South Valley Middle School wrestling coach Armando Garcia made
an investment in not only his own program by building a new
wrestling room this past winter, he also set Gilroy wrestling in
general on a course for greater success.
South Valley Middle School wrestling coach Armando Garcia made an investment in not only his own program by building a new wrestling room this past winter, he also set Gilroy wrestling in general on a course for greater success.
Given $8,000 from the school, Garcia began the conversion of an unused locker room on campus into a high-end workout facility capable of handling more than one team’s training at a time,
“It was an old locker room, they had not been using for quite a while and we needed a facility,” Garcia said. “The administration brought it to my attention and said, ‘If you can do something with it, you’re more than welcome.'”
Garcia contributed roughly $20,000 of his own money while enlisting the help of community members – including his own wrestlers and their parents – as well as local corporations to donate time or equipment to make the renovation just a month-long project that came nearly $60,000 under the estimate of a contractor’s bid.
Taking a jackhammer to misshapen shower floors, sledge-hammering concrete slabs out of the wall, slapping on a slick paint job, and installing a heating and air conditioning unit that prevents moisture buildup, Garcia’s overhaul was the kind of extreme makeover that has local Gilroy schools coming together to train in the hopes of seeing each other in the finals of tournaments in the future.
“Every day I have my door open and you’ll see kids form Brownell and Solarsano wrestling,” Garcia said. “We’re all wrestling for the same thing. There’s friendly competition there but we don’t try to separate and divide each other.”
