Summit Winner
Alejandro Garcia gives the credit for the start of his running career to his friends, family, and high school teachers. His freshman year of high school, he was playing basketball and was leading the sprints during practice. When he didn’t attend the first track practice that year, his friends expressed that they wanted him to join the team. He had a long talk with his dad about joining the team, and when a teacher encouraged him to join it pushed him to start running. He had never even run one mile until his coach signed him up. Now, Garcia’s long runs are nearly 20 miles.
“I enjoy running because, well, it’s not so much that it’s easy; it’s actually one of the things I struggle with a lot,” Garcia said. “Sometimes I even question why I do it, but I always find the reason—it has given me so much. Before running, I used to be very shy, very timid. I didn’t really know how to make friends well and then running just opened up so many doors to be able to socialize with people and get to know people and it kind of just helped, also, give me that confidence to achieve greater things than I had before. It totally just changed my life around because before I never really put much effort into school and then I had to because I had to stay eligible to compete.”
Garcia was awarded the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Summit Award entering the 2016 Indoor RMAC Championships. The RMAC Summit Award is presented to the student-athlete, sophomore level or above, who has participated in his or her sport for at least two years, with the highest cumulative grade-point average, and he or she must be an active member on the team who is participating at the RMAC championships. Garcia is a senior at CSC from Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, majoring in K-12 physical health education with a 4.0 cumulative GPA.
“I’m just giving it my best and working as hard as I can, both academically and athletically,” Garcia said.
He said that he feels that others also deserve this award, but it is a huge honor to receive it for the team and for the school. He wants others to see that he received it so that they can believe in themselves and feel confident that they can do well with what they set their mind to.
He spent two years attending school and running at Gillette College, Gillette, Wyoming, before former Head Track and Field Coach Ryan Baily recruited him to run for CSC.
“There was something about Chadron; I really felt like I had more room to grow here. I’m really glad I made the choice,” Garcia said about his visit to CSC when he was deciding to further his education. “A great team, great coach, and a lot of opportunities to keep excelling.”
He said his favorite event is the mile, it’s not too long but it’s also not a sprint. Although his heart is in the mile, he has excelled in many other races and says that he thinks he is a 10,000-meter runner. Garcia broke the CSC 3,000-meter record this indoor season and helped break the CSC distance medley relay record, running the mile leg of the relay.
Garcia has an other-based mindset; he is selfless and leaves everything on the track, every race, for his team and his supporters. His family, girlfriend, fans in both Chadron and Pine Bluffs, and especially his teammates motivate him to continue competing and he likes to do his best for all of them. He said he can let himself down, but he feels responsible to do his best to help his teammates the best that he can and he can’t let them down.
“There are just so many people who have helped me throughout the whole way and I really feel like every time I run out there, I am running for them. It’s just a great feeling because they’re always behind me and it’s just good to feel that their help has taken me somewhere,” Garcia said.
Garcia said his biggest inspiration is his No. 1 fan: his dad. His dad inspires him to continue running; he gives his dad all of his medals and recognition after competing. His dad pushes him to do his best and do more than he thinks he is capable of. He said he is glad that he can run and make his dad proud. Garcia said he couldn’t have a better role model than his dad.
Garcia plans to stay at Chadron for one more year, then he has one semester of student teaching. He hopes to become a high school coach and physical education/health teacher because he wants others to realize that exercising can be fun and it is necessary for our futures. He wants to work toward his master’s degree so he can coach at the collegiate level. He said he will continue to stay fit and run fun-runs after college, maybe for a club, but he isn’t sure what his future holds.
“Thanks to all of my friends, teammates, girlfriend, teachers that have supported me and helped mold me into the person I am today,” Garcia said. “Each and every one of them has had some sort of an impact that has led to this award being awarded to me.”