RGV Capsules: Garza staying busy as lockout drags on
RIO HONDO — Robert Garza is making the most of it.
As the NFL lockout continues and players are still not allowed to report to team facilities, the Chicago Bears’ offensive lineman is doing what he can to stay busy.
Whether its spending time with his wife, Ashley, and daughter, Isla, or weight training and even boxing, Garza is trying just trying to stay positive throughout the whole situation.
On Thursday, Garza played host to the 4th annual Roberto Garza Skills and Drills football camp in his homestown of Rio Hondo.
Steady downpours forced the camp indoors and into the gym at Rio Hondo High School and shortened the camp. But it didn’t keep nearly 150 campers from showing up to get a free one-on-one lesson from their hometown hero.
The camp was just one of many things with which Garza is occupying himself these days. His 1-year-old daughter is another.
“She changes every day,” Garza said. “And I love spending time with her. But you start getting that itch. You wanna go out there and spend time with your buddies and you just wanna play some football.”
On Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smith met in Minneapolis for the fourth straight day in hopes of putting an end to what is now the league’s longest work stoppage, according to Associated Press reports.
The lockout, which began on March 12, has now gone well past the 100-day mark.
The two sides will meet again after the holiday weekend optimistic they can put an end to the labor dispute, which basically means figuring out how to split the $9 billion in revenues created by the NFL, according to AP reports.
There are other issues at stake in the discussions, but reaching an agreement on the revenue split would be a major factor in moving forward with the NFL season, according to AP reports.
For Garza, an agreement can’t come soon enough. The majority of training camps get under way at the end of July. The Hall of Fame game is scheduled for Aug. 7 between Garza’s Bears and and the St. Louis Rams.
Failure to come to terms on an agreement could delay the start of training camps and some exhibition games. Garza said there’s not much he can do except get ready for the season.
Fortuately for Garza, he’s not one to just sit around, literally or figuratively. Growing up in Rio Hondo, Garza’s parents taught him the value of hard work at an early age.
When he speaks to youth in Chicago or back home in Rio Hondo, like he did on Thursday, one of his major speaking points is expressing the importance of hard work.
“I’m sure people are tired of hearing my story,” Garza said. “But I like to talk to them about what it takes to play in the NFL and, more importantly, what it takes to live out a dream.”
From his playing days as a Bobcats player to walking on and making the team at Texas A&M-Kingsville to fulfilling a dream and getting drafted by the Atlanta Falcons with the 99th overall pick of the 2001 NFL Draft, Garza never took a day off.
And just because Garza’s quasi-unemployed at the moment, don’t expect him to take a day off now.
“I’m still in training,” Garza said. “As you get older, you have to make sure you stay in shape. I started boxing and I do that twice a week.
“I hope at some point we start playing football again. But I just enjoy working out and I do as much as I can to keep busy these days. I’ll also play a little golf on the side when I can .”
Garza has played in 10 NFL seasons already, and the NFL veteran is really hoping there’ll be an 11th. Garza was 22 years old when he got picked by the Atlanta Falcons.
In his third season at Atlanta, Garza, 32, and the Falcons played the Phildelphia Eagles in the NFC title game for a chance to advance to the Super Bowl.
The next year he was released by Atlanta and signed by the Bears. In 2007, Chicago beat the New Orleans Saints to advance to the Super Bowl against Indianapolis. Last year, the Bears lost to the Green Bay Packers in the NFC title game again.
So in 10 years, Garza has enjoyed quite a ride in the NFL. The Valley boy has proved time and time again that hard work indeed pays off.
Garza is one of the good guys. And like most NFL fans, he’s praying this labor dispute is settled soon.
“I just love the game,” Garza said. “Every chance I get to step on the field is a great feeling. I’m not as young as I used to be and the recovery, week after week, is the hardest part. But I feel like I can still play and I’m going to play as long as I can.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Eladio Jaimez covers sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 430-6285 or via e-mail at eladioj@valleystar.com.
Olympics
McLelland working back into shooting form
Maybe in one sense, Sharyland grad Sean McLelland is lucky he tore his right ACL when he did. Last December, McLelland tore the knee ligament skiing in Wolf Creek, Colo. McLelland, who finished 11th at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in men’s skeet shooting, couldn’t train for five months.
While those five months were bad to lose, at least he has time to get back into form for the two qualifying events for the 2012 Olympics, the first of which will be held in September. The top two combined scores from those two events, the second of which is in March, will make Team USA for next summer’s London Games.
