Thibodaux ascends to No. 1 spot in decisive Week 2 win
September 16, 2014
From the heart: Longtime volunteer on receiving end of generosity
September 16, 2014
E.D. White Catholic volleyball coach Mary Cavell has been at her school for a good number of years now.
She has been there for 23 consecutive years and 31 years total. After a brief absence, she returned to the school in 1991 and took over as head coach of the school’s volleyball program the following year.
Since then, she has also taught Math at the school and coached other sports, including girls’ basketball.
But the one position Cavell aspired to had until this year eluded her. She had wanted to become the athletic director for several years, but E.D. White already had one in Preston Lejeune, the school’s former football coach and long-time athletic director of 22 years. When Lejeune retired from the position in the winter of this year, Cavell figured the time had come.
She got her wish back in January when the school announced she would officially take over the job in time for the start of the current school year. Cavell still coaches volleyball, with the help of her top assistant, but is now at the head of the school’s entire athletic department.
“I had wanted to be athletic director about five or six years ago,” Cavell said. “When Coach Lejeune stepped down, I just prayed on it. I applied, and I knew it was something I wanted.”
A few weeks into the job, Cavell says she has enjoyed the new responsibilities and the work-load that is associated with the position.
“It has been non-stop,” Cavell said. “It’s a pretty big role. At E.D. White, the athletic director is in charge of all the facilities. We got season tickets for football through and had two big home games, two big rivalries, so it’s been some long hours, but it’s getting used to a job that is different every day. When I was teaching, it was all scheduled. I walked into school, and you didn’t know what today was going to bring. Now, I have my to-do list and I try to get at least two or three things accomplished off that list.”
One of the first things Cavell wanted to accomplish in her new post as athletic director was to get in touch with the student-body and put a new attitude into the Cardinals’ faithful.
As the school’s volleyball coach, Cavell was used to seeing her team make deep playoff runs and compete for State Championships. She knew fans of the program liked making annual trips to the Pontchartrain Center in Kenner, where the state volleyball finals are held. Now she wants those same fans to make similar trips around the state with regards to the school’s other sports.
“Everybody kept saying, ‘We love going to the Pontchartrain Center’ and I said, ‘I don’t want you to just love going there, I want you to love going to all the different ones,’” Cavell said. “Let’s do it for all sports. I wanted to try and get an enthusiasm around the whole school in regards to all athletic programs. The student-body bought into it and it has really picked up.”
All the while, Cavell has maintained her position as the school’s volleyball coach. She played the sport in high school and in college and had returned to E.D. White as a teacher for seven years after that. But it wasn’t until she returned again in 1991 that the school agreed to let her coach volleyball, and what has followed since has been one of the most impressive tenures of any coach.
Cavell has led her teams to the State Championship Finals nine times, winning it all in 2008.
She hopes to lead her team back there this year, and if so, it will be with the help of a former Cardinals player: Cavell’s assistant coach, Sarah Johnson.
Johnson played for Cavell at E.D. White from 1997 to 2001 before going on to play collegiately at Nicholls State (2001-05). She had originally planned on selling insurance, but that was before her old coach called and got her a position as the head coach at Central Catholic High in Morgan City.
Johnson spent two years at the school, but Cavell recalls that her former pupil wanted to return to E.D. White and work alongside her old coach to learn the ropes of coaching.
Now, Johnson is the program’s head coach-in-waiting.
“’She said, I really need to learn how to be a head coach,’” Cavell said. “She came in, in 2008, and I told her that I still loved coaching. I always said I didn’t want to leave coaching until I knew I was done and she said that was no problem. Now, we’ve really worked out a co-coaching (arrangement).”
Part of Johnson’s responsibilities include running drills with the team and setting up practices while Cavell tends to day-to-day behind-the-scenes items at the school.
She says she’s learned a lot from Cavell over the years, from playing on her teams as a prep athlete to coaching alongside her as an assistant.
“It’s an easy transition, because I knew her philosophy and what she wanted to achieve,” said Johnson. “E.D. White volleyball is all about teamwork, being sisters and being dedicated at all times. I knew the philosophy coming in. It was different in college than it was at E.D. White, but I still remembered it so it was an easy transition. She listens to my opinions and obviously I listen to hers. It really works well together. There’s definitely a trust there.”
With 31 years of her life spent at E.D. White, Cavell says there’s nowhere else she’d rather be.
“I love E.D. White,” Cavell said. “(Former baseball coach) Boyd Hebert and his wife kept telling me when I finished at Nicholls that we want you at E.D. White. It’s just a great place to be and I’m very blessed to be able to serve here.”
E.D. White volleyball coach Mary Cavell (left) has been a member of the Cardinals’ community for a long, long time – 31 years to be exact. With Cavell now juggling a second job as the school’s Athletic Director, Cavell is grooming assistant coach Sarah Johnson.
