Baseball

Nick Franco

Coach Franco grew up playing baseball in South Florida.  He attended Coral Springs High School and was a 3-year varsity letter winner and team captain senior year. He went on to play at Palm Beach State for two years where he holds a single game record of 11 RBIs and a single game record tying 3 HRs in the same game. He was named 1st team All-Conference and 2nd team All-State sophomore year playing JUCO ball. He finished his collegiate playing career at Stetson University. The Hatters were ranked in the Division 1 Top 25 polls both his years at Stetson, and was a part of two NCAA Regional appearances. After playing in college, he started his coaching career at his JUCO alma mater, where he was an assistant coach for one year. He went on to teach and coach at Santaluces High School. After two years, he became head coach for the Chiefs. After 19 seasons as head coach and 21 overall at Santaluces, he is the head coach in Bulldog Nation with a wealth of experience and a passion for teaching the game. 

Beach Volleyball and Boys Golf

Graham Elder

Coach Graham has been teaching and coaching in Palm Beach County for 19 years.  He has coached girls and boys indoor volleyball, bowling, golf and beach volleyball throughout the years.  He has also coached elite volleyball teams for various South Florida clubs from 2005-2021.  As an athlete, Coach Graham played volleyball for FSU's mens indoor team for two years while in college.  After graduating with a degree in English and minors in Education and Psychology, Coach Graham transitioned to beach volleyball, playing competitively throughout the state and country for the next 10 years.  He has been married to his wife, Abby, for 12 years and is the father to a daughter, Porter (8), and a son, Camden (6). 

Cheerleading - Sideline and Competitive

Danielle Averso

Coach Danielle Averso was born and raised in New York where she was a competitive gymnast for 13 years and a cheerleader for 7 years. She has been a Program Director and Head Varsity Coach for 10 years, leading teams to State and National competitions, while coaching in New York, Colorado, and Florida. Coach Danielle obtained her B.S. Degree in Psychology and Recreation Therapy from St. Joseph’s University in NY and will complete her M.S. in Psychology in October 2024. She is passionate about mental health and wellness, educating athletes not only about the sport of cheerleading, but about the value of caring for yourself and being kind above all. She is grateful for the memories and traditions the Bulldogs created during the inaugural 2023-2024 school year and is looking forward to building our Cheerleading Program at García High School.

Cross Country and Track & Field

Dan Barry

Coach Barry is a former D1 Cross Country & Track athlete at Winthrop University. He has been coaching both Cross Country and Track & Field for the past 16 years. During his time at Park Vista High School, he helped build a very successful and competitive program, and is looking forward to starting a new Cross Country and Track & Field program at Dr. Joaquín García High School.

Football

Brandon Walker

Coach Walker is a Broward County native who graduated from American Heritage School in Plantation, playing football and baseball. He attended Elmhurst College and was a 4-year member of the football team, earning all-conference honors as an offensive lineman, and earning a degree in Physical Education. Following college, he spent two seasons coaching at the University of Delaware, where the Blue Hens won the NCAA Div. 1AA National Championship. Following his two years at Delaware, he spent two seasons at Fordham University working with the Rams offensive line and tight ends. He has over 15 years of high school coaching experience, serving 8 of those years as a head coach at high schools in Broward and Palm Beach Counties. His father, Byron Walker, served as a high school coach and school administrator for over 40 years. Byron Walker is one of the winningest football coaches in Florida and is a member of the F.A.C.A. Coaches Hall of Fame, as well as the Palm Beach County Sports Hall of Fame.

Girls Lacrosse

Megan Mehter

Coach Mehter played for the University of Detroit Mercy from 2010-13, starting in all 73 games during her career.  She finished her career sixth in all-time draw controls and second in games started. She was a senior captain in 2013, when the Titans earned a spot in the Atlantic Sun Championship game. After she graduated, Coach continued to work for the University of Detroit Mercy Athletic Department, becoming the Women's Lacrosse Assistant Coach. She helped the Titans to their first ever regular season championship in 2018 while putting 10 Titan student athletes on All League Teams. Coach became the fourth head coach in program history in 2018. In her first season as head coach, the squad earned a share of the SoCon regular season crown for the second straight season. The Titans were 4-3 on their home turf and won seven of the final 11 contests of 2019, including a win at Central Michigan in the finale to earn a share of the SoCon regular season championship. Coach Mehter graduated from and played varsity lacrosse all four years at Park Vista High School.