“He’s not back to top form yet but he’s getting there,” longtime coach Steve Schultz said. “He’s getting there. He’s close.”
Though you might not think of skeet shooting as a sport that requires healthy knees, it is. The knees are needed to pivot and move one’s body toward each target. Because of the injured knee, McLelland couldn’t do that and lost valuable time training.
“If you take your knee out of the equation, you lose mobility of twisting your hips,” McLelland said.
But as Schultz said, McLelland is getting closer to where he was before the injury, which saw him win a silver medal at the 2010 World Cup in Acapulco, Mexico. At that event, he scored a 149 (out of 150), one off a world record.
McLelland, who graduated from Sharyland in 2004, is based in Colorado Springs, Colo. at the United States Olympic Training Center. To recover from the injury, McLelland spent five days a week rehabbing.
It looks like it’s paying off. Last weekend, in only his second competition of the year, McLelland finished third at the USA National Shooting Championships after losing a shoot-off for second. The third-place finish is something that gave him confidence moving forward after a rough first competition of the year.
“That was a good, defining moment,” McLelland said. “It showed I was back in and I was shooting (well).”
The knee, however, isn’t quite 100 percent. Schultz said there’s still some swelling in it, though that’s just because of the “aggressive” rehab. But it’s still a challenge Schultz would have liked to avoid.
When he heard about the injury, Schultz said he was mostly upset about the fact it happened and what it could mean. But he also conceded there was a part of him upset it happened skiing.
Regardless, McLelland still has a chance to recover from it in time for a second trip to the Olympics.
“We’re on a schedule and a track to compete for an Olympic berth and that was a major setback,” Schultz said. “He’s fought back really well.”
Brian Sandalow covers sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4436 or via e-mail at bsandalow@themonitor.com.
Independent Baseball
Concepcion pitches WhiteWings past Roadrunners
HARLINGEN – Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings starting pitcher Alexander Concepcion struck out seven in 6 2/3 innings to beat the Edinburg Roadrunners 5-3 on Saturday at Harlingen Field.
The WhiteWings (20-16) are 11-2 against the Roadrunners (15-21) this season after taking four of games in this series.
Concepcion (4-3) retired six of the first seven hitters he faced, but R.J. Harris led off the top of the third inning with a home run to straightaway center field to make it 1-0.
The WhiteWings answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning against Jorge Quintero (2-4). Brandon Decker led off with a walk and Francisco Santana reached on a fielder’s choice.
Wilmer Pino followed with an RBI single and David Peralta hit into an RBI fielder’s choice. One out later, Gerardo Avila hit an RBI single, moved ahead two bases on a passed ball and a wild pitch and scored on a single by Eric Gonzalez.
Santana hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth to put the WhiteWings up 5-1.
The Roadrunners put two on with two out in the seventh to set up an RBI single by C.J. Beatty to knock out Concepcion. Danny Rondon escaped the inning, but allowed a solo home run to Osiel Flores in the eighth to bring the Roadrunners within 5-3.
Edgar Martinez pitched a scoreless ninth for his 12th save.
The WhiteWings welcome the San Angelo Colts to town for the first game of a four-game series at 7:05 p.m. Sunday. Right-hander Eric Blackwell (1-2, 2.46) is expected to pitch for the WhiteWings.
-- WhiteWings Services
Colts sweep Thunder
SAN ANGELO - The San Angelo Colts handed the McAllen Thunder their fourth straight loss, 14-9 on Saturday at Foster Field. The win is the Colts’ sixth in a row, and they have won seven of their last eight at home.
Colts infielder Landon Camp retuned to the lineup Saturday, taking the second pitch he saw off of the light post in left field. In the eighth, Camp sent another ball out. The Colts hit eight balls out of Foster Field and went back-to-back twice. Camp and Clay Calfee did it in the second, while Ronnie Gaines and Cory Patton went long in the fourth inning. Danny Hernandez went 2 for 4, knocking two balls out of the park, scoring two runs to go with two RBIs and racking up a slugging percentage of 1.000.
Righty Gorman Romero (3-0, 5.79) is 11-0 as a Colts starter over the past two seasons. Romero went 5 innings, allowing six runs on 10 hits, striking out three. The Thunder's Shawn Wilyman (0-2, 7.94) recorded the loss, giving up eight runs off of 11 hits and striking out seven through four innings.
The Colts take on the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings on Sunday. Brian Henschel (2-4, 5.57) will get the start for the Colts.
-- Colts Services
