One, two, three...
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 years old.
As the Iowa Lady Jackets embark on the 2011 basketball season, a vital part of their spirit
is missing, with the loss of their key senior point guard.
Mercedes Garcia was driving on Highway 3059 on October 28th before her IOA cross-country
team's senior night.
What happened on that drive was devastating, as Mercedes lost control of her car and suffered
fatal injuries.
At just 17 years old, Mercedes died the next day at Herman Memorial Hospital in Houston.
From the, I'll never forget, when she was born, my grandma went to the house to check
on us and she picked up Mercedes and she lifted her up in there and she looked at her.
She just smiled and she turned to my mom and she said, you bet, this is the one, you know,
this is the special one right here.
And it was so true, she was so special, you know, Mercedes was just full of energy, she
was a firecracker, I tell people, you know.
She was so small, I don't think the coaches saw her potential so she didn't make it and
she didn't make it again.
Finally, in eighth grade, she made the team and that's what started it all.
So when she went to high school, she was full of fire and she was ready to try out for everything.
That's Mercedes.
When she got to practice, she would have thought she was playing for a state championship
because that's how hard she went and everything and she still never felt it was good enough.
One day they hid from me because I went outside and they turned off all the lights in here.
I was walking, I thought they left me because it was for her game.
So I'm looking for everybody and like, I can't find them, they're hitting our coaches office
and I'm like, man, I can't find anybody and then I hear Mercedes laughing because she probably,
I found out that she ripped her pants trying to get off the top of a, of being in the top
of our coaches office and I was like, oh my gosh, that, that sounds like classic Mercedes.
That was hilarious.
It was just good times and we danced around in a locker room and stuff like that because
she loved to dance, so just a good time and she would always bring new music for us to
play and just play.
Mercedes Garcia was Iowa High School as family and teammates recall.
Not only did she play sports across the board, but she reigned as homecoming queen this past
football season.
On the basketball team, Mercedes was both an energizer and a friend.
Mercedes, bringing her signature smile even when times got tough.
On the court, it's just, I don't know, it's just like, we, we feel a presence now, like
when we play, it's just there, like we know where to go now.
It's like on the court, when we're playing, it's like, where would Mercedes pass it?
You know, where would she want the ball at?
Let's see if we can get it there, you know, and it's making us a better place.
Every year, I make them write an essay about what this basketball team means to them and
I give them a due date and a time.
Well, the due date was on that Friday morning.
It was like three weeks before the accident and it had to be in by 7.45, where she was
sitting in the bleachers trying to hurry up and start the essay and finish the essay all
in a matter of like 10 minutes.
So the bell rang, she covered up, she was like, here's my essay, I didn't get to finish
it, but do I have to run?
And I was like, no, you don't have to run, just give me your essay.
Well, then I didn't have time to read it that day and so I stuck all the essays in my book
bag and then I carried them around for three weeks and I never read them because I was
very angry at how immature my team was and we graduated five seniors last year and the
girls just didn't seem to be stepping up.
So I didn't want to hear what they had to say about the team.
So I was really going to throw the essays away.
Well, the Friday of the accident, I tried to throw them away, but my trash can was full
and I was like, duck gum it.
So I put them back in my bag and I brought them home and then as I was driving home
Sunday, I was like, her essay, I wonder what Mercedes wrote.
So I pull over on the side of the road and I pull out the essay and when I do, my bones
just went cold and I read it and it is like an inspiration for us to live every day the
fullest and it's her way of telling us goodbye and the timing couldn't have been more perfect.
Yeah, what did she say that this team meant to her?
That we were a family on good days and bad days, that when it became senior night those
would be the best and the worst day, worst night of her life and you know, we're all
thinking basketball senior night, but hindsight, the day of the wreck, she was trying to get
back for her cross country senior night at the football field and then it said about
living every day to the fullest because no matter how much she gave, she never felt like
it was enough and that's Mercedes.
When she got to practice, she would have thought she was playing for a state championship
because that's how hard she went and everything and she still never felt it was good enough.
And so I told the girls, build off of that, you know, as an inspiration to live every
day, like it's your last, give everything you have and then that's still not enough.
And then at the end of the letter, it says the best of something of my and she doesn't
even finish it, the word life is not right there.
So it's like you can fill in what you want in the blank, the best time of your life,
your day, your week, your year and it's like she left it for us to fill in and I said,
so now we owe it to her to fill in every day.
We have to fill that blank in.
So for her to live only 17 years and just to hear all the stories about what she's done
for people and how she's touched their lives, it means so much to me and that's what's been
helping me get through a lot of this stuff and you know, with the team and stuff like
that, just to hear all the good that she's done.
This means a lot to me, you know, and just how much she's pushed them and it really
makes you want to push yourself.
You know, when you hear, you know, like I said, this young kid, you know, she's doing
all this and just inspiring all these people makes you want to do that too and really look
back on your life and, you know, ask yourself what you're doing, you know, because I promise
tomorrow, you don't know what, you know, today holds and.
How much a part of them she was and still is and it makes me proud and makes me proud
and my heart full because I know how much she was loved and what an honor for the kids
to just be inspired to want to play even harder and do it because they know Mercedes would
have been there hollering at them and pushing them to go and to do it and it just, it makes
me really proud, really proud.
