When we think of winners in high school sports, we think of those athletes that overcome adversity and pull out a victory after falling down. On rare occasion an athlete will come along that goes undefeated.
Jackie Hale was a track and field impossibility. She never lost.
As a shot putter, discus thrower, long jumper and triple jumper for the San Lorenzo Valley High Cougars in the early 1980s, Hale said, she won every event she competed in as a varsity track athlete in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League.
Hale dominated the SCCAL for most of four years in her four track and field events. At one time, she held the points-per-game record in basketball, and she was named All-SCCAL for three years. Her spring senior season, she was allowed to compete in both track and softball, and she was selected to the All-SCCAL softball team and helped the Cougars to a Central Coast Section Division II championship.
She then attended Cabrillo College, where she played softball and was selected to the All-State team. She placed ninth in California in the heptathlon.
Hale continues to play coed soccer. She managed the Scotts Valley Cinema for more than 20 years before it was recently sold. Today, she lives in Boulder Creek and works as a traveling personal trainer and tax consultant.
Nathan Beck: Louie Walters (the athletic director at Scotts Valley High School) had told me that you were often picked before the boys for most sports at the time. Did you consider that unusual?
Jackie Hale: I grew up playing Little League with the boys. Parents didn’t like it at all, because I was taking one of their kids’ positions, but I got along great with the boys. I played Little League through seventh grade, then moved on to junior high sports.
NB: After spending that much time on the baseball diamond, was it hard to give up that sport for “girls” sports?
JH: I did way better competing against girls. It worked out that I was not allowed to play softball and track, because the two sports conflict timewise. My senior year, the school finally made some concessions to let me practice for track during sixth period and practice with the team for softball. We did great at softball. And I got to do great at track. Really, my passion and favorite sport is soccer, which I still play in rec leagues.
NB: At Cabrillo, you competed in the heptathlon. Was that ever your goal?
JH: Not at all — I hated the heptathlon. I only did it once and performed well enough to get ranked ninth in the state. It was hard to run the 880 meters on the last event one day and the 220 meters first the next day. I enjoyed the hurdling, though. I got into that event after the heptathlon.
