Until his final day, Coach “Big John” Garcia fought with arrant bravery against the melanoma that plagued his body for 26 years.
“There were so many times throughout the night that we thought, ‘all right, this is it.’ And it wasn’t. He just kept going. It was like you know what, ‘When are you going to let go? What do you have left to prove?’
“That was the kind of man he was,” Greg Garcia, 34, said about his father on Friday night – the same day Garcia died.
“He went out in true championship form, epic-movie finish. It was John Garcia all the way,” he said.
Garcia succumbed to the disease Friday morning. He was 64 years old.
The Gilroy native, husband, father and grandfather was the City of Gilroy’s recreation supervisor for 33 years and an involved and nurturing figure in the community, starting programs to raise money for charities and that helped children play on sports teams.
“He had a tremendous heart,” said Bobby Garcia, his longtime friend and former football coaching cohort at Gavilan College. “The saying is that what you leave behind is how people will remember you. I tell you what, the guy, as a human being and the way he cared about people, was tremendous. I don’t know anybody else like him.”
Garcia died at the hospital at 11:01 a.m. Friday, said Bobby, who spent the last two days with him and with other members of his family at the hospital sharing stories.
Greg still took to the sidelines as the assistant coach for Christopher High School football team Friday night, and felt comfortable sharing his memories in wake of his father’s death.
“Big John” – as he was known around Gilroy – taught Greg “everything he knows” he said.
“He’s had (melanoma) a long time. He’s done the radiation, the chemo, coaching football and coming home dealing with all that pain. But he still did his job – not taking time off,” Greg said.
Garcia spent 40 years dedicated to coaching football from the semi-pro level (Central Coast Barnstormers), to UC-Riverside and Long Beach State, to Gavilan College, to assisting at Gilroy High and working with youth sports through the recreation department. One year, he coached in the Silicon Valley Youth Classic Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Game.
Garcia and former city administrator Jay Baksa (also a local youth coach) spent many conversations hashing out how to motivate their players and “get through to kids.”
“The thing I’ll always remember about him was that he’s the kind of guy that was always there if you needed someone, from pitching in to putting up tables for an event to running the whole Gang Task Force. You could always count on John. I don’t remember him ever saying no to anything. He’d just say, ‘You bet I’ll do it,'” Baksa said.
Garcia was the past president and executive director of the Gilroy Gang Task Force, that still exists today; he helped to establish the city’s youth center in the 1990s; he founded the men’s club, Gilroy Sportsman’s Chef, that has helped disabled residents each year with Fishability Day; and he was a lifetime member of Gilroy Luncheon Optimist.
Baksa called John “Mr. Gilroy.” Everybody knew him, he said. “When he retired,” in 2010 from working for the City of Gilroy, “it was a loss to the organization. When he passed, it was a loss to the community.”
Garcia’s 26-year battle with skin cancer became more serious – and his body became more susceptible to infections – last month when he had to be admitted to the hospital. He was able to spend a few weeks in his Gilroy home before going back to the hospital early last week.
“I’m so happy he isn’t in pain anymore. It became difficult at the tail-end to see him like that. Looking at him, he wasn’t my dad. He’s my dad, but, that’s not my dad. That’s the hard part, you’re looking at your hero but here he is withering away,” Greg said.
“He taught me everything I know, from home life to being in the community. Pretty much, I’ve followed in his footsteps – from coaching on down the line to loyalty and how important that is.”
Former Gavilan College athletic director and coach Paul Latzke knew John well, with a friendship that spanned a half-century. Though Latzke, 69, was ahead of John in school (they went to junior high and GHS together in the 1960s), the two were reunited through the coaching ranks at Gavilan. Latzke worked closely with John in that capacity as well as on a business level when John held his position with the city. They also spent time as roommates in the early 1970s.
“We shared an apartment in Driftwood Terrace,” Latzke said. “Coaching was our bond for all those years. But it was family first for John, and I respected that. Of course, he loved coaching, it was his passion.”
John married his wife of 36 years Clara in 1975 and together they had daughter Heidi (Trujillo) and Greg, who they raised in Gilroy.
Latzke’s daughter Brooke and Greg graduated in the same class from Gilroy High and that coincidence spurs one of Latzke’s “many, many memories” he and John shared together which came on an unassuming night in the mid-1990s.
“John and I, one Saturday night, we were sitting in the parking lot of Gilroy High School waiting for the dance to let out. I think both Greg and Brooke were juniors,” Latzke reminisced. “So here’s John and Paul sitting in the parking lot, waiting for our kids to get out of the dance. We reflected on the time we were living together and both bachelors. It was a special moment where we just said, ‘man, look at this. Who would have thought.'”
Garcia was often seen on the sidelines alongside Greg, while he served as head coach at Gilroy High School in 2009 and 2010.
In a 2008 interview with the Dispatch, Greg said that he thought his father was starting to see the bigger picture and discover a greater sense or serenity as he battled cancer.
“He just keeps walking forward and overcoming,” Greg Garcia said. “I think he’s starting to see the full picture unfold in front of him.”
In that same interview, John Garcia said: “It’s been a great life. Until my body can’t do it anymore, I’m going to continue doing it.”
Garcia had said his football coach at Gavilan College was his biggest influence in his life.
“I think I would’ve gone in the wrong direction without Wayne Howard. He was like my father, and I owe my life to him,” John said of his former football coach who took him under his wing.
“After I met (Howard), I promised I would always help people out and do anything I could to let individuals know that there are people who care for them,” John said in 2008.
On Friday, Bobby said he doesn’t think he and John ever argued during their decades-long friendship. Whether it was sitting under the oak tree in Bobby’s yard talking football or on the sidelines, “We always seemed to understand each other,” Bobby said.
“It’s kind of like having a part of your life ripped apart from you,” Bobby continued. “I’m going to miss that big guy.”
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, to make donations to the Gilroy community youth center program with the City of Gilroy; you can mail a check to: Attn: Gilroy Youth Center, 7351 Rosanna St., Gilroy, CA, 95020.
A memorial service will be held Oct. 22 at 11 a.m. at the residence of Bobby and Linda Garcia, 100 Cohansey Ave. in Gilroy.
