KEEPING PACE
Southern Columbia graduated one of its most talented classes last year but didn’t miss a beat offensively this season.
The main reason for that is because of the production junior running back and Pa. Football Writers’ Class 2A Player of the Year Gavin Garcia gave the Tigers. He rushed for an area-best 1,914 yards and 30 touchdowns.
For his effort, Garcia is named the Press Enterprise’s high school football MVP.
Garcia had a pair of solid years for Southern his freshman and sophomore campaigns while sharing the field with five Division I recruits. He wasn’t content with such, adding muscle and working on improving his skillset over the offseason as he became the offense’s focal point.
“He was the key offensive player coming back this year with the success he had the last two years. We knew we were going to depend on him,” Southern coach Jim Roth said. “The most impressive thing isn’t so much his stats, but how hard he worked in the offseason, getting bigger and stronger.
“It showed this year with the runs he had an average per carry (17.5 yards). He was a more explosive back this year. Even though he had a couple of solid years, he didn’t take it for granted.”
Garcia credits the success, both on and off the field, to remain healthy for the calendar year.
“I was actually injured over the summer going into my sophomore year. This year, though, I was healthy,” Garcia said. “I was in the weight room as much as I could be over the summer.”
He also took advantage of the Tigers having competitions in general. With a great number of lingering questions surrounding fall sports, Garcia and the Tigers took each opportunity to leave everything on the field — amounting to another perfect season and state title, its 11th, for the program.
“Just not knowing if we were going to play the next week was motivation for every game,” Garcia said. “We used it as motivation to play as tough as we could without taking the season for granted.
“Luckily, we got the state championship in. ... It was a pretty awesome ending to an unknown season.”
Garcia’s performance in the state title game is one he won’t soon forget, rushing for 217 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries. He added three catches for 98 yards and a score.
His favorite game, however, came against Bishop McDevitt in the state semifinals.
“I had more runs in the state championship game, but Bishop McDevitt had a big and fast defense,” Garcia said. “It felt great to make big plays and execute on third downs throughout the game.”
The junior rushed for 205 yards and four touchdowns on 12 carries, averaging 17.1 yards per carry in the semifinal matchup.
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