Garcia’s left foot helpful

ORANGE — Jesus Garcia, a future junior soccer player at Estancia High, has at least one trait in common with seven U.S. presidents, but it didn’t really get him anywhere until this year.

Garcia — like James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman, Harold Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton — is left-handed. And when he plays soccer, he’s left-footed.

Friday, Garcia’s left foot was helping the Irvine Strikers post a 1-0 win over the Conchorde Fire of Atlanta in the second game of the Red Bull National League Under-17 tournament.

But earlier this summer, the same foot took him all the way across the country, which was a pretty dramatic shift.

Garcia, who immigrated with his family to Costa Mesa from Mazatlan, Mexico as an 8-year-old, said he’d never been farther away from home than Santa Ana, less than 10 miles away.

This summer, Garcia, 16, traveled with the Strikers to Greensboro, N.C. to play in the U.S. Club National Championships. It was his first time on an airplane.

“I got the pleasure of sitting next to him on his first flight,” said Strikers coach Tim Leonard. “He was a little nervous, a little white knuckled, but he got through it. He was a trooper.”

Garcia’s fascination with being a few thousand feet in the air didn’t last too long.

“It was cool. The first 10 minutes, when you look down, everything looks cool from that high up, but then it gets boring after a little bit, and you get tired of it,” he said.

Garcia, who used to play for the Pateadores of Mission Viejo, has been with the Strikers for about eight weeks, but he didn’t really settle in until the trip to North Carolina.

“We were all together, so we had to bond,” Garcia said. He didn’t see much besides soccer pitches and the inside of his hotel room, but the experience still heightened Garcia’s interest in traveling.

“It motivates me,” Garcia said. “Challenging myself and being on a team like this, you play better players and you work hard. It makes college coaches look at you.”

Garcia said he switched teams because the Pateadores were a silver league team, and the Strikers are a premier league team, and he wanted to push his limits.

“I’ve been really impressed with him since he got with us,” Leonard said. “We’ve been really looking for a left-footed player, and Jesus has really filled the role. He plays well up top. I can play him out wide on the midfield and everything that I’ve gotten from him so far has been positive.”

This weekend marked the first event of the RBNL’s second season. The Strikers, who posted a 1-0 win over Scott Gallagher of St. Louis Thursday, are currently tied for first place in the Western Region standings with Nomads SC of La Hoya. Garcia scored the game-winning goal against Scott Gallagher in the 50th minute of the game.

The Strikers, essentially an under-16 team, have had early success playing up against older squads so far, and will see if their beginner’s luck continues today when they play CASL Elite of Raleigh, NC today at 1:00 p.m.

“It’s an honor for us because we thought we were going to get killed every game,” Garcia said. “We just came in here thinking just do our best and see what comes out of it, but realized with all the hard work we put into it that we can beat teams that are really tough.”

The basic mantra this season, Leonard said, has been consistent, almost relentless defense.

“I’ve been preaching team defense and staying connected, not getting spread out over this large field, but staying compact as a team,” Leonard said. “They’ve really done that and [Garcia] really has worked hard defensively. He’s willing to do the dirty work as well as scoring goals for us.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at [email protected].