EDINBURG — Edinburg Vela’s Ronnie Garza entered his senior season determined to uphold an existing tradition and start a new one.
Despite not knowing when or if he and his teammates would be able to return to the gridiron, Vela’s left tackle worked tirelessly throughout the offseason and into the shortened regular season.
In the process, he brought the SaberCats back to the top of Class 6A in the Rio Grande Valley and redirected eyeballs from across the state on Edinburg and the RGV.
Garza’s work helped lead the SaberCats to a 6-1 campaign and their fifth district championship in six years. As a result, he has been named The Monitor’s All-Area Lineman of the Year as the anchor of the RGV’s most impenetrable offensive line and one of the area’s strongest position groups.
“It’s a blessing honestly. Shoutout to (my fellow offensive linemen). They work equally as hard; they know what they’re doing every day,” Garza said. “I saw them in the offseason and they would send me videos and show me them working out. It’s just impressive to have a group that all works hard and has one goal. I think that was really amazing and I really hope that they all end up playing college ball at the end of their careers.”
Garza, a three-year varsity starter, helped lead Edinburg Vela back to the mountaintop where the SaberCats had long resided after dominating district foes for half a decade.
He won his first of two district championships as a sophomore with a Vela team that had won 31 consecutive games against district competition and tallied a 20-game winning streak against teams in the RGV.
That all came to an end in 2019, the first time the SaberCats failed to win a district title since 2014, which made Garza’s primary goal to bring Vela back to the top of its district in his final season.
“The classes of 2018, 2019 and 2020 all showed us that this was meant to be the way and this is how the SaberCats should be represented. We kind of took that and I don’t want to say we copied them, but we kept the tradition going,” he said.
“We were grinding our butts off. We did everything that we could to make sure we had a great season. We tried to inspire the younger kids too and make sure they know that next year, this is the situation you’re going to be in. We wanted to make sure we leave a good foundation for the kids to go off of.”
Garza and his teammates accomplished what no Vela squad before them was able to do, rolling through a 5-0 regular season without trailing for a single second to any opponent. The SaberCats then topped former district rival Weslaco High in the bi-district round of the Class 6A state playoffs before ultimately falling to San Antonio Brennan in the area round.
“I think it was a great season for what could have happened and what could have not happened,” Garza said. “The fact that we had no spring ball and no practices, … I think we all performed exceptionally well as a unit given the circumstances.”
Garza, a 6-foot-6, 295-pound offensive tackle and back-to-back first-team all-district selection, credits his coaches and teammates for helping him develop into one of the Rio Grande Valley’s top offensive line prospects in recent memory.
The Vela senior, however, attributes the work ethic that got him there mostly to his parents.
“I think a lot of people think that I’m naturally just big, strong and fast but I’m not. The only real gift that I was born with was height. I told myself that I need to make the most of that,” he said. “The goals that I wanted to reach, I reached and honestly I think it’s because of my parents. They inspire me so much. They showed me what it’s like to work hard and work for what you want. I think that that’s probably the greatest gift they’ve ever given me.”
Beyond being physically imposing, Garza’s blend of mental sharpness and footwork made him one of the toughest matchups for any opposing defender in the Rio Grande Valley this season and helped him become a coveted Division I recruiting target.
“I just think you have to know your assignment and you have to be very coordinated,” Garza said. “If you don’t know how to time up a punch or if you don’t know how to set your feet once you’ve already been hit, you’re in trouble. Those are the two most important aspects.”
Garza joins his fellow senior teammates Andrew Alvarado and Chris Leal — who have signed to play at Houston Baptist and Tyler Junior College next season, respectively — as the fourth, fifth and sixth Vela offensive linemen in the last six years to accept scholarship offers to play college football.
Garza garnered several DI scholarship offers from Princeton and Yale to Houston and New Mexico, but the SaberCats’ senior elected to sign with UTSA and team with record-setting Sharyland Pioneer quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger on the Roadrunners.
He’s hoping to represent the proudly RGV at the FBS level and point the recruiting spotlight squarely on the Valley so others can follow in his footsteps.
“I can’t wait to represent the Valley. I’m going to do every single thing I can to make sure the Valley is known by people hopefully across the nation, maybe the state. I hope Eddie feels the same way,” Garza said. “This is our home and we have to represent. I feel that we get underlooked, so maybe shining a light on us is shining a light on them too. Hopefully, we’re the reason why someone else gets recruited down here.”
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Twitter: @ByAndyMcCulloch
