By ROY HESS, Staff Writer
It was an alumni day of sorts for Juan de Dios Garcia on Thursday at the 35th annual Brownsville ISD boys soccer tournament. Garcia coached the Hanna boys soccer team for 30 years prior to stepping down following the 2012 season.
This school year Garcia has returned to coaching boys soccer at St. Joseph Academy and Thursday marked the first time he has ever gone against his former team as an opposing coach. It happened during the opening round of the three-day, 32-team BISD Tournament at Brownsville Sports Park.
In a bit of a surprise, SJA prevailed over the Golden Eagles 2-1 on penalty kicks. Alumni day continued for Garcia later in the afternoon as SJA went against Laredo United South and fell short 5-0.
Hanna is coached by Reyes Prado and United South is coached by Willy Santos. Both of them played for Garcia when he was coaching at Hanna.
The veteran soccer coach said a win against Hanna didn’t mean anything special to him. Garcia said it was far more important for his Bloodhounds to gain exposure and experience by playing against strong soccer programs such as Hanna and United South.
“There’s nothing for me to brag about,” Garcia said. “Our boys (at SJA) need to grow, and playing against these types of (strong) teams helps us. It’s a learning experience for the St. Joe players, and that’s what is most important.
“I was not about to celebrate anything (after we defeated Hanna) because that’s the school where I coached and that’s my alma mater,” Garcia added, “I love the school, I love the teachers and the administration. I know that right now Hanna is trying to find its best 11 players. They’re in their preseason, basically. We’re a step ahead of them (because we’ve been practicing a month or so longer).”
It was a rough day for Brownsville boys teams Thursday. During the second round of the bracket-play tournament, Lopez lost to La Joya High 2-1 on penalty kicks, Porter lost to Laredo LBJ 4-1 after having two of its players red-carded in the first 20 minutes, Brownsville Veterans Memorial came up short against Harlingen South 2-1 on PKs and that was after Pace lost to McAllen High 2-0 in the opening round.
Rivera was the only Brownsville team to win two games Thursday. The Raiders opened the day with a 3-2 win against Grulla before edging Donna High 1-0 in the evening.
Rivera next goes against Harlingen South in the Bracket A championship semifinals at 11 a.m. today on the main artificial turf field.