{"id":2442605,"date":"2019-04-05T22:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-06T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/glenwoods-garcia-reunited-with-coach\/"},"modified":"2019-04-05T22:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-06T04:40:00","slug":"glenwoods-garcia-reunited-with-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/glenwoods-garcia-reunited-with-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Glenwood\u2019s Garcia reunited with coach"},"content":{"rendered":"
Glenwood Springs senior guard Angel Garcia signs his national letter of intent to the University of Southwest Wednesday inside Chavez-Spencer Gymnasium as family and friends join him.<\/strong>
Josh Carney \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The world has a funny way of working.<\/p>\n

After losing former Glenwood Springs boys basketball head coach Cory Hitchcock to the collegiate level before his senior season, Demon guard Angel Garcia is reuniting with his former coach as the four-year starter signed his National Letter of Intent on Wednesday to play for Hitchcock at the University of Southwest, where Hitchcock was just named the new men\u2019s coach after coaching the women\u2019s program last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s honestly a dream come true,\u201d said Garcia after his signing ceremony inside Chavez-Spencer Gymnasium at Glenwood Springs High School. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to play college basketball, and to be able to do this with the coach who sparked it \u2026 it\u2019s just really hard to put into words. I\u2019m just so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia grew up in New Castle but decided to come to Glenwood Springs High School and play for Hitchcock after his eighth-grade year. That kicked off a four-year stretch \u2014 three with Hitchcock \u2014 in which Garcia started consistently and averaged 9.3 points per game, 2.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game for the Demons, helping Glenwood win three straight Class 4A Western Slope League championships, while also hosting two second-round state playoff games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very blessed to have come here to Glenwood and met coach Cory and the staff that\u2019s been here,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cLooking back, it was good decision by me and my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, Garcia moves onto the next level where he\u2019ll play for the Mustangs under Hitchcock, giving him a familiar face and a familiar system to play in. The Glenwood product will redshirt his first season in Hobbs, New Mexico, to bulk up for the collegiate level, but it will be good for the senior to reunite with his former high school coach, which is a rare thing to do in sports. Hitchcock added that it\u2019s important for Garcia to come in and put on some weight and adjust to the pace and physicality of the collegiate game.<\/p>\n

Despite the redshirt season forthcoming, the pairing came together quickly, according to Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as he took the job (late last week) he gave me a call and offered me a spot,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even have to think twice; I was just so happy. We\u2019ve been in touch consistently since he left, so I wasn\u2019t really surprised he got the men\u2019s job. I\u2019m just so happy I got this chance to play for him again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia had a few walk-on chances with Colorado Mesa University and Western State University, which would have kept him local, but the chance to get a scholarship and reunite with Hitchcock was just far too good to pass up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I took the job to coach the women\u2019s team here at USW, I never expected to have the opportunity to coach Angel again,\u201d Hitchcock said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty awesome. We have a great relationship. He was pretty under-recruited, so when I found out I got the men\u2019s job the first call I made was to him. He\u2019s going to be a great fit for us; he\u2019s going to shoot the heck out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shy senior has a big task ahead of him at the collegiate level, but he said he trusts the time and effort he\u2019s put into the game outside of practice and believes he\u2019ll be ready for the next level when his time comes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just have to trust the process along the way,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI can\u2019t get too down on myself if things don\u2019t go my way right away. I believe in myself and the work that I put in, so I just have to be patient and trust that things will get better if I just keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Off the floor, Garcia will study business. Garcia\u2019s father owns his own business in the valley and hopes to one day own his own business as well. He added that he\u2019ll head to Hobbs quickly after graduation to get a jump on his playing career.<\/p>\n

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

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Glenwood Springs senior guard Angel Garcia signs his national letter of intent to the University of Southwest Wednesday inside Chavez-Spencer Gymnasium as family and friends join him.Josh Carney \/ Post Independent The world has a funny way of working. After losing former Glenwood Springs boys basketball head coach Cory Hitchcock to the collegiate level before […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2442605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 07:43:28","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}