ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Tribune News Service) — Al Cantello, one of the most legendary coaches in Navy athletics history, died Wednesday after a brief illness.

Cantello, a longtime Annapolis resident, was with his daughters at the end. He was 92. .

The longtime cross country and track and field coach enjoyed a 55-year tenure at the academy. He retired in August 2018 after 50 years as head coach of Navy men’s cross country.

“Coach Cantello has influenced so many throughout his career it is impossible to comprehend,” Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk said. “As an educator, coach and inspirational leader, the legacy he leaves behind is immeasurable. Everybody has an Al Cantello story and those stories will be a cherished memory forever.”

Cantello was hired as an assistant coach for Navy track and field in 1963, having been recruited by fellow Pennsylvania native Jim Gehrdes. In a 2012 article celebrating his half-century at the academy, Cantello told The Capital how he went from being a teacher and coach at Methacton High in his hometown of Norristown, Pa., to Navy assistant.

“Jim was looking for someone to coach field events and thought of me,” said Cantello, who once held every national and international record in the javelin throw.

Gehrdes gave up coaching cross country in 1968 and turned over that fall program to Cantello. To gain knowledge about the finer points of the sport, Cantello traveled across the country to visit with top cross country coaches such as Bill Dellinger of Oregon and Bob Timmons of Kansas.

Eventually, Cantello would be considered among the finest cross country coaches in America. He led Navy to 12 appearances at the NCAA Championships with the 1985 team placing seventh overall.

Navy captured four Heptagonal Championships under Cantello and finished top three on 21 occasions, including every year from 1978 through 1986. The Midshipmen captured Patriot League championships in eight of nine years from 2008 through 2016.

Navy men’s cross country won the Star meet competition against archrival Army 37 times during the 50-year tenure of Cantello, a 76.5% clip.

Cantello compiled an overall record of 246-71-1 (.775 winning percentage) as Navy men’s cross country coach. He was recognized as NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Coach of the Year four times and named Patriot League Coach of the Year eight times, including four straight from 2013 to 2016.

“Simply put, Al Cantello is an icon here at the academy. He is universally respected, not only by the athletes he has coached and the administrators with whom he has worked, but also by the opponents against which he’s competed,” Gladchuk said in the 2012 article. “Al has been an incredible role model for the midshipmen and served as a benchmark for all of our coaches. He has done an incredible job and the record speaks for itself as to how successful he’s been.”

Cantello developed a total of 10 All-Americans in either cross country or track and field distance events. Four of those runners — Ronnie Harris, Greg Keller, Jon Clemens and John Mentzer — were multi-time All-Americans.

Harris and Mentzer were among six Cantello proteges to compete at the United States Track and Field Olympic Trials. James Dare, Mark Newman, Aaron Lanzel and Erik Schmidt were the others. Dare qualified for Team USA as an alternate in 1972, while Harris qualified in 1996.

Three runners mentored by Cantello captured the individual Patriot League championship five times. Andrew Hanko (2009, 2010) and Lucas Stalnaker (2015, 2016) were both two-time champs.

Lanzel described himself as an average runner coming out of Eisenhower High in Sugar Grove, Pa. He posted times as a senior that were not the caliber that earned even a passing glance from Division I recruiters.

Cantello gave Lanzel a chance to compete at the Naval Academy and he developed into an All-Patriot League performer. After graduating in 2003, he qualified for the United States Olympic Trials in the 1,500-meter run.

Lanzel credits his dramatic improvement to Cantello’s tutelage.

“I am proof positive that Coach Cantello can take a mediocre talent and turn it into an elite one,” Lanzel said. “The man just knows how to coach, knows how to motivate and develop runners.”

Lanzel described Cantello’s coaching style as “quirky, unorthodox and genuine.”

“You might not know what you would get from Coach Cantello on a given day,” Lanzel said. “You might have a great day and expect some praise and he would push you to do more. Some days when you ran like absolute trash and expected him to tear into you, he would give encouragement. He somehow always knew the right buttons to push and I think he enjoyed the psychological aspect of coaching.”

Lanzel would wind up replacing Cantello as Navy men’s cross country coach and is now in his seventh year. He talked to Cantello every week during the season and noted it was also an interesting conversation.

“You never knew what you were going to get from him, but it was usually something valuable,” Lanzel said. “It will be tough not being able to bounce ideas off Coach Cantello and get his thoughts on things.”

Cantello attended several cross country meets this fall and Lanzel said he remained “very much engaged,” keeping close tabs on the results and asking his successor about certain athletes.

Also a valued member of the indoor and outdoor track and field programs, Cantello served as an assistant from 1968 through 1980 under Gehrdes before taking over as head coach from 1981 to 1988. He returned to an assistant’s role after Steve Cooksey was hired as head coach in 1989.

During his eight-year run as head coach, Cantello compiled a 75-12-1 (.862) record and 12 Star meet victories. He was inducted into the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Hall of Fame in December 2013.

Chris Campbell was a javelin thrower at Navy when Cantello was coaching that discipline and felt honored to learn from someone so accomplished in that specific event. He agreed with Lanzel that Cantello’s greatest strength involved the mental side of the sport.

“I think his best coaching skill was getting inside your head and convincing you that you could run faster or throw farther, work harder or have better technique,” said Campbell, a former Navy record-holder in the javelin. “He was a cantankerous and really tough coach, but I think with all his heart his intentions were to make all of us better as athletes and as people.”

Campbell said Cantello inspired him to get into coaching after his career as a Naval officer was complete. Cantello wrote a letter of recommendation that helped Campbell get hired as field events coach at Ball State.

Cantello drew a picture of a tree and wrote that Campbell had strong roots in the sport of track and field and many branches that made him an ideal candidate.

“ Coach Cantello touched a lot of lives in a very positive way. He challenged a lot of athletes to go beyond what they thought they were capable of doing. He did an incredible job of developing young men,” Campbell said.

Cantello was a two-time All-American javelin thrower at La Salle University from 1951-55. He is enshrined in the Pennsylvania school’s athletic Hall of Fame and is recognized on the Penn Relays “Wall of Fame” for becoming the first three-time winner of the javelin throw at that fabled meet.

Upon graduation from La Salle, Cantello joined the Marine Corps and served for 10 years. During that time, he continued to thrive as a javelin thrower, participating in countless meets around the world. In 1959, he set a world record with a throw of 282 feet and 3 inches.

In 1960, Cantello represented the United States in the javelin at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. In 1964, Sport magazine named Cantello to its all-time track and field team and voted him the world’s greatest competitor in the javelin.

It was also during this period of competition that Cantello married his wife, Doris Jacqueline Brownlee, in an intimate ceremony at Quantico. They raised three children in Annapolis and remained together until Brownlee’s death in 2014.

Cantello is survived by his daughters, Karla McMahon (Michael) and Karen O’Kane (Gerard), daughter-in-law Nancy Cantello and seven grandchildren: Charles Cantello, Samuel Cantello, Kellen McMahon, Koby McMahon, Kylie McMahon, Brendan O’Kane, and Audrey O’Kane. He was preceded in death by his parents, wife and son, Albert Cantello Jr.

A visitation to celebrate Cantello’s life will be held Jan. 31 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Kalas Funeral Home in Edgewater followed by a celebration Mass at St. John Neumann on Bestgate Road in Annapolis on Feb. 1 at 10:30 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to The Al Cantello Sr. ‘55 Memorial Scholarship Fund at La Salle University, Philadelphia, Pa. ©2024 Capital Gazette.

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