WINNING STRATEGY

City employee goes above, beyond providing residents with all-around recreational sport opportunities

Wearing his signature Dallas Cowboys hat, Fernando Labra, took time away recently from his role as athletic specialist for the adult division of the city of San Marcos Parks and Recreation Department, to talk about why this type of sports is key to giving a community a unifying avenue for social interaction and wellness.

Labra is in his fourth year working for the city.

“Originally, when I was in my undergrad studies, I was going to be a coach, a teacher,” with an emphasis on football, he said. For a time, he coached college flag football, but uncertain if this was the right goal, he said what was always there for him, a constant, was intramural sports.

He did his undergraduate studies in San Marcos at then Southwest Texas State, and said he found satisfaction in being part of the community that was associated with playing sports, noting that the social aspect of it was important to him.

So much so, that when he felt he was losing focus on his academic requirements, intramural sports kept him involved on campus in a way that was powerful enough to propel him to want to stay the course and finish his degree.

The oldest of the siblings in his family, Labra said he still had not considered recreation as a profession and then something changed.

He said he found an internship at Samford University in Alabama. He had been reading a book about the values of accepting change in one’s life and going to Samford was for him, taking a leap of faith, as he had not left Texas before for anything as major as this.

“It just made me fall more in love with recreation and what it does for people,” Labra said, recalling that this decision altered the direction of his life, especially at what had been an undetermined and somewhat low period for him personally.

“It helped me find my path,” Labra said.

“I am still in contact with my director there. … He was a great mentor for me,” Labra said, a person who assisted him in learning how to articulate his own understanding of why recreational sport opportunities are necessary and important for a community such as San Marcos.

Prior to taking his position with the city, Labra, a 2004 graduate of Texas State University with a degree in exercise science, said he had worked primarily with institutions of higher learning–college campuses, including Michigan State and Spelman College, where the needs are different.

At Spelman, he worked with their new intramural program and only decided to head back to Texas as his mother was in declining health.

He accepted at position at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and eventually came back to San Marcos in 2019 to work for the city.

He is now about to start his last course that will lead to his graduating in December from Texas State once again, this time with a master of science degree that will open up more advanced opportunities for him here.

His research for that degree includes evaluating the growth taking place in San Marcos, particularly in population and how that may transmit into the need for additional facilities for recreational sports in this community.

His family also has inspired his mature approach to recreational sports, in that as the oldest of the grandchildren, the responsibility for organizing games and activities often fell on his shoulders, he said.

With a smile he recalled games such as Chase and Freeze Tag, which early on, may have seemed a burden, but looking back, Labra said he recognizes it was helping launch him into a mindset that spurred much of what he now does on a daily basis.

What motivates him today is centered on seeing the enjoyment that recreational sports brings to the adults he interacts with regularly.

“So just seeing their reactions … we're having open pickleball play today and just walking in there and just watching them play and have a good time,” is something he looks forward to. “You know that smile that's on their face. that enjoyment they're feeling, you had a little part in making that happen. And that's pretty cool,” Labra said.

Here in San Marcos, pickleball and cornhole are two of the participation sports for adults that have taken off in popularity and demand.

“When I first got here in 2019, it [pickleball] was more of a just a senior program. We would run it in the morning, three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm not sure of the numbers at that time, but probably, it was 30-40 people per hour–pretty much what they averaged at that time,” he said. When they started to offer it five days a week, the numbers ballooned to as many as 70, and the city added a youth pickleball program, too.

He said the success of pickleball here prompted parks and recreation staff into looking at other times and ways to get more people involved.

He said they have expanded the Corporate Challenge program in the city, bringing it more into focus in this post-COVID-19 era.

“We re-introduced it in 2022 on a small scale … but this year, we are in full swing,” he said. Events that include softball, kickball and even darts, provide a place and time that allows for businesses and their staffs to meet and share ideas in a non-office environment.

And with the intense heat of this summer, Labra said the department tries to schedule indoor activities–whenever it looks as if the weather will be extreme.

What helps him maintain his enthusiasm for his job and the role of recreational sports in San Marcos are his relationships with many of the adults who participate regularly in planned athletics, he said.

“I know in our softball program, we have a couple of gentlemen, one a wounded war veteran. He and I frequently have conversations … but he always reminds me how important softball is to him. And again, it's not necessarily the playing of the sport. It's that social aspect that keeps him involved, keeps him connected to people,” Labra said.

Adult athletic sports in San Marcos now includes not only pickleball, both a league and an upcoming tournament in November, but also slow-pitch softball and coed volleyball.

Adult Pickleball Open Play is offered Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m to 11:30 a.m. at the San Marcos Activity Center for ages 18 and up.

Slow pitch softball leagues are offered during the spring, summer and fall seasons.

Registration is now open for coed volleyball which is held at the San Marcos Activity Center.

This is team play and the season will run from Sept. 20-Oct. 25.

The Pickleball League season is Sept. 18-Oct. 27 with doubles play on tap. Registration for this sport for ages 18 and older, closes on Sept. 5.

The Pickleball Tournament is Dec. 1 and registration for this doubles play is Nov. 6-27.

There are fees for these activities and those interested should go to the San Marcos Adult Athletics webpage to check out registration information and costs at http:// sanmarcostx.gov/3798/ Adult-Athletics.

Lastly, Labra said he encourages residents to explore what sports are here for them in the city.

'Sometimes, people may not go looking for something just because they don't know what's available. But definitely, once you do, find out what's available, give it a chance. Give it a shot, take that leap of faith, maybe it will be the best decision you make in your life,' he said.