Boys Soccer

Donovan Scott

Coach Scott is a Licensed Real Estate Broker educated at SUNY Plattsburgh where he earned a BS degree in Business Management. He played 4 years of soccer there, where he earned All-State honors for all four years, All-Conference Honors for four years and All American Honors for 3 years. He was honored by the university as a Hall of Fame and a Wall of Fame recipient. For the past 20 years, he has been coaching soccer in New York at Woodlands High School and in Florida with the Boynton Knights Soccer Club and Park Vista High School, where he coached for the past eight years. He is a licensed United States Soccer Referee and has obtained part 1 of his D coaching license. He enjoys training, preparing and, most of all, educating students on the rules and regulations of the fundamentals of soccer. He has had great success with Woodlands High School, Boynton Knights SC and Park Vista High School in the past and is now looking forward to his new venture as boys Head Coach at Dr. Joaquín García High School.

Girls Soccer

Bobby Moore

Coach Bobby Moore has been serving the local soccer community for almost 20 years. Having been an avid soccer player in his youth, he played soccer in high school and college at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He has served in several capacities in the South Florida area as a head coach and goalkeeper trainer. He currently holds USSF D National, Youth National and State and Regional Goalkeeper licenses. He hopes to help improve the players' fundamentals along with advancing their technical and tactical skills, as well as help them grow as individuals.

Softball and Girls Weightlifting

Marni Greenstein

Coach Greenstein is a former D2 softball player who played at Florida State College at Jacksonville and Augusta University. While at FSCJ she received the 2016 Jean Williams Scholar Athlete of the Year and the FCSAA Co-Female Scholar Athlete Awards. At Augusta University, she was named to the All-Academic team. She was a coach at Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens for a year before moving to Jacksonville to be a graduate assistant strength coach at Jacksonville University. Coach Greenstein is from Lake Worth and played softball for Park Vista High School. 

Swimming/Diving and Tennis

Lhisa Almashy

Coach Almashy is a bilingual, bi-cultural, 28-year educator for Palm Beach County Schools. Her areas of expertise include teaching English Learners, social studies, professional development and onboarding, leadership and team building. Coach Almashy is National Board-certified with a BA and MA from the University of San Francisco. She earned her doctorate in Leadership and Learning in Organizations from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University. She coaches swimming/diving, soccer, and tennis. Her volunteer work spans South Florida and the country. Lhisa welcomes opportunities to connect with people and strives to build relationships that create a greater sense of belonging.

Allison Nygren

In 28 years as a teacher in Palm Beach County, Coach Nygren has been blessed to coach many sports. The last 10+ years, she was one of the swim coaches at West Boca High School.  They have had quite a few athletes qualify for States over the years.   In four years as tennis coach at West Boca High Schools, the girls team improved each year at the District level and the boys team qualified for States in 2021. She knows we will have similar success with our student athletes at García High School.

Boys and Girls Volleyball

Erica Green

Coach Green has a Master’s Degree in Education. She taught at Woodlands Middle School for 15 years and Park Vista High School for 10 years.  She has taught grade levels 6-12 in Math and is currently teaching Algebra 2 Regular and Honors. She played D1 Volleyball at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania as a setter, four-year starter and captain senior year. She has been coaching volleyball in Palm Beach County (middle/high school, JV/Varsity, Boys/Girls) since 1999. She has coached at Santaluces, Royal Palm Beach and, most recently, for the last 12 years, at Park Vista.  The boys’ team has gone to the state tournament two out of 3 years and made it to the Regional Finals this past year.  She has been voted by her peers as Conference Coach of the year several times and was selected as Coach of the Year for Boys Volleyball by both the Palm Beach Post and Sun Sentinel Newspapers in 2022.

Boys Weightlifting

Thomas Marciante

Coach Marciante is a Palm Beach County native. He went to high school at Park Vista where he lettered in Football and Boys Weightlifting. He then went on to coach both Football and Boys Weightlifting at Park Vista. He was a part of the 2016 district championship football team as well as the 2018 Regional Championship Boys Weightlifting team. He then went on to become the defensive coordinator at Estero High School in Estero, Florida and was a part of the first district championship in 20 years at that school in 2021. Coach Marciante is the head Boys Weightlifting coach, the assistant head coach/defensive coordinator for football, and the assistant athletic director and a teacher in our social sciences department.