After 9 seasons, football coach at Modesto’s Davis High steps down. Here’s what’s next

Tim Garcia says he enjoyed every second he spent on the sidelines for Davis High football, drawing up plays, running practices, mentoring young students and leading the team to wins.

Now, he wants to invest more time into family.

After nine seasons as Davis High’s head football coach, Garcia stepped down in the spring. He will remain the school’s athletic director.

“It’s the crossroads that we’re at as a family and in my life,” said Garcia. “My kids are getting older … and I’ve been coaching football for 19 years. It’s just trying to do what’s best for my kids, my family and my wife and making sure that I’m present and available.”

In 2014, Garcia took over as head coach, leading the team to a 5-5 record. The next three seasons, the team did not manage more than four wins, and it won six games in 2018 and lost just twice in 2019, finishing 8-2.

After a COVID-shortened spring season in 2021, Garcia and the Spartans made school history, becoming the first Davis High team to win a league championship in 20 years and securing the first 10-0 regular season since 1984. He was named the 2021 Bee Football Coach of the Year.

“To be able to see the fruits of our labor from where we started and where it’s at now is really the reason why I came back,” Garcia said. “I wanted to help put them back on the map, give them some respect to the community and have kids be excited about wearing the green and gold again.”

Garcia did not have to look far to find his successor: Offensive coordinator Trevor Mew has taken over as head coach. The team practiced during the Sac-Joaquin Section’s designated summer workout period, which ends July 2.

Garcia said of Mew, “He’s seen what we’ve evolved to and where we’re at as a program, and it’s really neat for me to be able to hand the keys over to him knowing that we’ve been together for almost 20 years. There’s nobody else that I would want to take over the football program at Davis because I know he believes in what we’ve done the last 12 years.”

Garcia coached Mew at Central Valley when the school opened in 2005, Mew’s freshman year. Then, a 14-year-old, Mew was Garcia’s first quarterback in the Hawks upstart football program (the school opened in 2005 and had just a junior varsity team) and turned into a three-year starter for Garcia at the varsity level before graduating in 2009. Mew then spent time as quarterback at Modesto Junior College and Merced Community College.

“If there’s anybody that understands my philosophy, my vision, my style, my belief system, it’s going to be him.” Garcia said.

Mew spent his first seven seasons as the Davis junior varsity football head coach and offensive coordinator until last season, when Garcia promoted him to varsity offensive coordinator in preparation for when he would take over the program.

“Now he’ll be able to put in a little bit of a twist here and there with his own style, but I think he believes in the foundation and why we do things and how we do things and it’ll be really neat to see it evolve and get better.”

Garcia still will be around the game, as he will work with the quarterbacks at Central Catholic, where his daughter will be a freshman in the fall.

“The next four years are going to go by super fast.” he said.

Garcia starred at quarterback for the Spartans before a decorated college career that started at Modesto Junior College and continued at the University of Mary where he threw for 5,154 yards and 58 touchdowns and led the Marauders to a 19-4 record in his junior and senior years.

After spending the 2005 through 2011 seasons as head coach at Central Valley High, Garcia returned to Davis High in 2012 where he began his time as athletic director and began as the team’s offensive coordinator under former head coach Chris Cloward.

He led the Spartans to 39 wins from 2014 to 2022.

Garcia remains invested in the Davis High community as the school’s AD. Modesto City Schools this year is requiring all athletic director positions to become full time. He said he is excited about still being involved with students on a daily basis and about the future of the school and its football program.

“I’m excited to see what we can do and with me being the AD, I can still have an impact on that,” he said. “I want to continue to try to have an impact on the campus and on the kids in the community and make the Davis community proud.”