Gilroy
– Normally, anyone within earshot of a Heat’s game would get an
earful of Greg
”
Dino
”
Garcia. He coached the Little League team with passion
– and humor – making wisecracks, shouting directions and
cheering.
Gilroy – Normally, anyone within earshot of a Heat’s game would get an earful of Greg “Dino” Garcia. He coached the Little League team with passion – and humor – making wisecracks, shouting directions and cheering.
But on Thursday afternoon, the field was uncharacteristically hushed.
“If he was here, he’d be making jokes,” said Troy Garcia, Dino’s brother. “It’s a blow-out, but he would have made it fun for both teams. He would have entertained everyone.”
Garcia, a longtime coach for Gilroy Little League and Gilroy Chaos fastpitch softball, died early Thursday morning after a week-long battle with a viral infection. He was 38.
Thursday afternoon, Dino Garcia’s family and friends, and members of an extended family that included Gilroy Little League and Chaos members, gathered to watch his team and pay tribute to the man whose life revolved around coaching and his daughters, 11-year-old Shawnte, who plays for the Heat, and 12-year-old Alex.
“This was his passion,” said Sharon Furtado, Garcia’s longtime girlfriend and the mother of their two daughters, motioning toward the Christmas Hill Park Ranch field. “He was happy to be on the field.”
Garcia, who had Type II diabetes, was taken to the emergency room last Wednesday, May 4.
“We thought he had a heart attack,” Furtado said. She said Garcia also had severe head pains that day.
Over the next week, Garcia’s white blood cell count dropped, his kidney and liver failed and he sustained some brain damage. At 1am Thursday, Garcia’s heart stopped and he was gone.
Furtado said the Intensive Care Unit staff at Saint Louise Hospital in Gilroy worked relentlessly to save Garcia.
“They were professional and they were incredible,” Furtado said. “I can’t say enough about the kindness they provided to the family – and the support.”
Garcia’s family felt that same kind of support on the field Thursday.
Before the Heat and San Juan took the field for the game, Gilroy Little League president Christine Drysdale dedicated the remainder of the Little League season to Dino Garcia – “who loved the game of softball and loved to coach his darling daughter Shawnte” – and led the teams in a moment of silence. Then “Big Dog” headed out to first base to play the game her father taught her. Shawnte Garcia got her nickname from her father.
“It all started when I first played, I found a sticker (that said Big Dog) and I wanted it so I got it,” Shawnte said. “I put it on my (batting) helmet the day after and I made a home run. When I got home, he called me ‘Big Dog.'”
The name stuck. Garcia even had a sweatshirt with the nickname on it made up for Shawnte.
Garcia’s best friend since high school, Shawn Lopez, called Dino a “sports fanatic.”
Fittingly, the two became friends on the Gilroy High JV football team. Both were defensive ends and played on opposite sides of the line. Lopez said one play sealed the bond that he and Garcia would have for years to come.
“I got sucked into a play,” Lopez said. “And he came all the way from the other side, covered my back and saved a touchdown. He saved my butt that day and I’ll never forget that.”
Over the years, the two friends enjoyed playing and watching sports. They were particularly big fans of the Oakland Raiders.
“He loved every sport,” Lopez said. “He loved to play, loved coaching, loved sharing the inspiration of sports to young kids. He loved to teach.”
In his daughter Shawnte, Garcia found an eager pupil.
“Shawnte was Dino’s little boy, in a sense,” said Mark Ordaz, who coached the Heat with Garcia. “She adored him and is the spitting image of him, personality and everything.”
Garcia was a hitting coach for the 10-and-under Chaos team. Naturally, Shawnte became a good hitter.
Robert Lira, who knew Garcia through the Chaos team, said Garcia would fondly brag about his daughter’s hitting.
On the field, Garcia had a big personality that couldn’t be ignored. He was so loud, Shawnte said he could be heard “all the way from the other park.”
“He was competitive, boisterous,” Lira said. “His presence was known. He had no problem saying what he believed in. He was a straight-up guy.”
Still, his post-game behavior was always positive.
“Always at the end of the game,” Shawnte said. “We’d go home and he’d say every good thing about the kids.”
Sharon Furtado and Dino Garcia’s history goes back to childhood.
“I had a crush on him in fifth grade,” Furtado said, her voice breaking.
The two went to Gilroy High’s freshman Christmas ball together. But their relationship didn’t get serious until after high school. They eventually moved in together and had Alex and Shawnte.
Furtado says she couldn’t have asked for a better father for her children. Even during the rocky parts of her relationship with Garcia, Furtado never forgot that one thing.
“I would rip him to shreds sometimes,” Furtado said. “But I’d always give him credit in the dad department.”
Furtado works seven days a week as a transaction coordinator for Coldwell Banker and as a waitress at Longhouse Restaurant to support her family. When she couldn’t be around for the girls because of work, Garcia was.
“He was a very good father,” Furtado said, then paused. “More than that, he was their mother. He knew what they liked to eat. If he walked into a 7-11, he knew what snacks to get them. I don’t know that.”
Twelve-year-old Alex never quite caught the softball bug like her younger sister Shawnte. Instead, the sixth grader at Ascencion Solarsano Middle School got involved in drama and school plays. Still, the sports-loving Garcia supported her in the best way he knew how. On several occasions, he brought dinners of burritos, Chinese food or homemade tacos to the entire 70-person cast.
Alex said her dad always knew everyone. In the community, at her school, everywhere.
But she and Shawnte were at the top of his list.
“He knew us better than we know ourselves,” Alex said.
To help pay for funeral expenses, the Gregory Dino Garcia Fund has been set up at the Washington Mutual, 1177 First St. Deposits to the account, No. 1802909614, can be made at any location. A vigil for Dino Garcia will take place Monday at 7pm at St. Mary’s Church. The funeral mass will be held on Tuesday at 2pm.
