Tech K Garcia takes unlikely path to West Texas, brings level head to 2023
Twice during the 2022 Texas Tech football season, Gino Garcia sat on the sidelines as he watched fellow kicker Trey Wolff boot in game-winning field goals against Texas and Oklahoma. Two weeks before the Texas game- against Houston- Garcia watched the veteran Wolff send the game into overtime with a 47 yard bomb.
It was also the game against the Cougars that Garcia would last see the turf for field goal duties, as his miss from 46 yards and Wolff’s stellar performance cemented the now-Tennessee Titan as the starter going forward. Even after losing the job, Garcia remained helpful and attentive in practice.
“I was kind of starting to fall off, I just wasn’t kicking as great as (Trey) was,” Garcia said following the Red Raiders’ practice Wednesday. “It was kind of a thing that I just couldn’t feed negative energy to him and I would just have to help them out because I wanted what was best for the team. And I still came here everyday, practiced, worked my butt off. It was me just supporting him with whatever he went through… We just helped each other out a ton.”
A Richardson native, Garcia made his collegiate debut for Houston Baptist (now Christian) in 2019. Garcia was named to the All-Southland Conference first team in 2021, following a blistering 9-10 tally on field goals including his career long of 59 yards. With such a successful year under his belt, Garcia decided it was time to move on to greener pastures.
When Garcia committed to play for the Red Raiders, the territory was not completely foreign to him. During the COVID-riddled 2020 season, HBU made the journey to Lubbock to take on Tech, an eventually 35-33 win for the Red Raiders. In that contest however, Garcia played about as well as he could have, going 2-2 on field goals with one from 44 yards, while also nailing all three extra point attempts. Garcia, now playing in Jones AT&T Stadium which has 12 times the capacity as his previous stadium, looks back on his trip to Tech fondly.
“It was fun,” Garcia said. “It was a very fun experience because at Houston Baptist, where I was previously, there wasn’t many games that we were playing in front of a lot of people. I know there wasn’t many people then, but just a stadium like Texas Tech’s, it was so nice and it was a very nice experience.”
Garcia playing football in Lubbock, playing football at all even, was not something he expected. Garcia played soccer growing up and by his account, was pretty good at it, too. Playing both football and soccer as a senior in high school, Garcia was named second team All-State by the AP Sports Editors on the gridiron and the District 8-6A MVP on the pitch. With a lengthy 6’2 frame, Garcia played goalkeeper at Pearce High and very well could have taken his talents to the next level in soccer.
“I played soccer my whole life, I was actually going to play college soccer,” Garcia said. “I was really good at it. And then my senior year came around and my coach was like ‘Hey, what do you think about playing college football?’ and I told him ‘Sure.’... I got recruited to play soccer my junior year by SMU. That was my dream school growing up, throughout high school, I played there a couple times. My brother played college soccer at West Texas A&M. He was a senior whenever I was a senior in high school and I was thinking about also going and playing over there.”
Now in the midst of another battle for the starting job with UAB transfer Reese Burkhardt, Garcia is remaining laser focused. He still talks to Trey Wolff- multiple times a week- in fact. Learning from Wolff as well as former Tech kicker Jonathan Garibay, who Garcia trained with over the summer, has Garcia reinvigorated for 2023. The mentality to prove himself is driving Garcia heading into the season.
“I just fall back on my faith a bunch,” Garcia said. “I fall back on my faith, on God’s plan. My family supports me with advice. My mom, my dad, my sister, my brother and my girlfriend, they’ve always supported me. I don’t want to prove anyone wrong, I just want to prove them right. And for one, prove myself right.”
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