San Juanita, Coach Homer Martinez, and Keyshawn Garcia at the 2023 UIL 6A State Track and Field Championships
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Coach Homer Martinez has been coaching for a long time down in the Rio Grande Valley area of South Texas. He started at Falfurrias and has been in Edinburg since 1976. He's battle the best of the best dating back to epic cross country battles with power house programs like McCullough High School (now The Woodlands) and Kingwood.
This year, he coached two individual athletes who qualified for a combined four events at the UIL 6A state track and field meet taking home three gold medals. The successful 2023 seasons by San Juanita Leal and Keyshawn Garcia both had the same fingerprints on them as the past Falfurrias and Edinburg and North teams did.
Coach Martinez and Leal prepare to embrace after the UIL 6A girls 3200m at the 2023 UIL 6A state track and field championships
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Leal won the UIL 6A state titles and ran season bests of 2:13.01, 4:46.24 and 10:16.12 and Garcia ran season bests of 48.51, 1:48.22, 4:20.31 to finish 9th in the UIL 6A 400m and won the 800m. He ran the second fastest 800m in Texas history.
Martinez talks with William Grundy about the 2023 track and field season, his two state champion runner, as well as the upcoming cross country season.
