By Moses Leos III
A former Lehman High soccer standout will now take his talents to San Antonio as he continues realizing his dream of playing the sport professionally.
In a press release, the San Antonio Football Club announced its signing of Diego Garcia, 18, of Kyle, to the ball club.
For Garcia, signing with the club, which plays the United Soccer League (USL), was a groundbreaking moment.
“It means a lot. It’s always been my goal since I started playing soccer. I wanted to be a professional soccer player,” Garcia said. “It’s been my goal since I was a kid.”
Garcia’s path toward his professional contract began when he participated in an open tryout with the club.
Many of the coaches for SAFC knew Garcia from his time playing at the academy level of what was then known as the San Antonio Scorpions, which has since folded. Garcia said many of the SAFC coaches were a part of the Scorpions organization.
It was at the open tryout where Garcia caught the eye of the coaching staff. Garcia said he played five or six games of 5-on-5 soccer, which allowed coaches to pick those who showed potential.
Garcia made it to the last two groups, where the head coach talked to him personally and asked him about his plans. At the time, Garcia was playing with the Lone Stars club out of Austin.
“I told him I planned on playing professionally. That’s all I wanted to do,” Garcia said. “After that I was invited to train.”
After his tryout, Garcia joined fellow former Lehman soccer player Fernando Mercado in Spain as they played with Real Valledolid.
Garcia’s time in Spain helped him see “what European soccer is all about” and how serious they are about the sport.
Playing in that professional environment changed Garcia’s mentality. He realized there are a “lot of things” that go into playing professional sports.
He saw that everyone went “100 percent” and that there was competition for positioning on the starting 11. With that knowledge, Garcia said he was ready and “on top of my game” to train with the club.
“(Playing in Spain) helped me as a player, knowing every little thing matters on the practice field,” Garcia said.
Since that time, Garcia has trained with SAFC, eventually earning the chance to sign a contract. The terms of his contract were not disclosed, per club policy, according to a press release.
“We are excited to add a young local player in Diego to our roster,” SAFC Head Coach Darren Powell said in a statement. “He has been training and impressing in first team practices and is now available for our upcoming matches. He is focused on getting better and is a skillful wide player who we feel has a bright future ahead of him.”
Garcia said he’s ready to “take this in full stride” as he hopes to reach the starting 11.
The chance to play so close to home is an added bonus.
“I always told myself, ‘work hard, no matter what and show how good you are. That’s been my goal – to get there,” he said. “I didn’t want to be one of those guys that didn’t go anywhere, that ha d a lot of talent but didn’t make the best of it.”
