{"id":393608,"date":"2026-07-10T17:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393608\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T17:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T17:06:17","slug":"ivan-garza-25-former-delano-standout-and-sacramento-state-lineman-dies-in-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393608\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivan Garza, 25, former Delano standout and Sacramento State lineman, dies in crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A former Delano football standout who went on to play Division I football has died in a crash, leaving his family and the Robert F. Kennedy High School community searching for answers about what happened.<\/p>\n

\"2525 year old Ivan Garza.<\/p>\n

Photo: Garza family<\/p>\n

Ivan Garza, 25, a Robert F. Kennedy High School graduate and former offensive lineman at Sacramento State, died this week<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Sacramento State\u2019s football program announced his death in a social media post Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Garza\u2019s aunts, Sonia Garza and Maricruz Garza, remembered him as a devoted family member and a role model whose impact stretched beyond football. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want his legacy to live on. He was just such a gentle giant. Nobody knows such a big guy with such a big heart,\u201d Sonia Garza said.<\/p>\n

She also pointed to his accomplishments on the field and the pride his family felt watching him succeed. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all so proud of him for doing what he did in high school. Um, you know, taking them to the championships, RFK, in Delano, and then getting a full ride to Sacramento for the Division One,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Robert F. Kennedy High School head football coach Mario Millan said Garza was a cornerstone of the program and a standout in the classroom and in athletics. <\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/p>\n

Photo: Sacramento State Football (Facebook)<\/p>\n

\u201cIvan was, you know, one of the stewards of our program. He was a phenomenal student, a phenomenal athlete, earned himself, uh, the first Division One scholarship out of Delano, uh, I think, ever, uh, historically,\u201d Millan said.<\/p>\n

Loved ones described Garza as someone who brought people together and mentored younger athletes. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a great mentor to everybody. He was a big guy, so everybody automatically looked up to him. And then when they saw that he was good, they looked up to him even more,\u201d Sonia Garza said.<\/p>\n

Questions remain about the circumstances of his death. <\/p>\n

The Kern County Coroner’s Office identified Garza as the man involved in the deadly Delano crash.<\/a> A GoFundMe organized by Garza\u2019s family said he died in a hit-and-run, however Delano police said the involved driver remained on scene.<\/p>\n

Family members also said they want a thorough investigation and answers from police, and they asked anyone with information about the crash to come forward.<\/p>\n

\"{p}25<\/p>\n

25 year old Ivan Garza.<\/p>\n

Photo: Garza family<\/p>\n

Sonia Garza said she organized the fundraiser to help support Garza\u2019s family, including his mother and younger siblings. <\/p>\n

\u201cI organized a GoFundMe, and that is to help with funeral expenses and to help his mom,\u201d she said. \u201cIvan was the oldest of four kids. He\u2019s got three sisters, younger sisters, whom he is still supporting. And she needs all the help she can get from the entire community.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the family mourns, they said the viewing will take place at the end of this month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif.(KBAK\/KBFX) \u2014 A former Delano football standout who went on to play Division I football has died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-393608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}