Courtesy of Ruben Bobadilla
Eddie Garcia, left, and Ruben Bobadilla, right, CSN freshman and former rec basketball player, who was coached by Garcia this summer pose for a photo.
Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022 | 2 a.m.
A flesh-eating bacteria that consumed his hands and feet has left Henderson resident Eddie Garcia unable to work or drive.
But with the help of prosthetics and an electric wheelchair, the 46-year-old remains active — especially when in the kitchen. His spaghetti dish and chicken tacos are family favorites. He draws inspiration for new dishes from Guy Fieri’s “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.”
“Believe it or not, the guy with no hands and feet is a guy that’s the only cook in the family,” he said. “I can whip you up anything in no time out of nothing.”
Garcia felt ill one day while in his office at Canyon Springs High School in 2012, where he worked as an administrator. He went home because he didn’t want to expose anyone to illness, and fell asleep.
Shortly after, Garcia was in the hospital, where doctors found that his internal organs were failing and put him into a coma. Their best guess was he would never wake up and estimated his chance of survival was no better than 20%.
The necrotizing fasciitis spread rapidly and doctors performed multiple surgeries on Garcia's leg, trying to clean it all out. He was left with no limbs, and limited to a wheelchair. But at least he was alive.
And at least he could still coach youth sports — his passion and therapy in his eight years post-sickness. In 2013, he won the Youth Coach of the Year Award from the National Alliance of Youth Sports.
Last summer was the first time since the outset of the pandemic in March 2020 that Garcia returned to the field, something he said would not be possible without the support of his wife, Antoinette Garcia.
He oversaw recreational basketball and soccer teams, assisted by his wife, who helped load and unload equipment from their car. His daughter, Haley, a sophomore at UNLV, was an assistant coach.
After being inactive for nearly two years, Garcia received a text message last summer from Arlene Williams, whose grandson Torase spends the summer in Southern Nevada and plays basketball for Garcia. It would be Torase’s first summer in two years and he wanted to have Garcia be part of it.
“It’s a total family, team effort, from the wife, to the kids, to myself to the community,” Garcia said. “I took that as a sign. I said, ‘You know what, it’s time for me to start coaching, get back in the swing of things.'”
Garcia is also a caregiver for his father-in-law, who is a cancer patient. He takes pride in monitoring the treatment through doctor's appointments and medication.
“My typical week basically revolves around my father-in-law,” he said. “The quarantine didn’t affect us so much because we were in quarantine before this point. Because of his cancer diagnosis, we had to be extra careful, for my father-in-law’s well-being.”
It’s part of his easygoing attitude and ceaseless support that has always defined their relationship, Antoinette Garcia said.
“I love that Eddie’s able to do this for me because I don’t know how we would do it if it was any other way,” she said. “We’re solid. We work through things very well.”
Ruben Bobadilla, a freshman at College of Southern Nevada and one of Garcia's former players, said the coach helped influence his life by teaching him about leadership.
“I mentioned to Eddie one time that I always wanted to coach a team, a team of my own,” Bobadilla said. “He basically told me, ‘This is this is how you start, by leading.’ So then he gave me that responsibility, and I was really grateful that he let me have the freedom to coach the team as a captain.”
