Garcia signs with Northwest Shoals CC

R U S S E L LV I L L E — Tharptown’s Angel Garcia is continuing his cross-country career after recently signing with Northwest Shoals Community College, where he will be reunited with his former head coach, Joseph Brown.

Garcia’s personal record time in the 5K is 17:42.

“It feels a little weird,” Garcia said of rejoining his old coach. “He expected a lot out of me, and he was tough. After he left, I continued to work and get better, and I started to realize that I have what it takes to be a good runner.”

Garcia said his passion for running grew over the course of his high school career.

“I didn’t really have a passion to begin with,” he explained. “I was just told I would be good at it, so I followed through with it, and once I ran my first race, it was amazing. Since I got first on the team, I felt like everything around me had meaning.”

Garcia plans on pursuing a career in aerospace engineering, which he felt was the path he wanted to take as a result of his experience from being a part of Tharptown’s rocketry team, which finished first in the nation and second internationally.

“I plan on pursuing aerospace engineering because it is a challenging course that I would like to tackle,” Garcia said. “I also want to figure out how much more we as humans can pass our limits. What lies out there for us to discover? How can we reach the unthinkable or beyond this world?

“I really love doing challenging things as well,” he added. “Like when I got bad at running in my sophomore year I decided to get better and never give up until I reached my goals.”