Jorge Maese promoted to head cross country coach at San Elizario High School
One of El Paso's most successful high school athletic programs has a new coach but a familiar name.
Jorge Maese, who has been with the successful San Elizario cross country program as an assistant coach for the previous 10 years, has been named the head coach. He replaces Cesar Morales, who was the head coach for 12 years but is now the Director of Athletics for San Elizario ISD.
In the past nine years, San Elizario has won six state championships and finished third three times.
"I'm excited for the opportunity to lead the program," Maese said. "I want to help continue the legacy of helping our kids achieve great things in education and in cross country. I want to help keep our excellence going. There is added pressure now that I'm the head coach but I am grateful for this chance."
Maese will also continue to coach his son, Angel, who will be a senior on next season's squad.
"Jorge will do a great job, he's been a major reason for our success," Morales said. "I have confidence that he'll continue to move the program forward and help the kids develop their passion for the sport. I'm excited about my new opportunity, it's a new challenge for me and it gives me a new lens to look through in terms of all of our programs here in San Elizario. We have lots of great coaches and programs, we want to continue to build."
The boys program will return five key runners from last year's team and the girls program is also in good shape coming off a district title in 2022.
"We'll work hard this summer and continue to develop and grow as a team," Maese said. "We have some good kids coming back in both boys and girls competition. We have a great tradition at San Elizario and we're excited about the future."
More: Look back at 2022-23 season A look back at top high school sports moments in El Paso for 2022-23 school year
Felix F. Chavez can be reached at fchaez@elpasotimes.com; @Fchavezeptimes on Twitter
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Jorge Maese promoted to San Elizario head cross country coach
