Darlo Todo: Andersson Garcia Gives His All

Home is where the heart is, and Andersson Garcia’s heart is in the Dominican Republic. Coming to America his sophomore year of high school, Garcia left his childhood home in order to reach his goal of becoming a collegiate basketball player in the United States.

Growing up Garcia spent a lot of time playing with friends in Moca, Dominican Republic. After years of trying to play baseball, Garcia found that his true love fell with the sport of basketball.

“I was playing baseball because of my friends, but at one point I started getting scared of the ball because it was coming too fast.” Garcia said.  “I did not want to be outside all the time in the sun. The Dominican is a tropical island, and the weather was bad, I could not do the heat. So, I decided to play basketball because it was more fun.”

He has never looked back.

Garcia moved to the United States in high school to pursue his dream of playing basketball at a higher level. He knew that this move would not only create opportunities for him on the court, but off the court as well. This opportunity, however, brought a handful of challenges. One of those that stood out was the language barrier.

“When I came to the States it was really hard for me because of the culture and the language,” Garcia said. “I came here not really knowing how to say anything in English. Even right now I still struggle but compared to how I was in high school it was really difficult for me to communicate with people.”

Despite the hardships, Garcia was able to overcome these challenges by leaning on fellow teammates and coaches. “There were people from Russia, Brazil and Romania on my team that were more advanced in the English language because that was something they had to learn in high school. In the Dominican we did not have to learn language like that.” 

After great success in high school, Garcia was recruited to play basketball at Mississippi State University where he appeared in 11 games his freshman year and 33 games in his sophomore season. He then transferred to Texas A&M and found his home. 

“The way the coaches work, and the athletes compete, they all had a lot of energy and worked really hard.” Garcia said. “These are characteristics that I identify with and that is reason I came to Texas A&M.”

His impact was immediately felt. Playing in 34 games, Garcia led the team in charges taken while averaging 3.2 points per game and 4.4 rebounds per game in his first season in Aggieland. He has become a fan favorite of the 12th Man as he has embraced the saying ‘Andy’s coming’, a reference to a character in the famous Disney movie, Toy Story.

Regardless of everything happening for Garcia, he has never forgotten his roots. Every year he sends basketball shoes back to the Dominican for kids who have bigger feet and don’t have the resources to get shoes that fit them correctly. 

“This is something that I really like to do. I was in the place where a lot of the people are in the Dominican right now where some of the kids have bigger feet and it is hard to find shoes.” Garcia explained. “Last year I was able to send about 25 pairs of shoes and a couple of weeks ago I sent about 50-60 pairs of shoes back home. And I will continue to do that.”

Garcia also has words of advice for kids in the Dominican who shares his aspirations. Explaining how important school is when trying to accomplish the goal of becoming a high-level collegiate athlete on scholarship in the United States.

“Take advantage of school and manage both basketball and school at the same time.” Garcia said. “I say that because a lot of people want to go to school back home and I want to be an example for them. If they don’t go to school, it will be hard for them to get a scholarship.”

Andy is working in the offseason to better his personal skill in order to contribute to the hard work that the Texas A&M men’s basketball team has been putting in all summer and this fall. As a team they have lots of goals for the upcoming season and Garcia looks to be a key role this year. 

“For the team, I want to play hard so that we have better results than we did last year because I feel that I can bring more to the table than what I did last year.” 

Home will always be the Dominican Republic for Andersson Garcia, but a piece of his heart now lies within Aggieland where he has found home through the relationships of his teammates and coaches as well as the overwhelming support from the 12th Man.