Homegrown Vital-Caro named Buffs’ soccer coach for girls, boys programs

BUFFS ROUNDUP: Tuesday, March 10, 2020

SOCCER

Jose Vital-Caro was raised in Garden City, is a graduate of Garden City High School and has been employed at USD 457 at Kenneth Henderson Middle School for the past two years.

He also has served as an assistant coach at the high school while coaching the KHMS Lady Falcons.

Now, he has been named the head coach for both the Buffaloes’ girls and boys programs and started his duties on March 2. The girls regular season will begin March 26 with a Western Athletic Conference road game at Liberal.

“I’m excited to coach at Garden City High School,” said Vital-Caro, a 2013 GCHS graduate and two-year varsity player for the Buffaloes. “If we invest more, Garden City has what it takes to compete at the state level. It’s a big soccer community.”

Jose Vital-Caro on Senior Day in 2012 when he played for the Buffaloes. He is the new girls and boys soccer coach for GCHS. (Photo courtesy Jose Vital-Caro)

Vital-Caro, who played left wing for long-time GCHS soccer coach Joaquin Padilla, earned an Associate of Arts degree at Garden City Community College in 2015, and then went to Fort Hays State University where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Applied Technology in 2018.

Following graduation, he returned to Garden City and has been employed at USD 457 since the fall of 2018. During that time, he has coached the Kenneth Henderson Lady Falcons and then in the fall of 2019 served as an assistant to then head coach Josue Negron.

“I’m a big fan of coach Padilla and how he was always helpful and supportive of the students,” Vital-Caro said. “I want to work with them and help them plan for college and their future life. I’ll plan to have study halls for the kids to keep up their academics and to make them accountable. Coach (Padilla) had a good system and I learned a lot from him.”

For the Lady Buffs’ spring 2020 season, Vital-Caro inherits a team that returns a large number of starters from a squad that went 11-2-5, losing 1-0 to Topeka High in the Class 6A regional championship game.

“One thing I want to do in building the program is to start a freshman C team and get more concentration training with the young kids,” Vital-Caro said. “Dodge City started that and they have had success in winning a couple of state championships, so I know once we adopt that, it will be beneficial to our program.”