It was just two weeks into the track season four years ago when Tessie Garcia opened everybody’s eyes.
“It was then that I knew we had a special runner,” Weslaco East track coach Joshua Davis said. “In her first cross country meet of her freshman year she was the school’s top runner. She was an immediate impact from the moment she began competing.”
Garcia, considered by Davis to be “the best distance runner in Weslaco East history,” ended her four-year career with school and area records, enough medals and victories to fill a large wall, and as one of the top 10 3,200-meter runners in the state.
In that track meet at Harlingen High, Garcia broke the school’s 800- and 1,600-meter records.
Garcia also remembered that track meet, just a couple weeks into what was the beginning of her competitive track and field career.
“She smashed those records and won those events in Harlingen,” Davis recalled.
Garcia, however, remembers it for another reason.
“Coach was shocked,” she said. “He came up to me and told me, ‘With more work, you can accomplish bigger things.’ So I trusted him and the process and it brought me good things. He did so much to help me become the athlete I became today.”
Garcia earned four straight MVP awards in cross country for Weslaco East. She was a two-time MVP in track and was the school’s athlete of the year twice.
Her dedication to the sport, every aspect of it, and her drive, are two areas that aided her in becoming a top distance runner, even overcoming injuries.
“Coach said, ‘Sacrifice,’ meaning to be committed, no days off and no excuses. I did everything he told me to do.”
Garcia would wake up at 5 a.m. to get her five-mile run in. Even on days when running at school took placee a little later, she said she still enjoyed waking up at 5, before most high school students know a new morning has arrived.
“Others would ask me why I would run so early and run five miles so early,” she said. “It’s just the passion I have for something. I always wanted to get up to be more mentally prepared too, especially for a meet.
“After a meet, especially if we ran after (a Saturday morning meet), I would be exhausted. So we would meet at the park to run the next morning, but it was more like 7 or 8 a.m. ‘Let’s sleep in for one more hour.’”
Today, things are a little different. Now that her high school days are over and it’s summer time, she admits she enjoys sleeping in a little, while she can. Of course, she’s also staying up later, saying that during quarantine her sleeping schedule has been “horrible.”
Mike Burget, Weslaco East’s head football coach and athletic coordinator, identified Garcia early as a star athlete. And by the time she graduated, he knew the school had benefited from her time there.
“An amazing student-athlete and a wonderful person,” Burget said about Garcia. “We were fortunate to have her here at Weslaco East. You don’t get too many (people) who are that special come through your program. She was definitely one of them.”
From a competitive standpoint, even opposing coaches knew there was something special early on about the young Garcia.
“Tessie is such a hard-working competitor,” said Edinburg Economedes cross country and track coach Brenda Lozano, who competed in the same district with Weslaco East and was facing Garcia on a regular basis. “Each year she made such great lengths in her running career. I can speak from the sideline that she was one to watch.”
She continued running with the best there was to offer. As a sophomore she qualified for the regional championships in all three long-distance events, the 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.
“Her junior year ended up being one of the lowest points of her career,” Davis said. “It ended with her developing a stress reaction in her foot before the 2019 district meet. With that injury, her season was done. It upset her and left her disappointed.
“It would turn out to be the fuel she needed to step up and not just be one of the better runners, but to become the best runner in the RGV.”
Garcia, frustrated over the injury, did something she hadn’t done in her high school career: she took a month off.
“That was not fun for me. It was horrible,” she said. “I wanted to run so badly. It made me come back stronger my senior year.”
Gaining motivation from something her coach would say — “Our sport is your sport’s punishment” — Garcia began to train again. Admittedly, she over-trained, but with a purpose.
“I wanted to be stronger. I had to push,” she said. “Sure, I’d be dying when we were done but I wanted to make things easier for race day.”
Garcia won three of her first four cross country meets for the Wildcats en route to second place in district, 10th in region and 51st in the state, becoming the first girl from Weslaco East to qualify for the cross country state meet.
During the following track season, Garcia was stronger, faster and more impressive. She broke all three of her school records in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200. She claimed double gold at the Border Olympics in the 3,200 and 1,600, setting the top Valley times in both events and remained unbeaten until COVID-19 put a halt to runners, jumpers and throwers alike.
“It was a year when she was the best in the Valley, she was on track to compete for a medal at regionals and a possible trip to the state meet,” Davis said. “We will never know just how fast she would have gotten. She was improving each week. She was unstoppable.”
Garcia is now enjoying her summer at home. She spends time with friends, as allowed by today’s current virus situation, and, like many teens, on her phone. She looks back, thankful for her coach and her family and all they did to help her obtain the accomplishments over her career. She plans to study sports medicine and become a physical therapist, wanting to help other athletes overcome injuries and succeed.
Whether or not she runs competitively remains to be seen. If the right door opens up, however, one might see her running through it — maybe as early as 5 a.m.