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MCC player signs with NCAA Division I basketball team
McCOOK, Neb. — Maite Lara Garcia, a sophomore from Sant Joan Despt, Spain has become the first women’s basketball player in more than 12 years to sign a letter of intent to play at a NCAA Division I program. Garcia signed on Wednesday to play at Detroit Mercy in Michigan.
“To play D1 has been a dream of mine since I was younger,” she said. Wednesday’s signing culminates a three-year journey that had a shaky beginning and a frustrating middle.
Garciacame to America as a freshman in the fall of 2019, committing to play at 115-year old Concordia University in Portland, Ore., an NCAA Division II program. But she was designated redshirt status and never played. Then in February of 2010, the school abruptly announced it was closing.
After a year of not playing she was just looking for a place to play college basketball and still keep her dream alive of playing for a Division 1 school.
She landed in McCook just about the time the National Junior College Athletic Conference announced that no sports would be played in the fall of 2020 because of Covid-19 health concerns. After a year and a half in America, she finally got on the court in January of 2021. She started one game for MCC and played in 24, averaging 3.0 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. But those numbers weren’t drawing any D1 offers a year ago.
After one year at MCC she graduated with her associate’s degree but wasn’t able to find a program where she could continue playing basketball, so she took advantage of the Covid 19 provision that allowed her to return for her sophomore year at MCC.
“So she came back and continued to develop and continued to get better because she didn’t have the greatest of freshman seasons with us,” said MCC Coach Brandon Pritchett.
Garcia said one of the major highlights of her two years at MCC was her relationship with her coach. After arriving in McCook on the heels of a frustrating first year in college, she admits her confidence was low.
“Last year I didn’t have too much trust in myself and in my time here, his trust in me is what’s helped the most,” she said.
Pritchett said her work in the gym after her freshman year might be what helped her the most.
“For her to come out and really compete this year having put in a ton of work over the summer and really exceeded my expectations and is a tribute to her mentality and how hard she worked and how much better she got,” he said.
For her sophomore year at MCC, she started 28 games and averaged 10.8 points, and 5.6 rebounds per game. She shot 46.9 percent from the field, 25 percent from the 3-point line and 70.9 from the free-throw line.
She scored 323 points and brought down 167 rebounds this season and 396 points for her career at MCC along with 238 boards.
Garcia posted a season-high 22 points twice during her sophomore campaign including Nov. 6 at home against Laramie County Community College and again Nov. 23 at Columbus against Central Community College. She also grabbed as season-best 11 boards in that game. For the season, she scored in double figures 16 times this year.
One of her lasting memories from her sophomore year at MCC was a road game at Cheyenne, Wyoming Dec. 4 against Laramie County Community College. MCC trailed 37-16 at halftime.
“We came into halftime and Coach was so mad,” she said, “But we came back and our team put it all together in the second half, and we said ‘we got this,’ and it was just a great effort from the whole team,” she said. Despite being down 21 points, MCC came back to outscore LCCC 45-19 in the second half and win 61-56.
Then in January the offers started coming and Detroit Mercy intrigued her because she knew some players on that team that she’d crossed paths with playing junior college, and knew that several Spaniards were with the program.
She said she’s enjoyed the small-town environment of McCook because it helped her focus on basketball and improving, but she’s grew up in Barcelona and is looking forward to big city life once more.
She will continue her studies in marketing and business and would also like to add some international studies.
Pritchett said he believes that if Garcia works like she did last summer she will continue to get better and put herself in a great opportunity to produce for her new school.