Jack Schommer Invitational Preview

In New Orleans City Park this Saturday October 19, Brother Martin High School hosts the Jack Schommer Invitational, named in honor of the school’s first Cross Country coach. This year’s meet features some of the top teams in Louisiana, including hosts Brother Martin, Catholic – Point Coupee, and a team from Jesuit on the boys side and Mount Carmel, Catholic – Point Coupee, McGehee, and teams from St. Joseph’s and Dominican.   

Coach Schommer was influential in the process of sanctioning cross country as an LHSAA sport in Louisiana. As the Head Track & Field Coach and assistant Football coach at St. Aloysius High School in the early 1960s, Schommer was faced with the dilemma of grooming his long distance runners for the upcoming Track & Field season without the advantage of a preparatory Cross Country season. With Cross Country a few years away from becoming a sanctioned sport within the LHSAA, Schommer routinely shipped his distance runners to Mobile, AL. to run road races in the fall in an effort to ready his team for the cinders in the spring.