Employee’s Son to Compete in Rio at Paralympics

Paralympic Soccer Team player David Garza (L) stands with dad Israel Garza, who works in TTC and is president of an ERG.

Paralympic Soccer Team player David Garza (L) stands with dad Israel Garza, who works in TTC and is president of an ERG.

Four years ago, Israel Garza’s son David was near death. He had been involved in a single-car accident and had spent a month in a coma. He needed tubes to breath, to eat. He had suffered a broken jaw, an open wound on his left knee and his left eyebrow had been completely ripped off.

Once an avid soccer player, the 19-year-old was left with a traumatic brain injury and, after he came out of the coma, was told he wouldn’t walk again. After years of dedicating his life to the field, the young athlete was faced with years of physical and mental confinement. It was a foreign concept for the soccer player and his family.

“We have video of him kicking a ball when he was a baby,” said Garza, who’s a manager in the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office. “He actually started playing organized soccer when he was seven with the local YMCA, then AYSO, then 'club' soccer, then high school soccer, then college soccer.”

Garza said he rarely missed a game or practice. Being involved with both of his son’s sports activities was one of his important roles as a dad.

Israel Garza with both of his sons in an undated photo.

“I was fortunate that I was able to help coach David when he first started, though I eventually turned it over to professionals,” he said. “I helped manage his teams, helped run the soccer club by being on the board of directors and even referee soccer games.”

After his accident, despite what his doctors said and thanks to much determination, David was able to walk, run and even play soccer again. But Garza wanted his son to have a back-up life plan.

“David’s goal was to play professional soccer, but after his accident I encouraged him to consider the military as a backup career after he graduated from college,” said Garza, who served four years in the Navy as an operations specialist.

David met up with the local Army ROTC unit at his college and joined. He graduated in May and was commissioned into reserve duty to lead part-time in the Army.

But professional soccer hasn’t been completely ruled out. David has been part of the U.S. Paralympic soccer team for a few years and on Aug. 1, he was officially notified that he will be competing in the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio.

Garza said he was overwhelmed with emotion when he found out.

“[I felt] proud of my son, blessed, emotional, proud to be an American, humbled, grateful, thankful.  It’s hard to put into words what this meant for me and my family.”

Garza and family are flying down to Rio Sept. 4-18 to cheer on David and his teammates, all of whom are ambulatory but have a diagnosis of non-progressive brain damage that is associated with motor control dysfunction (such as cerebral palsy), traumatic brain injury or stroke.

“To see my son David go from playing soccer at a young age, to a near death experience from the auto accident to Olympian is a tribute to his fight to live, his hard work during rehab, his extra efforts during the many U.S. Paralympic soccer camps and his determination to be a winner makes me a very proud dad,” Garza said. “Go Team USA!”