Horizon hires Omar Garcia as new football coach

Horizon High School made it official Wednesday, hiring Omar Garcia to lead the Class 5A football program.

He replaces Dwan Smith, who parted ways with the school after two seasons and one win.

Garcia spent the 2023 season as the offensive coordinator at Class 6A Montwood and helped the team reach the playoffs. He helped coach a talented offense led by quarterback Michael Southern, running back Izayuh Claudio and receiver Diego Oaxca.

"It's a mindset, it's a shift in culture," Garcia said. "We're going to be the toughest, the most competitive team in Texas and it comes from relentless energy. Coaches will believe in the players, the players will believe in the coaches and the players will believe in themselves. I'm excited to get started. We have great facilities here and we have great kids here with potential. We'll work hard off the field and on the field and help make our student-athletes better in every way."

Garcia, who graduated from Hanks in 2007, was the head baseball coach at Hanks and offensive coordinator in the football program before moving over to Montwood. As an athlete, he was a star quarterback for Hanks and star baseball player before earning a college baseball scholarship to Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The Hanks baseball program won four bi-district titles with Garcia as coach.

"I value all kids I've coached through the years and I've learned so much from them and I've enjoyed that aspect of coaching," Garcia said. "I look forward to building great relationships with the kids at Horizon. My family has been a huge support system for me and I've been fortunate to learn from great coaches and work with great coaches in my career. Being a head coach in baseball has helped me be a better overall coach."

Current Montwood football coach Ivan Rangel said Garcia earned the Horizon job.

"Omar is a great person first and foremost and he impacts people's lives," Rangel said. "Being a head football coach is long overdue for him. He'll elevate Horizon and he'll work hard every day. I'm really excited to see what he does for the Scorpions and the entire school in general."

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Felix F. Chavez can be reached at [email protected]; @Fchavezeptimes on X (Formerly Twitter)