By MARK MOLINA | The Brownsville Herald
Pace Vikings’ calling this season has been their stingy defense, which leads District 16-5A Division I holding opponents to just 210 yards per game.
The Vikings boast a veteran bunch overall, but you’ll find the unit’s spark in senior defensive end Javier Garcia, who head coach Danny Pardo said makes the defense go.
“He’s the heart and soul and the voice of that defense,” Pardo said of Garcia. “When he gets going, everybody else just kind of follows. He doesn’t have to know every position, but he knows how to rile them up. If he’s quiet, we have a problem, but when he gets going, we’re just having fun.”
Garcia, who is a third-year varsity player, credits his intensity and leadership to the Pace program.
“Coach Pardo showed me how to be a leader at first,” the senior defenseman said. “He taught me how to take leadership and just take care of each other every day. I just come out here and try to push everybody, every day so I can get them ready and get them focused.”
Garcia is having a big year at defensive end for the Vikings, but what makes the season he’s having more impressive is the fact that he switched over from outside linebacker for his final season.
It was quite a change for Garcia to make heading into his third and final season, but it’s a move he’s glad to make for the team.
“I started as an outside linebacker and from there we lost a lot of our defensive line, which were mostly seniors,” Garcia said. “Coach asked me if I could help them along the defensive line and I said I didn’t mind — whatever is best for the team. It’s been great; I had no troubles adapting.”
Pardo said Garcia was hesitant to make the move at first, but has since learned to love the freedom it has given him.
“At first (Garcia) was like ‘Why defensive end coach?’” Pardo said. “I told him look, you’re going to like it because there’s not a lot of rules you have. You’re going to be turned loose and run. Just find the ball and that’s it. It didn’t take but a week and a half for him to decide he liked it. We turned him loose.”
Garcia isn’t the only one adapting to a new position with at least seven other players not currently playing at their normal position.
It was an effort by Pardo and his staff to make the defense faster this season and the results show that it has improved the defense for a team that had its struggles down the stretch last season.
But it has been more than strategy, speed and position changes that have helped right the ship according to Garcia.
“We just started working together since the summer,” he said. “Everyday we all went to the gym, worked out and made a strong bond together. We focus together as one, we’re all just a family and that’s what makes us a strong unit. We take that and try our best out on the field to get positive results every day.”
Pace’s defense has its toughest challenges over the next two weeks as it battles Mission Veterans and Brownsville Veterans Memorial in back-to-back games.
It’s a daunting task, but Garcia said he and the defense are not looking at this as a two-game stretch, because all they want is what’s in front of them.
“We’re just taking it one game at a time,” the Garcia said. “We’re just focusing on Mission Veterans and hopefully it all turns out good.”
That’s a trait Pardo enjoys seeing in the defense.
“They kind of follow what we teach around here,” the Vikings coach said. “You won’t hear anything from these guys about next week. That’s not in their heads; this week is in their heads. I don’t have to say much. They already know what’s at stake; they know what they want to do. All the physical work is done, right now is play and polish the mental part of the game and that’s it.”
That preparedness and energy is what Garcia ultimately wants to be remembered for.
“I want to leave a legacy of hard work behind,” he said. “I just want to keep on working and grinding every day.”