Jake Garcia's parents had to legally separate for the 4-star QB to be eligible to play after transfer to Georgia high school
Parents often don’t get enough credit when it comes to the sacrifices they make for their children. In the case of Jake Garcia’s parents, they literally ended their marriage — at least, temporarily — to help the four-star quarterback compete on the field for his senior season of high school football.
If you haven’t been following Garcia’s story, the California native is one of the elite high school quarterback prospects in the nation for the 2021 recruiting cycle. 247Sports Composite Rankings list Garcia as the No. 4 pro-style passer in the country and the No. 39 overall recruit in the nation.
Back in September of 2019, Garcia committed to USC and looks to be the next in a long line of touted signal-callers to play for the Trojans. While that’s still the case, Garcia’s senior season at La Habra High School was derailed when California announced that no high school football would be allowed to be played in the state this fall.
Instead of sitting out the final season of his high school football career, Garcia found an opening with Rush Propst’s Valdosta High program in Georgia. So Garcia packed his bags, moved across the country and plans to finish his high school career at Valdosta before signing with USC.
The only problem with that plan?
Georgia requires all moves like this one to be a “bona fide move,” meaning the athlete must move with his parents in order to be eligible to play according to Mark Schlabach of ESPN.
Garcia’s mom, Yvonne, couldn’t make the move from California to Georgia because of her job so his father, Randy, legally separated from his wife to move with Jake to the Peach State.
Talk about a commitment to football.
“It’s been hard, but it’s worth it,” Yvonne said. “It’s a sacrifice and it’s worth it.”
Randy and Yvonne plan on getting back together after the season.
If USC had any doubts regarding the commitment to football from their latest QB pledge, this story should end any doubts on that matter.
Photo credit: Los Angeles Times
That’s not commitment, that’s insanity. On the other end, is there any other high school coach as shady as Propst?
Why is this article under a Georgia logo? It has nothing at all to do with UGA. Get a Valdosta logo or use the PAC 12 logo.
Exactly. It should have been under a Valdosta State logo. Wait. He’s not going to Valdosta State. It should have been under a USC logo. Wait. Southern Cal is not exactly SDS territory. So, Michael, tell us, why exactly is this article even ON this website?
It’s just to piss off ugarmyretard! It worked!
Another Tennessee fan full of …….class.
YOU ASKED THE SAME QUESTION I WAS GOING TO!!!! This is NOT UGA related!!!
KN
MICHAEL WAYNE BRATTON AKA THE BRAT IS FIGHTING WITH HIS BOYFRIEND!!!!!
PS. He is just angry. LOL.
KN
None that I have ever seen or known are as shady as this guy? He should be banned from the game! Is this what we want to teach our kids
1. There’s plenty of states playing football that are closer than Georgia
2. You picked the State of Georgia, great. But why on earth would you go to a team coached by Propst?
Because 1. Valdosta is the Winningiest High School in the nation. 2. Ain’t no other football Like South GA football and if you really want to find out how good you are come here. Ask Jake how the speed was the first game he had to get use to the speed and power!!
I’ll take a losing season before I take my kid across country to play for a scumbag like Propst.
No, that would be Washington HS, Massillon, Ohio. Fewer season wins but more national and state championships. It’s easy to pile up season wins when you’re the biggest small town in the middle of nowhere.
Titletown USA, a film by ESPN, may have influenced him.
It’s still not South Georgia High School football. We live for it in South Georgia.
Faith, family, farming/food and football. (Learn the F’s)
South Georgia football is like no other? Really? Texas football? Florida? Schools like John Curtis in Louisiana?
Bruh…get off of the weed
South Georgia, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, even Commiefornia high school football is top notch. Hopefully, these same areas will become as strong in riflery as Middle Tennessee, where you can send your kids to “Advance Rifle Camp” in the summer, so they can be ready for 2021.
Maybe he want to play for Winner and not the chump ahh HighSchool that don’t care about winning. Put some respect on Valdosta name!!!
The Valdosta name will have no respect with your peice of crap head coach. That’s why the Packers trashed him. His a cheater and a liar. Everyone knows it. This is coming from a Packer Backer.
But why? He’s got his offer, he’s committed to his school. What does he have to gain from playing one more season of HS ball thousands of miles away? If you can afford to pack up and move like that, can’t you afford to just train away until January?
He’ll fall behind in terms of practice and game reps. You can only simulate so much in private training, like reading a defense pre-snap, making adjustments, going through reads, etc.
I have always believed that in playing that final year of high school ball sharpens your skills and keeps you “in the game”. Those college players that have opted-out this year may lose some of their game-skills by not playing. Time will tell…as always.
And this story falls under a UGA banner because . . . ?
And I don’t get why Valdosta. Great lineage, but not a significant player in Georgia HS football in quite some time. Seems like a metro Atlanta high school would make more sense. But then again, there doesn’t seem to be much sense to this whole drama to begin with, at least as presented.
This is just wrong pure ans simple. Theres no way in hell this family should be put through this garbage. Whom ever has the power to change this rule should. Hope the best for him and his family. #commitment
I think this family watches way too much reality TV and are more influenced by notoriety than character.
I understand wanting to play football. While I don’t know, I would guess the choice of school had something to do with the level of competition and the existing QB depth chart. But couldn’t he have found a good situation in Arizona, Nevada, or Texas?
There’s plenty of families that have to live apart from each other, I don’t understand why separation is necessary to make this a legitimate move. Dad could’ve just taken a job and made Georgia their official residence.
I think he’s working on a side piece, and this is just a smart way to get free.
Thought the same thing…why the legal separation? Does that make it a “bona fide move?” What’s to keep opposing teams from pointing out that it’s a set-up and not “bona fide?” Pure BS
I’m sorry, the parents are teaching the wrong lesson here.
Parents are saying they want to ride on thier kids success.
Propst is probably the one who suggested the “separation” since he is an expert on the two family at one time experience!
MTV Two-A-Days influenced him I guess
So, this is how the man can end up with custody…
So his dad had to divorce his sister (mom) in order to play football in Georgia.
Must be a new gawja law!
They separated because of his mother’s job not being able to move across the country. That was fully within their own choice of things to do but nothing related to anything about this transfer FORCED them to divorce.
This has nothing to do with Georgia law, Georgia football or really Georgia anything.