Many familiar faces, welcome backs, talking about great times in the past, and a pavilion filled with some of the schools best athletes gathered together to honor their own at the James Logan Hall of Fame Banquet on October, 13th 2018. James Logan loves to remember the greatest athletes of its past years – the athletes, coaches, and even teams that have contributed to Logan’s winning reputation. With this 2018 Hall of Fame Banquet, there were seven new inductees.
First to present was Brent Jacinto. At Logan, he started on the Frosh basketball team instead of wrestling because he knew the competition in wrestling was very good, and his first impression was that he would sit on the bench. But after a couple of preseason games of basketball, wrestling coach Hank Sekoch convinced Brent that he could compete and possibly make the varsity team. Soon after, he wrestled against Andrew Hill High School where he won his first match. That match started an amazing record of 126-5-0.
“Now this took a little bit of convincing on Eli’s (Logan wrestling coach) part because people who are close to me know I don’t like to talk about myself and my past accomplishments,” Jacinto said. “Rather, I like to focus on the present moving forward on tasks. However, tonight is not a time to revisit glory moments in my career but a time to give thanks to the people who are responsible for these moments.”
Next to present was Gabe Garcia, who grew up on 6th street playing baseball with other local kids who shared the same passion that he did. Garcia is a 1995 graduate and one of a very small group of players to play four years on the varsity team. All of that hard work paid off when in 1996, Garcia signed a professional contract with the Houston Astros and played in the farm system through the 2000 season. Now Garcia runs a Baseball and Softball academy here in Union City where he coaches kids from all of the Bay Area.
Next on the list of the seven inductees was Ray Stewart. Ray was part of the boys track and field team Logan. What started his whole career was a bet with his mom that if he gave his full potential for a whole season, she would buy him a leather jacket at the end of the season. With that bet, he not only earned that beloved jacket but a promising athletic career. Stewart came to Logan and broke out his senior year winning two gold and three silver medals at the Arcadia Invitational. He also made the state championship in the 110 hurdles and 4×100 relay, where he helped set a school record in the 4×100. In his senior year at Logan, he ran the fastest legal time in the Nation!
The next inductee comes as no surprise. Coach Lee Web is one of the most prestigious coaches in James Logan’s history. For the cross country team, he led the team to nine North Coast championships and won four. With track and field, he coached them to nine national appearances, winning five. He also earned two state championships with track and field. Everything added up to dominance. His teams were North Coast Section Champions 253 times, state champions 36 times, national champions 40 times, and held 34 national records. With all his accomplishments comes one simple phrase he uses which is, “Believe to Achieve.”
The strength of the 1987 track and field team was so strong Logan had to put the entire team into the Hall of Fame. A few of the team’s highlights include winning MVAL, North Coast sectionals, and placing 5th at the State California Track and Field meet. Many of this team’s marks still stand on the top 10 performances ever in James Logan Track and Field history.
The 1990 James Logan Softball team is one of the best to date in the entire program and even the school. Coming into the 1990 season they were fueled by a bet made with Guy Emanuel purchasing the softball team a batting cage in which he said they had to win an NCS championship before they could get one.
After that, 1990 was the first year a softball team won a North Coast section championship. Other major feats that the team accomplished were only allowing 11 runs all year, holding a 12-0 league record, and 20-5 overall. The team was ranked 3rd in state and 24th nationally. Most importantly, Guy Emanuel kept his word and delivered the batting cage.
Last was Jan’ou Rubin. He was a basketball player here at Logan with an impressive career. Rubin made varsity as a freshman, is the all-time leader in points and assists at Logan, was freshman of the year throughout the whole bay area, and as a senior made the All Bay Area team. Rubin spoke eloquently about Union City and what it meant for him.
“There will never be a better city in the world,” Rubin said. “I will say this because I’ve been to a lot of them, and you will never find all of these coaches and people supporting each other anywhere else.”
One who did not present but was inducted to this year’s Hall of Fame was Briana Stewart. While at James Logan, she excelled as a hurdler and triple jumper. She was part of the winning 2006 California State meet team. As a senior, she won her second Junior Olympic gold medal in the triple jump and was third in California in girls 100-meter hurdles. This made her fifth in the nation for high school girls in the event and third in the state for the triple jump. In 2008 she was Athlete of the year in the tri-state area.
