Victor Garate, University of Dallas, Men's Basketball

VICTOR GARATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS, a first-year guard on the men's basketball team, has been selected the SCAC Character & Community Male Student-Athlete-of-the-Week for the week ending Sunday, February 16.

Garate, an Austin, Texas native, is an Education and Spanish major at the University of Dallas.

While attending Austin Waldorf School in Austin, Texas, Garate volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club of America in south Austin. He helped the nonprofit in an unpaid capacity during his upperclassman years, reporting for duty at least twice a week during the school year and every day in the summer months.

Garate explained that the children arrived every day around 3 to 3:30 p.m. during the school year and went straight to their "power hour.” It was there, that they did their homework and educational activities such as math and art for an hour.

“During that time,” Garate said, “I always helped the six through eight year olds with their math and reading homework. One objective that I had during power hour was to challenge the kids. By doing so, they gained more confidence in accomplishing such feats.”

Garate also coached the middle school basketball team and helped with the high school and elementary basketball teams at the club.

“Coaching was a great experience for me,” Garate said, “not only for my love of coaching, but to see the kids’ work ethics at such a young age and to watch their bonds grow through sports. I started to see that many of the problems the kids had with each other slowly were resolved just by playing a team sport.”

Garate’s drive to volunteer comes from his dedication to ensuring youths have all the possible resources available to succeed.

“I have learned that each kid has an insurmountable amount of potential to be great and change the world for good,” Garate said. “Helping out at the club is one of the most important and rewarding things I have done in my life. All the kids want is love and to know that people care for them.”

Garate shared several instances of impacting the organization’s children for the better, but noted his strongest memory occurred in his first days of helping at the club.

“On my first day at the club, I went in to help the fourth and fifth grade students with their homework,” Garate said. “Many of them were reluctant to ask for help, due to me being there for the first time and them not knowing whether I was going to come back or not. I saw this little kid alone in the corner, looking upset and not doing his homework. I went up to him and helped him out, and played some basketball with him later on. What struck me most was on the second day when I went to help the fourth and fifth grade students. He saw me and smiled the biggest smile I had ever seen, just because I was there to help him again. I had an epiphany and realized that all these kids needed was someone to care and someone to help. If we as a community do that, kids will grow to be great people for their community and peers.”

After earning his degree from the University of Dallas, it comes as no surprise that Garate wants to become a teacher and a basketball coach.

He hopes to continue his work at the Boys and Girls Club of America in the future.