University of Maine head football coach Joe Harasymiak has begun rebuilding his offensive line by landing a community college transfer from Texas.
Migel Garcia, a 6-foot-4, 289-pound tackle from Uvalde, Texas, has decided to attend UMaine this fall after spending the last two seasons at College of the Canyons Community College in Santa Clarita, California.
He will be a scholarship athlete.
Garcia was the starting left tackle for the 9-2 Cougars, who averaged 37.8 points and 481.9 yards per game.
In the two seasons, the College of the Canyons has sent players to San Jose State, Arkansas, Florida Atlantic, Michigan, Vanderbilt, Colorado State, Oklahoma, Texas-El Paso, New Mexico, Arizona and San Diego.
The Black Bears graduated three longtime starters off their offensive line in Los Angeles Rams draft pick Jamil Demby, Isaiah Brooks and John Reddington and Dan Burrows also saw a lot of time along the front.
Tackle Cody Levy and center Chris Mulvey are the only returning starters on the offensive line.
“Migel’s a big body whose athletic ability in space and the way he moves can help us in pass protection and the run game,” Harasymiak said. “He’ll have an opportunity to come in and help us right away.”
Garcia will compete for a starting tackle spot.
Harasymiak noted that Garcia played for a good program in football-crazed Texas as Uvalde went 15-7 in his final two seasons.
“In the situation we’re in, we’ve obviously had to go outside the Northeast to get players,” Harasymiak said.
He pointed out that playing in a top-notch conference (Colonial Athletic Association) having two NFL draft picks in recent years in Demby (sixth round) and defensive end-linebacker Trevor Bates (Indianapolis, 7th round, 2016) and having an undrafted free agent (Pat Ricard) crack the Baltimore Ravens lineup as a defensive end-fullback has “put us on the map recruiting-wise.”
UMaine has 3 All-New England picks
The UMaine baseball team had three players named to the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association Division I All-New England team.
Junior Danny Casals earned a spot on the first team while classmate Jeremy Pena was on the second team and senior Christopher Bec earned a spot on the third team.
Casals started in 51 games as a junior, playing primarily at third base and led the Black Bears with a .597 slugging percentage, .407 on-base percentage, 32 walks and 108 total bases and had a conference-best 14 home runs and 49 RBIs.
Pena, taken in the third round of the Major League Baseball draft by the world champion Houston Astros, led UMaine in triples (5) and runs scored (51) and was second in hits (66), batting average (.308) and on-base percentage (.393).
Bec, a fifth-round draft pick of Toronto, finished the regular season with a team-high .315 average. He was second for UMaine in slugging percentage (.539) and third in on-base percentage (.379) and hits (56).