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Randle junior quarterback Leo Garza.
Randle QB Garza stars in return from torn ACL, meniscus
Lamar Consolidated ISD’s sixth and newest high school played its first varsity football game and won. Garza was the headliner.
“I wasn’t nervous about my knee giving away,” Garza said. “The way they built my knee, they did the same surgery on soccer players. But I was anxious. I hadn’t played or done anything in 10 months. It was kind of an exciting feeling. After that first touchdown, I was good.”
He kept feeling better and better, early and often.
Garza threw touchdown passes to six different receivers: three to sophomore Jaxon Montelongo, and one each to juniors Cortney Brown, Alex Sanders, Jaydon Osbourne, Cannon Davis and Marc St. Fort. He averaged 20.2 yards per completion and 12.5 yards per attempt.
“It was definitely (offensive coordinator) Coach (Brooks) Haack and my receivers,” Garza said. “We saw that the defense was playing the safeties up front a bit. We saw that the deep balls would work. My receivers kept telling me to watch the safeties, watch the corners. Without those guys, that night would not have been possible.”
As expected, Garza showed some rust. He was early on some throws, late on others.
“If he connects on all of them, he might’ve thrown 12 touchdown passes,” coach Brian Randle said. “He was leading them a little bit too much. A lot of nervous energy. First varsity game.”
But all in all, it was an unreal performance from a young man admired within the school’s walls for his character and resilience.
“Leo has a lot of heart,” Randle said. “He competes. He’s a boxer, he plays baseball. He plays all the sports. He’s just a true leader to his core. He’s a tough kid.”
Garza has been a stalwart of the Lions since the school opened its doors last August. A captain since day one.
He is a leader with his words and actions. His latest act was his most inspiring.
Garza suffered the knee injury during an Oct. 8 game against Lake Belton in Temple. He tore it in the first quarter but remained in the game and played through.
“I was limping, but I guess it was the adrenaline,” Garza said. “After the game, I go to the hotel and I couldn’t bend my knee. The next day, the doctors thought it was my meniscus. They didn’t know it was my ACL. They thought I’d be out six weeks, max.”
When the team returned home to Richmond, Garza got an x-ray. It showed the ACL had been torn, too. The six-week timetable ballooned to 9-12 months.
“I was devastated,” Garza said. “It was heartbreaking.”
The surgery, he said, “was the most pain I’ve ever felt.”
Garza started rehab the day after surgery at Methodist Hospital. For the first two months, rehab consisted of nothing more than sitting in a chair and lifting his leg up and down. Garza threw a football from his bed or chair, working on accuracy and talking about accuracy with whomever was around.
His leg was braced in February, and for the next three months he walked on crutches. In May, Garza was off crutches, doing squats, lunges and light running.
Through all of it, Randle athletic trainer Amanda Gillam— “Ms. G,” as Garza affectionately calls her—was by his side. For the last three months, once Garza’s insurance ran out, Gillam was his only source for rehab.
“She did everything for me. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here,” Garza said. “It was really her words. She encouraged me so much and pushed me. She put me through these weird workouts that were amazing. One of the workouts, I’d just stand on a BOSU medicine ball thing and had to grab a dumbbell and do a 360. It was weird, but they worked.
“Around the 8-9-month mark, she started running me and doing some cutting. That was hard because I hadn’t run. After 10 months, I was cleared.”
Randle junior quarterback Leo Garza.VYPE Media
Garza was on the field for the first day of fall practice August 1. He introduced himself to Texas high school football on August 25 in Pasadena.
“I was really babying my knee,” said Garza, who did not wear a brace in the game. “But this game really pushed me and motivated me to keep going harder every day and keep working with my teammates. Keep trying. It’s made me really confident about myself.”
Last week’s result may have surprised some, but not Garza and his teammates or coaches. The Lions saw consistent glimpses of their potential when they played a junior varsity schedule with only freshmen and sophomores last year and went 8-2.
Last week’s win was a culmination of what has been initiated so far in building a program from scratch.
“It’s an honor and privilege to be on this team,” Garza said. “Great coaching staff, great players, great school. Our principal is one of our biggest supporters. Even other players that are at other schools. We’re a new program so people didn’t expect us to be the team we are, and we’re getting so much love and support for it.”
Brian Randle
Randle High's Namesake revered for dignity; son Brian looks to carry on for Lions' athletics
"I've never known what it's like to see out of two eyes, so I don't know what I'm missing. I was too young to remember."
