the biggest business trip of his life, one that could possibly end with him crowning an unlikely NFL career.
“It’s something I never thought I’d have the opportunity to do,” Garza said. “It’s something a lot of people only dream about.”
It was Feb. 4, 2006 in Miami, site of Super Bowl XLI. Garza, a center for the Chicago Bears, faced the Indianapolis Colts. Though Super Bowl glory was not to be for Garza (the Colts won 29-17), the Rio Hondo native is still the most successful Valley athlete to play in the NFL. With a 14-year career and 206 games under his belt, no one has played longer and with such consistency.
Despite competing on the grandest stage in American sports, Garza’s football origins are humble. At 6-foot-1, Garza was an undersized lineman from a Class 3A school with a graduating class of 98 students. Colleges never recruited him, and Garza assumed his days on the gridiron were limited to his time at Rio Hondo High School, where he graduated in 1997. He didn’t take the inattention personally, it was just the way things were.
“I can’t remember if there were any kids that were going to the (NCAA) D-I level at the time,” Garza said. “At the time, I don’t think the Valley was that heavily recruited.”
Invisible to scouts, Garza was offered a spot as a walk-on at Texas A&M Kingsville, a D-II school, where a Rio Hondo alum worked as an equipment manager and knew of Garza’s abilities.
“That was the extent of my recruiting,” Garza said. “Nobody really showed any interest in me, so I took the first available offer I got.”
Since then, college recruiting has become mainstream thanks to the Internet. By employing websites such as Rivals.com or Scout.com, athletes can showcase their skills to more eyes than ever. Social media allows fans to debate the newest crop of prospects, and National Signing Day events are televised by ESPN.
But less than a decade a go, Valley athletes had to promote themselves the old fashioned way: hard work, late nights, networking, attending various camps and a little luck.
Bradley Stephens remembers doing just that.
‘IT’S NICE, BUT…’
Stephens is among the Valley’s most accomplished high school talents. As a running back for the McAllen Memorial Mustangs from 2003-2006, he gained 7,803 yards on the ground — the most in Valley history.
Despite those numbers, Stephens’ recruitment occurred on the brink of the online recruiting revolution. Without websites to market his feats, Stephens relied in part on his father to help him achieve notoriety. The elder Stephens assembled a DVD of highlight packages and shipped them to colleges nationwide.
“It was goofy,” Stephens said. “It had my picture on the front. He made real covers and everything. We always gave him a hard time for that, but I always thank him for it. He was a busy guy with his work, so I’d see him up and cutting film at three in the morning.”
Schools soon took notice of Stephens. Iowa State was the first to offer a scholarship. Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oklahoma made their interests known, too. Each school attempted wooing Stephens by advertising a mix of academic prestige and their football facilities. Though Stephens was flattered by the attention, it wasn’t without drawbacks.
“I remember times when I just wanted to go to a basketball game with my friends and I would have to step out of the gym every five minutes because a coach was calling me,” Stephens said. “It’s nice, but you also want an evening where you can feel like a sophomore in high school.”
Where Stephens and his family compiled film, Garza’s inability to attract recruiters wasn’t for a lack of trying, but a lack of education.
“I had no idea what to do and how to do it at the time,” Garza said regarding the recruiting process. “Nobody really showed me or explained to me what the steps were… (Rio Hondo coaches) didn’t really concern themselves with getting kids into college for sports at the time. For them, it was about the results on Friday night, and that was the extent of their jobs.”
DOING IT ALL
While Garza’s high school coaching staff thought little of collegiate recruiting, former Mission High receiver Jamaar Taylor didn’t think he could play college ball until then-coach Sonny Detmer said otherwise.
“Both of his sons went on to the next level,” Taylor said. “Koy went to Colorado, Ty went to BYU and won the Heisman (Trophy). So when he sat there and told me I could play at the next level, there was no doubt in my mind. I fully trusted him.”
Taylor, who played for the Eagles from 1996 to 1999 and was an All-State selection his senior year, says Detmer used his college football connections to gain Taylor more exposure. But the former Mission standout didn’t let his coach do all the work. Taylor attended various camps outside of the Valley, a move he says was necessary.
“Going outside the Valley was the best thing I could have done for myself,” Taylor said. “It put me in front of a lot of recruiters and I got to play with better players. That’s what scouts want to see. They want to see you playing against the best.”
The camps, which he began frequenting as a sophomore, were beneficial but expensive, and Taylor’s family couldn’t always afford the fees. In order for Taylor to further his football aspirations, his mom and dad would ask for funds through businesses around town.
“You get $50 here or sometimes $100 there, and soon it all adds up,” he said.
The camps Taylor attended were often focused on specializing specific skills as opposed to broad fundamentals. Taylor says college scouts prefer the former, as those are the camps where advanced talent is often found.
Though Taylor would go on to play for Texas A&M, he initially signed with Notre Dame, where he was a redshirt freshman before transferring. Taylor was recruited by Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, then a receivers coach for the Fighting Irish.
“He came and visited me in the Valley. It was a pretty big deal because coaches never came down here,” Taylor said. “He’s a master recruiter. The way he approaches young men, he knows what to say and he knows how to keep you dreaming.”
But those dreams came with a dose of reality. While Meyer and other coaches would sell Taylor on the bright lights of big time college football, they also never made promises they couldn’t keep.
“They were always honest with me about what I had to do,” Taylor said. “They told me about how hard I was going to have to work and what was going to be expected of me.”
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