Alice High powerlifters celebrated at historic season banquet

Alice High School’s powerlifting program turned a standout year into a public milestone, with a banquet recognizing a season that carried weight far beyond one gym in Alice. For a school that has served grades 9 through 12 since 1887 and now enrolls about 1,290 students at 1 Coyote Trail, the celebration reflected more than trophies. It marked another hard-earned chapter for a program that has become part of the school’s athletic identity in Jim Wells County.

The Texas High School Powerlifting Association’s 2026 records show Alice as a member school with dues paid Dec. 14, 2025, and the program stayed active deep into the spring. THSPA listed the Alice Boys Last Qualifier at Alice High School on Feb. 26, 2026, with 47 boys entered. That meet gave the season a clear finish line and underscored how many lifters had pushed through months of training, weigh-ins and qualifying attempts before the banquet brought the year into focus.

Jonathan Ruvalcaba was among the most visible names in the final stretch. THSPA results show the Alice lifter competed in the 148-pound class at the Feb. 26 last qualifier and totaled 1,325. His 2026 season also included appearances at the Jan. 31 Alice Invitational and the March 14 Region V Division I Regional Championships Final, a span that showed how far the program carried its athletes after the winter meets began.

The banquet’s importance was sharpened by the program’s recent history. Prior Alice Echo News Journal coverage noted that Alice powerlifting teams won team championships in their last three meets during the 2024 season, and that the powerlifters earned a bronze overall finish at a last qualifier meet in February 2025. Against that backdrop, this year’s recognition landed as more than a routine end-of-season gathering. It became a measure of continuity, showing that Alice High’s lifters had built on past success rather than simply repeating it.

That is what made the season historic for the people in the room. The banquet closed one cycle of lifting while opening the next, giving younger athletes a standard to chase and confirming that Alice High’s powerlifting program has become one of the school’s most consistent sources of pride.