A disappointing freshman soccer season convinced Sunnyside's Andrew Garcia he needed to try something new and find a way to become more mentally tough.
His speed stood out on the field and he felt strong enough to play a full soccer match even though coaches wouldn't give him the opportunity, so cross country seemed like a good fit. Garcia joined the team as a sophomore after his mom refused to let him change his mind -- Garcia said she bought him shoes when he tried that excuse a day before the season began -- and three years later, he's the CBBN district champion with big goals heading into next Saturday's 4A state championships in Pasco.
"First day of practice, I still remember, it was hill repeats," Garcia said after winning Thursday's 3-mile race at Franklin Park by 12 seconds to cap off an unbeaten league season. "I hated it, hated cross country for at least a month 'til I started realizing that I have so much in me and quickly overtook everybody on my team."
He went from the seventh and final varsity runner to the team's top finisher over the course of a month, earning four straight top ten finishes to end the regular season. A 16:29 three-mile secured fifth place at the district championship and made him Sunnyside's first sophomore since the 1970s to qualify as an individual for the state meet, where he lowered his 5K personal-best by almost 20 seconds.
The next day, Garcia recalled going to the track and agreeing when a coach suggested his soccer career had ended. There would be no looking back.
Leading the way
Garcia's junior year began with his first career win at the Sun Burn Invitational and he picked up a second in the Moses Lake Invitational at the Gorge.
His times kept dropping and he finally broke 16 minutes in the 5K at the district championships, earning fourth place. That preceded an 11th-place finish at state, where Garcia ran 46 seconds faster than the year before.
White said Garcia not only raised the team's standards, he encouraged others to follow him. Workouts last summer regularly drew around 20 people, compared to numbers typically closer to five in previous years.
"He's such a positive guy, he just brings everybody with him," White said after the Grizzlies took third at the district championships. "A big part of why even as a down year we were able to do so well today is because of him, his senior leadership, his ability to get people to believe they can do more, be more."
Garcia also praised his coach for pushing him on summer runs of eight miles, where they climbed up ridges and always ran each mile faster than the last until they were flying downhill at around a six-minute pace. He averaged around 50-60 miles per week during the summer, mostly with White or teammates, forgoing any of the prestigious, usually expensive camps many runners attend to train among their peers.
At the starting line of every race, Garcia leads a team prayer and reminds everyone to race with intention and ignore the part of their mind telling them to stop or give up. Just before he left everyone else behind at Franklin Park on Thursday, Garcia could be heard telling his teammates there was no reason for this race to feel any different than all the ones that had come before.
"Our guys' they've got times where they're down on the ground and they don't believe in themselves," Garcia said. "I make sure we get up, we're stronger than that and we just power through everything."
Patience, persistence pays off
Heartburn's occasionally caused discomfort for Garcia, as it does for many runners, to the point where White said they've tried some different things, including baking soda, to lower Garcia's pH levels.
It flared up again at the district meet and Garcia felt as though his chest was on fire, but it didn't slow him down. Even with no serious competition at league races this season, Garcia focused on proving himself and staying mentally disciplined both in races and in the classroom, where he's a straight 'A' student.
Big races featuring elite competition earlier this season tested Garcia's mindset, forcing him to keep going despite tired legs. He ran a personal-best 15:43.3 at the Nike Portland XC Danner Championships, just two days after gapping the field at the first league meet.
"I learn how to stay strong, how to just hold on," said Garcia, who finished 39th out of 177 in a field featuring 30 runners at 15:30 or better and six sub-15 finishers. "In cross, whatever effort you put into it, you will get out of it over time. You've got to be patient."
White's training plan for Garcia also reflects patience, slowly decreasing his overall mileage while increasing intensity throughout the season. Slower times in September don't concern either one of them, so long as he's in peak condition when the gun goes off at the Sun Willows Golf Course.
That approach paid off yet again at the state track and field meet last June, when Garcia ran a personal-best 9:16 3,200-meters to capture sixth place in 4A. Shortly after that race he spoke with White about a goal of finishing in the top five at the state cross country championships and three days later, the work required to achieve that goal began.
"The great thing about Andrew is he is never satisfied at being where he is," White said. "He always wants to improve."
Garcia's ambitions go beyond the state meet and he wants to keep running in college, ideally at Gonzaga. He's spoken often with longtime Bulldogs' coach Pat Tyson and hopes to earn a scholarship, but Garcia knows just like everything that got him to this point, achieving that dream won't be easy.