Cristian Garcia’s scholarship earned, not given

Redshirt senior linebacker Cristian Garcia was called into head coach Jim McElwain’s office on Sunday night after the Florida Gators concluded fall camp. He sat outside with sweaty palms as he nervously prayed to receive the news he had been hoping for.

After two years of working day in and day out as a walk on, his work was finally rewarded with a scholarship.

“George Wynn, the Director of Football Operations, said ‘Hey, I have somebody that wants to meet with you. Come up to my office after practice,’” Garcia said as he recalled the night. “So, I took my shower, ate dinner and went up to George Wynn’s office. He brought me over to Coach Mac’s office and then Coach Mac sat me down and was like ‘I just wanna let you know, I’m putting you on full scholarship.’ I told him I was so grateful and he said ‘Don’t be grateful or thank me, because you earned it. I didn’t give it to you.’ It was such a fulfilling moment, him telling me that I earned it and he didn’t give me anything.”

It was a moment Garcia had been waiting on for a very long time, and was one of the best of his football career.

“Since I was nine years old, my goal when I started playing Pop Warner football, it was a dream of mine to get a Division I scholarship,” he said. “I mean, I was extremely bitter after high school when I didn’t get one. I had to go play Division II. I walked on. That was my goal when I got here. It was one of the most fulfilling moments of my life.”

It was a long and trying journey for him to make it to that moment. From attending two different Division II schools before transferring to Santa Fe College, to working on the football team’s video staff, to almost not even getting a walk-on tryout, and finally to earning a scholarship, Garcia has been through a lot over the last five years of his life.

He started out on the football team at Malone University in Ohio, but was not happy over 1,000 miles away from his family in Miami. After just one semester, he made the decision to transfer to Florida Tech, but even being closer to home, something was still missing. His dream of playing at the Division I level was not on track to be fulfilled, and he had to make a change.

From there, he devised a plan that seemed pretty farfetched, but he believed he could make it work. He knew he had what it took to play for the Gators. So, he packed up his stuff and moved to Gainesville to complete part one of his plan—enrolling at Santa Fe College. He continued to train and work on his academics so that he would be eligible to transfer to Florida.

While going to Santa Fe, he was searching for a way to make any connection he could to the football program. A door finally opened when a friend of his informed him the video staff needed volunteers to work at football practices.

He spent his afternoons in the towers videoing practices and cutting up film for coaches and players to go over, but he wanted to be on the field, not the person filming the players on the field.

“It was difficult,” Garcia said. “When I was at Santa Fe College there were a lot of nights I was depressed because I wasn’t an athlete anymore. I was on the video team, so I was out here videoing them. Just seeing them practice every day just made me want to be out here. There were definitely a lot of lonely nights when I missed being an athlete so much. It was difficult.”

While he was struggling to maintain patience, his plan was slowly falling into place. He graduated from Santa Fe and was accepted into Florida. The only thing left to do was try out for the team. Of course, things couldn’t be that easy. One final bump in the road had to come up, but that’s when he discovered his connections actually paid off.

He met Wynn several times around the facilities during his stint with the video team, and now he would need a favor from him to reach his goal.

“Before I tried out, we had to get a sickle cell blood test and I had one from my previous school and I thought it would work out, but the trainer told me that I couldn’t and I wasn’t going to be able to try out,” said Garcia. “I was devastated. This was about 5:30 in the morning, and I was crying outside of the building. It was still dark out. I went back upstairs to George Wynn and I begged him, I begged him to let me try out. It was the morning and he actually pulled through for me and let me do the sickle cell blood test a little bit later, so that was another obstacle that I had to surpass.”

Garcia obviously went on to make the team and began quietly working on his next goal, which was to earn a scholarship.

He was solely a scout team member in 2015 until finally making his debut against Michigan in the Citrus Bowl. That is when he began to see his potential to compete for real playing time and get more opportunities in the coming years.

“It was a couple weeks before the Michigan game two years ago, and we had some practices where the seniors didn’t come out, so Coach Mac let the younger guys get reps,” he said. “It was my first time getting reps not on the scout team, and I had been honing in on the defense all year, just waiting. I was just literally salivating like a lion who hadn’t eaten in like two weeks, so I was ready to pounce, and I gave it my all those three practices and from then I jumped up off the scout team.”

He has since exceeded the expectations he had when walking on at Florida. He earned a role as a key special teams player last season and ended up getting some playing time at linebacker over the season before making his first career start against Iowa in the Outback Bowl. While getting playing time was always the goal, he can’t help but recall his days on the video staff, when all he wanted was a chance to wear the orange and blue.

“I remember when I was on the video team, I’d watch the walk-ons put on their scout jerseys and I would tell my buddies that I’d wear that jersey with pride and give it my all every day, not knowing that I’d ever be on the field or earn a scholarship,” Garcia said. “So, definitely, I have exceeded my expectations.”

Florida’s newest scholarship player will be expected to take on a bigger role in 2017. The Gators are thin in experience at the linebacker position this season, and after his performances in the bowl game and in the spring, Garcia has proven he can make plays when he is called on. He knows he likely won’t get the opportunity to start again, but he is ready to play whenever and wherever his team needs him.

“What I see for myself is like a 1-B, because David [Reese] and Vosean [Joseph] will be the starters, but I expect to be right there behind them and backing up every position at MIKE, SAM and WILL. You’ll see me on defense this year and I’ll just play wherever they need me.”

Whatever his role ends up being this season, Garcia’s teammates have come to the conclusion that no one was more deserving of that scholarship than him. Many took to social media when they heard the news and expressed their happiness for him, but no one was more thrilled than Joseph.

“They were all so excited for me,” said Garcia. “I think the one that stuck out to me was Vosean. He may have been more excited for me than I was. We’re close friends. I mean, he hugged me, he picked me up. For the past three days, he just yells at me every time he sees me, ‘scholly, scholly, scholly.’ He’s posted on Instagram, Twitter. He’s a great guy and he was so happy for me, probably more than I was for myself.”

Along with the support of his teammates, a lot of early mornings and late nights of hard work led Garcia to this point. Through all the obstacles standing in his way, he never gave up on his dream.

“I had a lot of people help me get to this point,” Garcia said. “I had to put in the work. Just that desire to meet my goal kept me going. I just stuck to my vision and there was nothing that was going to get in my way.”

Bailiegh Carlton
A lifelong sports fan, Bailiegh Carlton knew from a young age that she wanted to work in sports in some capacity. Before transferring to the University of Florida to study journalism, she played softball at Gulf Coast State College. She then interned for Gator Country for three years as she worked toward her degree. After graduation, Bailiegh decided to explore other opportunities in the world of sports, but all roads led her right back here. In her time away, she and her husband welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world. When she isn't working, she can almost always be found snuggled up with sweet baby Ridley, Cody and her four fur babies.