Sylvia Cardenas was the type of particular person everybody in her neighborhood knew. She’s described as having a maroon coronary heart and bleeding gold — the colours of her Harlandale alma mater.
That’s why the Harlandale neighborhood rallied to call the highschool’s gymnasium in her honor, after Cardenas died in June solely weeks after being identified with most cancers on the age of 64.
Graduating from Harlandale Excessive Faculty on the South Aspect in 1979, Cardenas would go on to guide a legendary teaching profession for greater than three many years on the identical faculty she graduated.
Throughout that point, Cardenas served as head volleyball coach at Harlandale for 28 seasons, main her groups to greater than 600 victories, 25 playoffs and numerous different recognitions earlier than retiring in 2016.
Her document, 608-330, is a tough one to beat.
Although those that knew her mentioned she would’ve objected to it out of humility, Harlandales ISD’s board authorised naming the highschool’s gymnasium in her honor.
On Wednesday, a sea of maroon flooded Harlandale Excessive Faculty.
Outdoors of the gymnasium, a desk laid out artifacts from Cardenas’ profession: signed volleyballs, awards, information clippings and previous binders with teaching notes. Inside, the band performed “Maroon and Gold,” the college’s alma mater.
When the brand new signage was unveiled beneath the gymnasium’s scoreboard, revealing the phrases “Sylvia Cardenas Gymnasium,” the group cheered. Cardenas’ household seemed on, proud.
Rose Anne Martinez, athletic director for Harlandale ISD and lifelong good friend of Cardenas, mentioned it was the proper option to commemorate one in every of her previous coaches and former colleague.
“Her legacy shall be remembered for her wins on and off the court docket,” she mentioned. “It’s an honor to have her identify without end linked to this gymnasium.”
Greater than a volleyball coach, Cardenas was additionally a mom and spouse, forsaking her husband Richard Cardenas and two sons, Jake and Aaron.
Martinez, who’s labored in class athletics for about 30 years, was once one in every of Cardenas’ basketball gamers at Harlandale, later working as one in every of her volleyball teaching assistants and as soon as as rivals when she was the top coach at McCollum Excessive Faculty.
Even by way of all of the shifts of their relationship, Martinez mentioned Cardenas was all the time sort and a very good good friend.
“That’s what I’ll keep in mind her for probably the most, her kindness.” she mentioned. “She had a coronary heart of gold.”
Sylvia Saldana — Harlandale class of ‘83, good friend of the Cardenas household and second-hand witness to Cardena’s impression on a number of of her personal friends — attended the gymnasium’s renaming ceremony on Wednesday.
Now a nurse supervisor at Methodist Hospital, Saldana nonetheless feels linked to Harlandale and recollects the impact Cardenas had on the neighborhood, even at an early level in Cardenas’ profession.
“There’s lots of neighborhood and satisfaction equipped on the South Aspect,” Saldana mentioned, talking over the noise of a rowdy gymnasium. “We would depart the realm, however our coronary heart stays in Harlandale.”
She confirmed as much as help the household and mates — that’s simply the type of factor the Harlandale neighborhood does, she mentioned.
A separate signal on the gymnasium’s exterior additionally reads “Sylvia Cardenas Gymnasium.” Her household and mates took photos beneath it, after releasing maroon and gold balloons into the air.
It wasn’t till her funeral providers, the place a number of individuals talked about Cardenas’ impression on them, that her household realized simply how a lot she meant to the neighborhood. That’s why they began a petition to rename the gymnasium, simply gathering signatures, placing collectively a committee referred to as “Honoring Sylvia” and getting district officers on board.
“It’s an honor for the entire household,” mentioned Richard Cardenas. “It wasn’t simply concerning the teaching, it was about how she was impacting youngsters and households.”
He met Cardenas whereas they had been each school athletes. Richard went to the College of the Incarnate Phrase and Sylvia attended St. Mary’s College.
It was their bond over athletics and training, as Richard was a basketball coach himself, that stored them collectively.
“We’d bounce lots of stuff off one another whereas we had been each teaching. She’d come house and speak about her group, and I’d come house and speak about mine,” he recalled. “I feel that’s how we had been in a position to be married for 38 years.”
Richard says her dying want was for him to “handle the boys and stick by my facet.”
“She gave quite a bit,” he mentioned. “In order that’s what I’m doing, persevering with to honor her.”
