Kevin Lovell, who has been in television for decades as a sportscaster and now general manager of KVIA-TV, knows the power of visual presentation. So at one of the nomination meetings of the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame this year he showed up carrying a big cardboard with a flap over it. When it was his turn to introduce his nominee for induction to the board of directors he held up the cardboard and lifted the flap. It read, in big black letters: 249-1. That, Lovell explained, is the dual meet and invitational record of Cathedral
High School swimming coach Jack White.
NEEDLESS TO SAY, it made a tremendous impact on board members and yes, Jack White went on to be inducted. Deservedly so. Not only is his meet and invitational record out of this world, so is his overall record at Cathedral High School. Look at his resume: In 1985, he was hired as an assistant coach with the El Paso Aqua Posse, and the next year, at the tender age of 21, he was offered the head coaching position at
Cathedral High School. After losing his first meet to Eastwood High School in January of 1986 he and the Irish went on an almost-incredible winning streak, winning every meet and invitational in El Paso against all 4A and 5A schools the next 25 years. Under him, Cathedral has been ranked as El Paso’s No. 1 high school boys
swimming team 25 consecutive years.
ALL IN ALL, Cathedral has won 25 state swimming championships (24 under White),
14 TCIL State championships and 11 TAPPS State championships. He has also taken the Irish to Philadelphia to compete in the prestigious Eastern National Prep and Private School Championships where they have placed in the top 10 three times and fourth in 2001. Since 1988, Cathedral swimmers have
been selected to the High School Swimming All American Team 24 times.
WHITE WAS quite a swimmer himself. He was introduced to the sport in 1977 by the El Paso Aqua Posse’s Hall of Fame coach, Leo Cancellare. The Aqua Posse and coach Cancellare made him a champion and laid the ground work for what would be his passion and life’s work – coaching. Though unassuming and soft spoken by nature, White has had the uncanny ability to turn young swimmers into state and national level champions, creating one of the most impressive records in the history of El Paso high school sports.
THE EL PASO Athletic Hall of Fame annual banquet will be held April 27 in the Tomas Rivera Room at UTEP. Hospitality will begin at 5:30 p.m. and dinner will be served at 6:15 p.m. A press conference will be held prior to the banquet at First Christian Church, 901 Arizona Street, at 3 p.m. Others to be inducted besides White will be Sun Bowl executive director Bernie Olivas, bowler Phil Prieto, world class runner Diane Proud, multi-sports star Pete Solis Jr., sports supporter Richard Castro and, posthumously, runner Norman Pittenger.
You really should be at the banquet to meet, greet and cheer these outstanding folks. Tickets are only $30 each and you can get yours by calling either Hall secretary Dan Devine at 562-5831, Armando Gutierrez at 584-2879 or Margarito Banales at 598-8419.
IF YOU WOULD like to learn more about the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame go to its website. You’ll find a wealth of information there, including how it started in 1955, bios on former inductees and even banquet programs dating back to the Hall’s beginning. Former El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame president Ron Leiman, an inductee himself, and webmaster Gabriel Martinez developed the site.