Merced’s Hernandez leaps at scholarship opportunity

Andres Hernandez thought his track career was over.

The former Merced High School standout graduated last spring and was taking classes at Merced College this fall. Without any offers from four-year schools, Hernandez had decided to focus on his classes.

That was until he got a phone call in November from Cardinal Stritch University coach Joel Pearson. Two months later, Hernandez was signing a national letter of intent to accept a track and field scholarship in front of family, friends and many members of the current Merced High track team in the student body office on Thursday afternoon.

“It happened really fast,” Hernandez said. “The coach got in touch with me. I told him I wanted to go out there. We started talking and it just worked out.”

Merced High track coach Joel Garcia met Pearson at a coaching clinic in Las Vegas. They started talking about what Pearson is looking for in an athlete, and Garcia spoke about Hernandez.

“I told him I had a triple jumper who was close to 44 feet,” Garcia said. “After five minutes of me talking about Andres, he said he wants him and asked for his number. That’s how the process started.”

Garcia invited his other track athletes to the signing ceremony to show what they can accomplish with hard work and dedication in the classroom.

“Like I told our kids, he’s what we want our program to be about,” Garcia said. “He’s dedicated. It shows the kids it’s possible. They’re giving him a $14,000 scholarship. That’s phenomenal. He’s an amazing kid. I can only imagine how he’s feeling and what he’s going through right now.”

Hernandez won the Central California Conference championship in the long jump last season with a leap of 41-10 1/2 . Hernandez finished 16th at the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet with a mark of 41-8  1/4 .

Hernandez leaves for Milwaukee on Saturday and will start school at Cardinal Stritch on Monday.

“I’m very happy,” said Hernandez, who plans on being a math teacher. “I enjoy track and being able to jump. Now I get to continue doing something I enjoy.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Merced’s Hernandez leaps at scholarship opportunity."