By Roy Hess, Staff Writer
Juan de Dios Garcia has enjoyed a life devoted to soccer.
Most of his 61 years have revolved around the sport as a player and a coach, primarily in the Brownsville/ Matamoros area.
“I feel like a 20-year-old man with 41 years of experience (in soccer),” said Garcia, best known as the former Hanna boys coach who retired following the 2012 season after 30 years of guiding the Golden Eagles.
Garcia will be inducted into the Rio Grande Valley Sports Hall of Fame with eight others at the organization’s 28th annual banquet Saturday at the Port Isabel Events Center . Doors open at 4 p.m., dinner will be served at 5 p.m. and the program will start at 6 p.m.
The other eight inductees are Weslaco’s Tommy Barker (basketball), Edinburg’s Alfonso “Knot” Garcia (baseball), Harlingen’s Harold Hees (football), Mission’s Jaime Peña (basketball), Mission’s Aaron Ramirez (track), Harlingen’s Stacey Siebert Banks (basketball) and Mission’s Lupe Rodriguez and Nati Valdez (former football teammates).
When asked how it feels to be among those inducted this year, Juan de Dios said, “It is gratifying that my years of hard work in soccer continue to be recognized.”
Garcia was inducted into the Matamoros Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 and enshrined into the Texas Association of Soccer Coaches’ Hall of Honor in 2012.
Juan de Dios grew up in Matamoros playing soccer in the early 1960s. He was a third-division professional player in Mexico and member of a Tamaulipas state championship squad in the late 1970s before playing for the Broncs at then-Pan American University in Edinburg in the early 1980s. To this day, while serving as president of the Rio Grande Valley Soccer Coaches Organization, Garcia continues to play on upper-age adult teams, winning league titles and tournaments on both sides of the border.
Garcia’s influence in the sport throughout South Texas is undeniable.
“It is very satisfying (to be honored) in the sense that my founding goals for the growth of soccer in the entire Valley continue to be met as the years go by,” he said. “I can foresee excellent results for Valley high school soccer players in their athletic and academic futures.”
Garcia, who has always stressed the importance of getting a college education to his players, became Hanna’s first coach when UIL soccer started in Texas in 1983. During his 30 seasons as Hanna’s coach, the Eagles advanced to the playoffs 20 times and made it to the regional tournament in San Antonio on seven occasions. The 1990 season marked Garcia’s most successful at Hanna as the Eagles defeated previously unbeaten and nationally ranked San Antonio MacArthur 1-0 in the regional final at Blossom Athletic Center to become only the second soccer team from the Valley after Porter in 1984 to qualify for the state tournament.
At Austin Westlake, site of the state tournament that year, Hanna came out on the short end of a marathon state semifinal match that was won 4-3 by Tyler Lee as a result of a 22-player shootout after the score was deadlocked at 3 by the end of overtime.
In 2012, Garcia retired from Hanna with a 437-206-66 record of guiding the Eagles. Besides his time at Hanna and as RGVSCO president, starting in 2007, Garcia served as an assistant coach for the women’s soccer team at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College before becoming the UTB coach in 2013.
Garcia’s legacy has lived on through his former players who have followed him into coaching and who credit him for their success. There are between 15 to 20 of them in the Valley alone .
Most notable among his former players who are now coaches are three that have won state championships. They are Lopez’s Amadeo Escandon (Class 4A title in 2004), Sharyland High’s Reveriano Hernandez (Class 5A title in 2012) and Rivera’s Salvador Garcia (Class 6A title in 2015). Each of them played for Garcia in the 1980s. Also, Escandon’s Lopez team made it to the 5A state final in 2009 and Reyes Prado , who followed his former coach at Hanna, directed the Eagles to the 5A state final in 2013.
“Juan’s success as a soccer organizer, coach and mentor is evident, not only by his personal (coaching) record, but also by his former players whose lives he has influenced tremendously,” said Escandon , a 1987 Hanna graduate. “I believe that Juan’s induction into the RGV Sports Hall of Fame was long overdue, and it’s an honor that is very well-deserved.”
Added Hernandez, a 1986 Hanna graduate, “It’s a great honor to know Juan and especially to consider him a friend. After all these years, and after his retirement (from Hanna), he’s still involved with soccer in the RGV. His love for the sport and his love for helping people is what I admire most about him. ‘ Futbol ’ (soccer) and Juan go hand in hand in the Valley. Thank you Juan for everything you’ve done.”
For ticket information regarding Saturday’s banquet, call (956) 227-6563 or (956) 495-4687.
Roy Hess covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him via email at [email protected]. On Twitter he’s @ HessRgehess.