San Antonio's Paul Garnica Key To Northern Colorado's Success

Follow the link below to read a great story on San Antonio Lee & Texas D1 Ambassadors alumni Paul Garnica.  The Greeley, Co dtory focuses on the quality of Paul's character and what a great team mate he has been as Northern Colorado has punched it's ticket to The Dance.

http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20110314/SPORTS/703149972/1051&ParentProfile=1001
Jake Kocher (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) & Paul Garnica (Northern Colorado) shown below with the Texas D1 Ambassadors

Not too many things in the basketball world bother me, but one thing that stuck in my craw a year ago was hearing some talk that Paul Garnica was a "hot dog", a ball hog, only cared about his scoring stats, etc.  His role at Lee was to score and he did everything Coach Tommy Hines asked of him.  Sure Garnica played with a chip on his shoulder.  He had to. He wanted to get out of San Antonio and build a better life using basketball as his vehicle.

Garnica played two seasons with the Texas D1 Ambassadors top team.  The first year, he never complained as both he and Cody Doolin (San Francisco) apprenticed and understudied behind Garland Judkins (Arizona/Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) & Brandon Thompson (Arizona State).  The following season when he & Doolin took over the leadership role, Paul sacrificed his own scoring to get other players involved and he served as a mentor for the younger players (Kocher & Tre Demps (Northwestern).  Paul encouraged and when appropriate got on his team mates to do bigger and better things.  You could see his leadership qualities blossoming.

When Colorado Coach Tad Boyle & Northern Colorado Coach B.J. Hill asked me Paul's best quality I told them in no uncertain terms that it wasn't his shooting , ballhandling & scoring.  It was his leadership.  It should make all of San Antonio & the Hispanic Community proud to see him have this early success.  Congratulations Paul-Coach Max & the D1 Ambassadors Family