Coach Anthony Garcia joins the Cuyamaca Cross Country team as the women's
head coach after a great 11 year coaching career at the high school level.
Before joining Cuyamaca, Coach Garcia coached at El Capitan High School in
Lakeside, CA from 2000-2009 and at Mount Miguel High School in Spring
Valley, CA from 2009-2011. During his time at El Capitan Garcia took a team
who hadn't won any league titles in a number of years and transformed it
into a team that never finished worse then 2nd place in league. Cross
Country was highlighted by a 2005 Women's team that finished 4th amongst all
San Diego divisions at the State Championships and the following year
entered the season as the number 4 team in the state. As a result Coach
Garcia was voted the San Diego Section Women's Cross Country Coach of the
year in 2005. The El Capitan Men's team also qualified for the state meet in
2007. With a number of individuals qualifying for the state meet during that
time as well. The track and field teams during that time also saw very
impressive performance as Garcia was the co-head coach for both programs
before becoming the head coach of both programs in 2009. In track and field
Garcia's athletes won numerous CIF titles, athlete of the year awards, made
the top 10 list in every event and broke 4 school records. Combined track
and cross country, men and women, Garcia won 12 league titles while at El
Capitan. While at Mount Miguel Garcia inherited a team that had largely been
ranked in the bottom of league competition for decades, with a few star
athletes over the years. The cross country teams were vastly improved with
the men going from last in league previous to his arrival to becoming a team
that went 6-2 in 2011 losing only to El Capitan who would go on to finish
third in CIF. On the women's side Garcia took over a team that had not won a
single dual meet in 30 years. In the first year the team improved to 1-7 and
the following year to 4-4 and challenged for a top 2 spot in league. The
track team broke two school records and was a presence in CIF both years
with athletes being named both league and CIF athletes of the year.
As an athlete, Coach Garcia competed cross country and track and field at El
Capitan High School. In track and field he competed in every event in high
school track (plus Javelin) with the exception of Triple Jump and the 300
hurdles. Predominately a middle distance runner Coach Garcia went on to UCSD
with plans to run cross country and track and field, but a torn groin led
him to the start of his coaching career at which point he fell in love with
coaching and decided not to return to team competition. Garcia has continued
to run and compete over the years in various road and trail races from 2
miles to 50K and was the 2005 Southern California USATF Champion in his
first ever 50K race.
Coach Anthony Garcia was the assistant women's track coach in charge of
distance runners. He also is a high school social science teacher in the
Grossmont Union High School District where he worked since getting his
Bachelors Degree in Political Science from UC San Diego and his Masters
Degree in Cross Cultural Education form National University.
Coach Garcia is married to Deana Garcia and the
couple has a son Miles (1 year old) and one on the way in January of 2013.
