Former LCU baseball player, Estacado coach Edward 'Hodie' Garcia dies at 74
Edward "Hodie" Garcia, former Lubbock Christian University baseball player and Estacado coach, died Tuesday at age 74.
In his first season as head coach in 1981, Garcia led the Matadors to their first baseball state tournament. Estacado fell 3-2 to South San Antonio West in the Class 4A championship. Garcia again guided the team to state the following season, which ended with a semifinal loss.
He was a catcher and co-captain at LCU — then Lubbock Christian College — when the school restarted its baseball program in 1971, according to Avalanche-Journal files. Garcia also played collegiately at Odessa College.
Garcia had a 600-369-7 career record in 35 years of coaching, according to the Victoria Advocate. He won the 1985 Class 5A state championship at Victoria Stroman, where he coached six seasons. Garcia also made stops at Odessa Ector, Del Rio, Harlingen, Port Lavaca Calhoun, Rio Grande City and Bloomington — his last job before retirement.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Former LCU player, Estacado coach Edward 'Hodie' Garcia dies at 74
