NATHANIEL MATA | THE MONITOR
RIO GRANDE CITY — Rio Grande City cross country coach Joe Ramirez was in his second year tasked with reviving the sport on campus when a student in his physical education class caught his eye.
The student ran a quick mile wearing jeans, and Ramirez didn’t even need his stopwatch to know there was potential in Brandon Gracia as a distance runner.
Every time Ramirez would see the freshman walking to class, he would tell him to come out to practice to try out. Gracia only gave him a sheepish smile.
The freshman who “was never into sports” has come a long way. His passion has developed, and he’s even quicker in shorts on Saturday mornings.
“I just like running. I fell in love with running,” Gracia, now a senior, admitted Friday on the last school day before the District 31-5A meet. “I like how it feels when I go fast.”
Since joining cross country as a sophomore, he has taken a natural talent he had before competitive running and combined it with what he learned under the guidance of coaching.
“It got easier,” Gracia said. “I was able to run longer and faster. It wasn’t that hard. If I were to try to do that before I joined, I would have been dying.”
In 2015, his first season as a competitive athlete, he placed fifth at the District 31-5A meet, then ninth at the regional meet, which was good for a state appearance as just a sophomore.
“It was unexpected. It felt amazing,” Gracia said. “It all just happened. I wasn’t expecting to be very good.”
He transcended the realm of good to become elite as his career progressed.
His top time as a 10th-grader was 16:22.0 at the district meet. Since running that time, he’s only been slower than 16:22.0 once and is more frequently under 15 minutes in a 5,000-meter race.
At the RGV’s biggest meet, the Meet of Champions at Sharyland Pioneer High School, Gracia finished second. His 15:47.7 was a season best for the senior, and he hopes it foreshadows the coming weeks. The RGC boys team took the team title in the elite division, as well.
Gracia said running against top 5A and 6A competition helped set the pace for district. Facing probable champions from 30-6A and 31-6A also provided a strong test, according to Gracia, so that no one’s speed is a surprise at district.
Ramirez said that saving the best times for last is easier said than done, but he is hoping this is Gracia’s season to set personal records in November rather than September.
“He might say he runs all the races the same,” Ramirez said. “He’s still rounding into that runner that we think he can become. He takes every approach like it’s the same. I’m trying to instill in him these championship races aren’t the same anymore.”
Gracia is hoping to do something he hasn’t done in his first two seasons — win a regional championship and place at state. The goals are lofty but within range, if his best times can make a reappearance late in the season.
For a student turned student-athlete who initially didn’t even have interest in sports, the journey is about to pay off in a big way. His running prowess has caught the attention of college programs at the Division I level, and he’ll likely be running at a university next year.
While he isn’t ready to focus on those decisions until the cross country season ends, he already feels the relief.
“It feels good, because before running, it probably would have been hard to afford college,” Gracia said. “But now, thanks to running and athletic scholarships, that helps a lot. It’s a whole lot of weight off your shoulders.”
And for the coach tasked with bringing RGC running out of the dark ages, the turnaround is almost complete.
The success of Gracia as a Rio Grande City Rattler has made Ramirez’s job easier from a recruiting standpoint. He doesn’t have to hope a PE student falls into his lap as a standout. Now incoming freshmen come to him trying to “be like the really good kid from Rio,” he said.