Julianne Prokopich

He stands at five feet, seven inches tall with pitch-black hair, chocolate, passive eyes and an olive-like complexion. He can speak as fast as he can get to any ball. His strong Spanish accent echoes “vamos,” meaning “go,” after he strikes a winning forehand down the line. Who is this athletic star? A tennis “slave” has risen from an underprivileged Mexican family to reach the “land of opportunity.”

Erick Garcia was born in Tierra Blanca Vera Cruz, Mexico on Dec. 24, 1980. Garcia has worked his way to the top of collegiate tennis at Niagara University. He was the lone Purple Eagle to win 10 or more matches in the 2003-2004 season, posting an 11-8 overall record, 11-6 in team competition and 5-2 in Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play. Garcia was ranked No. 8 in Mexico for the under 18 division and toured Mexico competing in junior tournaments since the age of 12.

Garcia, a junior, has also made his mark academically, making the MAAC All-Academic Team in 2003-2004 with a 3.38 cumulative GPA in business commerce and management. 

Garcia was born into a country where the bottom 40 percent of the population share only 11 percent of the wealth and are considered living below the Mexican poverty line. Many families live in total poverty and children are compelled to work on the streets to earn an income. Lower social economic class families in Mexico, like Erick’s, do not own property, a house, automobile, land or have public services such as water and electricity. Furthermore, when his father Enrique died of a heart attack when Garcia was only 12, his mother was left to raise a family on her own. 

“My mom is my hero,” Garcia said passionately. Garcia’s mother, Eloisa Elizalde had no education and worked full time at the local tennis club’s restaurant. “We are where we are today because of her,” he said.

After his father’s death, Erick dropped out of school for the next year to help his family financially. There was great difficulty finding adequate paying work in higher social and cultural environments because the middle class held a “mediocrity mentality,” said Garcia.  “In some way the system makes you a slave, but more often people simply give up the idea of becoming someone important,” Garcia said.

But Garcia never gave up. Everyday he would go to work with his mother. “I had nothing to do, so I would make friends with the ball boys,” he said. Later, as a ball boy, he would practice against the wall and teach himself the game. His skills grew so rapidly that by the age of 16, he was recruited by a high performance tennis academy called Guido Lorandi Tennis Center where he “ate, slept and dreamed tennis.”

Over the next two years, Guido sponsored his tennis career via lessons and tournaments in return for working 10 hours a day that paid a mere $1 an hour. “I felt like a slave,” he said, “I was working so hard and I wasn’t getting enough.” But Garcia’s dream of turning professional was becoming ever-increasingly attainable as he moved from 200 to top 10 in the junior ranks since joining Guido’s academy.

After turning 19, Garcia’s friends were going to the United States to play collegiate tennis while he was left behind teaching tennis at the academy. “I had to think about my future.” Ironically, one of Garcia’s previous students at Guido relayed information about a coaching opportunity in Canada. Garcia contacted Niagara Academy’s owner, Leslie Murch, who took in Garcia to teach upcoming Venezuelan tennis players in his native tongue.

But Garcia set even higher goals after arriving in Canada. “I had to learn English if I wanted to get an American athletic scholarship." At age 21, assistant coach Kevin Blair recruited Garcia and he became the first man from his family to attend college.

Garcia has credited his escape from Mexican hardship to his determination. “The way you play is the way you are,” Garcia said. His persistency and drive to get every ball back is evident to his teammates. “Erick’s resiliency to win on the court and in the classroom is beginning to rub off on his teammates,” coach Jason Joseph said.

“You have to try hard to achieve things and even if you fail once or twice, there’s always a second chance,” Garcia said. He has put his philosophy into action spreading the passion for the game to the people who surround him.

Through Garcia’s perseverance to get an athletic scholarship, he has paved the way for other Mexicans to play tennis while getting an education. Garcia’s younger brother Walter followed in his brother’s footsteps becoming Niagara’s newest freshman recruit. "Erick gave my name to Leslie and as a result has opened doors of opportunities otherwise not presented in Mexico," Walter said.

Garcia plans to use his business degree to manage and finance the Guido Academy of Tennis back in Mexico. “Tennis makes me comfortable,"  he said. “It is very productive and you never stop learning.” Garcia continues to instill the love of tennis into the minds of his tennis students.

His mother instilled personal integrity as one of life’s key concepts to becoming successful, while Garcia contends that perseverance achieves success. And that is what Garcia has shown as he continues to prove his cynics wrong.