Randle, now the first-ever head football coach/campus athletic coordinator at Randle High School – Lamar Consolidated ISD's sixth and newest high school named after Randle's father – turned a negative into a positive.
That mindset has defined a coaching career that started in Alief Taylor, continued to Katy ISD, and is now back home in LCISD.
"When a kid's feeling down, I'll say, 'How many hands do you have? How many ears do you have? How many feet do you have? How many eyes you got?'" Randle said. "Then I tell him, 'So, you're doing better than old Coach Randle.' We can laugh about it and it helps them understand that no matter what situation you're in, somebody is doing worse than you. It brings everything back into perspective."
Randle's father, Thomas, was in education for 46 years and recently retired after the 2020-2021 school year as superintendent of Lamar Consolidated ISD after 20 years with the district. Randle grew up in a "no-excuses" household that stressed the importance of helping others.
"I feel like you block your own blessings when you're not being a blessing to somebody else," Randle said.
Thomas Randle exemplifies character and integrity. If more people were like his father, Randle said the world would be a better place because "we'd all be taking care of each other."
"Dad is very calm, very logical, very reasonable," he said. "He's deliberate and thinks things out. He's a unique human. If more people were like dad, everybody would be good and humble. That's what I want to instill in these kids."
The inside of the Randle High School library honoring Thomas E. Randle, father of Lions head football coach/campus athletic coordinator Brian Randle.Dennis Silva II | VYPE Media
Perseverance and fight are two things Randle gets from his mother Rubye, who has a degree in social work.
Randle said people always told him what he couldn't or wouldn't do because of his vision, or lack thereof. In baseball, he had to wear an awkward helmet. When he played football, he had to wear a visor.
It never stopped him.
He played defensive end as a three-year starter at Texas A&M-Kingsville, an NCAA Division II program notable for winning national championships.
"I need the kids to understand that as long as you're doing something positive in your life, you'll be OK," Randle said.
Randle High principal John Montelongo III and LCISD athletic director Nikki Nelson have proved to be the right people
when building and creating Randle High School, Randle said. They are similar in various ways and are often always on the same page.
Montelongo even invited Randle to sit in on the hiring interviews of most of the teachers and coaches at the school.
"Getting to build the entire culture is huge," Randle said. "The best part of all of this is getting to build it from scratch. This is our baby to mess up. We have a clean canvas, and we get to paint and tell our story how we choose to."
The logos, colors, mascot and most of the branding were already established by the time Randle was hired in late February. But he did have a say in some of the branding and is proud of his input into the design of the weight room.
While Randle High has only one weight room, whereas the five other high school campuses have two, it is the biggest in square footage.
Randle made the weight room complementary. There are 12 racks, auxiliaries and hammer strength equipment to accommodate smaller kids — Randle High will open with only freshmen and sophomores to start — and they can build up from smaller weights to bigger weights.
The athletic fieldhouse is also different from the other high schools in that it is attached to the rest of the school building.
One of Randle's primary initiatives is being all- inclusive.
In designing the football uniforms with Montelongo, he suggested they ask the student-athletes for their input. (The 2022 varsity football uniforms will have a Penn State feel regarding look and color combination). He values the contributions of kids.
On Thursdays, Randle oversees talks that are student-led. Every student- athlete contributes to the conversation. It's not unlike his coaches' meetings, where Randle seeks input from every coach.
"Everybody has to contribute," Randle said, smiling. "It's America. No free rides."
In building a program and leading an athletic department from scratch, Randle sought the advice of Katy High football coach Gary Joseph, former Pearland coach Tony Heath, Dickinson football coach John Snelson, North Shore football coach Jon Kay, Pearland football coach and former George Ranch state championship coach Ricky Tullos, and others.
"I don't have an ego," Randle said. "I believe you can learn from anybody about anything. I ask."
Randle has a personal investment in Randle High School. Obviously.
But aside from it being his father's namesake, he has lived in the Rosenberg community for the last 11 years. He lives a few miles from campus. His son will eventually attend the school.
He is not leading for himself. He is leading out of respect for the name.
"One of the things I always tell our kids is our job is to elevate our last name," Randle said. "It doesn't matter where you're at. In my case, my dad always wanted to do right by kids. That's what we're going to do. If you ask somebody what we do with our program and how it's centered around kids, it embodies what dad does. Everything he did was for kids. That's how my mind works. Err on the side of the kid, and live life with character and integrity.
"That's who dad is."