Somewhere fairly close to the center point between El Chuco and The Big Easy stands the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, a place Marcos Garcia and Tommy Vadell have called “home” for the past four years.
But the manner in which blue-collar football players from far West Texas and the Louisiana Gulf Coast managed to find a school of 2,700 students along that 977-mile route is just part of their odyssey.
After arriving at UMHB, these unsung workhorses discovered that their long road had just begun.
“It’s an incredible story for both of them,” said Crusaders coach Pete Fredenburg, whose fourth-ranked team (9-1) will host No. 7 Hardin-Simmons (9-1) in an NCAA Division III first-round playoff game Saturday at Tiger Field. “They have remade their bodies, and you really can’t believe how they’ve changed. It’s an incredible tribute to them.”
Garcia came to UMHB as a linebacker out of El Paso Hanks, and Vadell was maybe a fullback, maybe a tailback when he arrived from New Orleans Northshore.
They are now entrenched in starting roles - Garcia at tight end, Vadell at fullback - and both were put on paths to UMHB by outside forces.
“I wanted to continue playing football and didn’t really know much about UMHB,” Garcia said. “But we had a new head coach my senior year who had come from the Dallas area, so he had heard a lot of good things about this program. When we were putting together a highlight tape to send out, UMHB was one of the schools he said I should really look into.
“Then after they started talking to me, I took a recruiting visit out here and was just blown away by the facilities, the coaches, the program overall and the school.”
As for Vadell’s discovery of UMHB, the Crusaders have a fellow American Southwest Conference foe to thank for that.
“At my high school, we didn’t win very often so I wanted to go to a place where we could win some games,” Vadell explained. “East Texas Baptist came to my house to talk to me and that’s how I found out about the ASC.
“So I just went online and did a little checking to find out who usually wins this conference, and I saw that it wasn’t East Texas Baptist. It was almost always UMHB and Hardin-Simmons. So I picked UMHB.”
Even after trekking the 500 or so miles from their hometowns, both players had arduous paths to the starting lineup.
Vadell totaled only 52 carries while making just two starts during his first three years. And Garcia, who spent his first season as a linebacker on the junior varsity, appeared in just 19 varsity games and didn’t have a catch prior to this season.
“When they got here, Tommy was kind of a pudgy guy who was sort of a tailback and sort of a fullback,” Fredenburg recalled. “And Marcos came in as a linebacker who couldn’t run fast enough.
“Now they have made themselves into very physical players. Both of them went to work in the offseason, especially this last one, and have changed the way they play.”
Vadell has gone from a “pudgy” 200-pound freshman to a more athletic 210-pounder who has scored three touchdowns and started all 10 games this season. Garcia, who doesn’t need breakaway speed as a tight end, has used his 235-pound frame to help pave the way for the Crusaders’ punishing ground game and his agility to haul in a TD pass while also starting every game.
And despite the long hours of work and countless days far from home while undergoing their transformations, neither player has any regrets.
“I never thought about leaving because after the season, you look down and you have that (ASC championship ring) on your finger,” Vadell said. “That makes you hungry for more.”
Added Garcia: “Usually Christmas break and the summer are the only times we get to go home. But this past summer, we only went home for about two weeks or so. The core of the team, we all lived up here during the summer and had workouts almost every day.”
Despite Garcia and Vadell’s growth as players and contributions to the team, there likely won’t be a recruiting pipeline running from UMHB to Hanks or Northshore given the distance.
But what would each player tell prospective recruits back home about UMHB?
“I would tell them that if you’re going to come here, you get to experience winning but you have to be ready to work,” Vadell said. “That’s what we’re all about. We win games with what we do on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.”
Said Garcia: “Winning isn’t easy. It doesn’t just happen. There’s a lot of preparation and dedication that goes into it. You have to be willing to go that extra mile.”
Or in this case, that extra 500 or so.
