{"id":1310340,"date":"2019-05-15T22:44:01","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T04:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/rifles-cecilia-garcia-signs-with-college-of-saint-marys\/"},"modified":"2019-05-15T22:44:01","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T04:44:01","slug":"rifles-cecilia-garcia-signs-with-college-of-saint-marys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/rifles-cecilia-garcia-signs-with-college-of-saint-marys\/","title":{"rendered":"Rifle\u2019s Cecilia Garcia signs with College of Saint Mary\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"
Rifle senior Cecilia Garcia signed her letter of intent to the College of Saint Mary’s Tuesday at RHS. Garcia was joined by her mother, Susan, father, Gilbert, and Glenwood Springs head coach Steve Vanderhoof.<\/strong>
Josh Carney \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of those pre-dawn treks from Battlement Mesa to Glenwood Springs for early-morning swimming practices at the Glenwood Recreation Center, followed by a full day of school and another after-school practice paid off for Rifle senior Cecilia Garcia as the Rifle product signed on to swim with the College of Saint Mary\u2019s in Omaha, Nebraska.<\/p>\n

Despite all of the early-morning travel and work put in with the Demons in the pool, Garcia, the daughter of Gilbert and Susan Garcia, wasn\u2019t even looking to swim in college, at least until Saint Mary\u2019s showed interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t really expecting to swim in college; I was really just doing this for fun,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cWhen I didn\u2019t make the regionals this year, I kind of just let the thought of swimming in college go because I didn\u2019t think there was a chance. Then, Coach [Cole] Malin reached out to me, it really sparked a new motivation for me, and I re-found the love for swimming in college.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite re-finding that love, Garcia was hesitant at first after Malin showed interest. A self-described \u201cparty-pooper,\u201d Garcia didn\u2019t give it much thought at first, simply because she wasn\u2019t interested. However, thanks to a push in the right direction from family, friends, and coaches, Garcia ultimately decided to sign on with the Blue Flames, becoming the first Rifle student to sign with a college for swimming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means a lot to me,\u201d said Garcia, who signed her national letter of intent in front of nearly 75 friends, family, and school administrators. \u201cI\u2019m just really proud to be the first one to do this, and I was really shocked at the turnout for this signing today; I wasn\u2019t expecting that at all, so to see all those people here just meant so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia will head to Omaha to compete in the 100 Butterfly, which was her specialty with the Demons. That attraction to the butterfly event started early on in her swimming career, which started in 4th grade. That dedication to the sport \u2014 and the event \u2014 grew, thanks to the support of her mother, Susan, who provided transportation and support throughout the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be where I am today without the love and support of my parents, especially my mom,\u201d said Garcia. \u201cShe really pushed me to do this and supported me 100 percent every step of the way; really, she put just as much work into this as I have. She\u2019d go in late to work just to make sure I was at practice each morning, and she\u2019d miss work a lot during swim season just to make sure she was at my swim meets every week. My dad supported us 100 percent in everything we wanted to do with swimming; the support just means so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving up to the next level to swim competitively will certainly be hard, but the Rifle senior has gone through the hardest part these last three years: dedicating herself 100 percent to the sport and doing whatever it takes in the pool and in the classroom to better herself. There\u2019s very few athletes that will make the trip from Battlement Mesa to Glenwood Springs nearly every morning to practice, then head to school, get through the day in the classroom, then head back to Glenwood for another practice before heading home. Garcia did, and she\u2019s much better off for having gone through the ringer trying to swim competitively for Glenwood while going to school in Rifle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really tested me at moments, and it\u2019s definitely tested me with my academics,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cSeeing people at practices really made all the hard work worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a big commitment from her,\u201d added Steve Vanderhoof, Glenwood\u2019s veteran head coach. \u201cWe\u2019ve had other Rifle students swim for us in the past, but she was super committed for three years and did whatever needed to be done. To do that for three years, she obviously had to have a big commitment and a big heart, so it\u2019s great to see her sign today; I\u2019m very pleased for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

In school, Garcia wants to study kinesiology in hopes of being a personal trainer after college.<\/p>\n

jcarney@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rifle senior Cecilia Garcia signed her letter of intent to the College of Saint Mary’s Tuesday at RHS. Garcia was joined by her mother, Susan, father, Gilbert, and Glenwood Springs head coach Steve Vanderhoof.Josh Carney \/ Post Independent All of those pre-dawn treks from Battlement Mesa to Glenwood Springs for early-morning swimming practices at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 13:10:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310340\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}