Friends, family remember teen who brightened lives

By Rich Coleman

Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010 | 2:34 a.m.

David Overstreet met David “Huggy” Garcia when Overstreet was a freshman at football spring training. Garcia was a year older, but he instantly became a friend, Overstreet said.

What really struck Overstreet about Garcia, however, was how he always smiled and looked on the bright side of things — even during the most grueling drills.

“We did...really long, exhausting exercises,” Overstreet said. “He would always smile about it. I’m like, ‘How do you do that?’ And he’s like, ‘I don’t know.’”

It quickly became evident Friday night that Garcia — “Huggy” or “Huggy Bear” as he was known to virtually everyone — was best known for that trait that kept him smiling: His undying optimism.

It was made loud and clear at a memorial for Garcia at Green Valley High School on Friday night.

Garcia, 18, died Monday after a yearlong battle with leukemia.

His brother Juan Rodriguez doesn’t believe his brother was bested by the disease. In the end, he said, his brother’s optimism triumphed over his illness. Even in the very end, Garcia wrote on the whiteboard in his hospital room, “Even through the hard times, there is still some good.”

“Cancer didn’t beat him. Let’s get that clear,” Rodriguez said. “I talked to David the whole time (he was sick). When I left last Thursday, he told me...‘I love you and I’ll see you soon. I’m not going to stop fighting.’”

“I said, ‘I know you’re not. I’m going to see you soon.”

Garcia’s positive outlook was contagious. Though the memorial saw many reaching for tissues, gripping each other’s hands and grieving, there were plenty of laughs and smiles, too.

Friend and teammate Chris LaRue said he would miss Garcia’s sense of humor.

“You know how he always cracked those lame jokes but then we’d always just laugh at them because they were funny?” LaRue said to those in the audience who let out a collective laugh, as if they all had their own experiences to draw from.

“He always knew how to brighten the mood. I’m going to miss that positivity,” LaRue said.

David Hudson, another friend and teammate, was in Georgia when he received news of Garcia’s death via Facebook.

“I heard Huggy passed away and I was like, ‘Nah. I can’t believe y’all. I can’t even understand that,’” Hudson said. “But when I looked at my Facebook and it said, ‘Rest in peace, Huggy,’ it brought tears to my eyes.”

“I love you, Huggy, as a brother. And I wish I could tell him that,” he said.

Later, members of the football team gathered on stage and presented Garcia’s family with three of his No. 79 jerseys.

Not only did the family receive the jerseys, but they were told that Green Valley High School was going to retire his number. Amidst a whirlwind of applause, the Garcia-Rodriguez family hugged as many football players as they could.

“That’s a huge, huge gesture,” Garcia’s brother Juan said. “My brother’s number will be retired forever.”

Garcia’s father, Hernando Rodriguez, said he had plans for what to do with Garcia’s jerseys.

“We’re going to get all the jerseys and helmets and everything and put it in his room. I want to walk into his room and feel my son is there,” Rodriguez said. “It means a lot, because we know only the best have their own number. It’s an honor to see that my son is the last one to wear that number.”

At the end of the night, the group of at least 150 people gathered on the Green Valley High School football field with candles. As they formed a circle on the field, the Garcia-Rodriguez family gathered in the middle with their candles and, suddenly, the lights in the stadium went out.

Illuminated by the glow of the candles, LaRue led those on the field to a final chant for their friend Huggy.

“Everybody raise up your candles for Huggy,” LaRue said. As they raised their candles, they shouted, “Huggy! Huggy! Huggy!”

When asked what he would do now that his friend was gone, Overstreet — like Huggy — was optimistic.

“I’ll stay in his afterlife and he’ll stay in mine,” he said.