Former LB Cayden Garcia prepares for new position at Minooka

Cayden Garcia put forth a solid season as a starting linebacker for Minooka last fall.

And it would have been easy for Minooka to simply consider that position handled by the incumbent with no real need to explore alternatives at the position.

It also would have been easy for Garcia to have bristled when the Minooka coaching staff approached him with its desire to uproot Garcia from the position and move him to a position on the defensive line.

But that wasn’t how Garcia chose to react.

“I feel good about it. I think it’s better for me personally, just the way I’m built and how I move, I think I’d be better on the line when I was at linebacker,” Garcia said. “I was happy. I was excited. I knew they [the coaching staff] know what’s best for me. If that’s what they think, that’s what’s best for me.”

Garcia allowed himself to be supplanted from his established position to make room for promising sophomore Brady Kozlowski to slide into that vacancy. But Minooka coach Matt Harding believes Garcia is going to be a major impact performer regardless of where he lines up.

“He’s now a three-year starter for us and has played outside linebacker for two years. He’s 6-2, 240-some pounds. He moves extremely fast. He’s physical, benches over 315, threw over 50 feet in the shot put as a junior in the spring,” Harding said. “I’m looking for him to have a breakout year with our defensive line.

“He’s just shored up our defensive end position big time.”

Garcia is looking forward to using his linebacker skills to make him a potentially dangerous and more productive player on the defensive line.

“I think having the linebacker experience will help me,” Garcia said. “I’m going to be faster off the ball, because I play with linebacker speed and I have the strength to play defensive line as well.

“Because now I know, from a linebacker point, I kind of was reading what plays other teams are running, and I see that from a D-line point as well. It is going to lead to quicker reactions, quicker reads and scope of everything for me.”

Garcia also is looking forward to becoming a part of a group of players in the trenches that has established itself as the foundation of some of the successful teams Minooka has put together in the past. At the recent Naperville North Jamboree that featured several prominent large-school programs, Minooka won both the 7-on-7 and the lineman challenge portions of the event.

“We’re gonna put the state on notice this year, for sure,” Garcia said. “We’ve got a lot of guys coming back. We got a lot of dudes stepping up, you know? We got guys in places we’re gonna make plays and make big things happen.

“It’s a snowball effect and just working hard every day. Getting 1% better every day, and I think we’re gonna do that.”

“I was happy. I was excited. I knew they [the coaching staff] know what’s best for me. If that’s what they think, that’s what’s best for me.”

—  Cayden Garcia, Minooka football standout