A visit with WPIAL champion coach Win Palmer
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Background Info: To say Win Palmer has been a man for all seasons at Sewickley Academy for the last 18 years would be an understatement. In the fall, Palmer is the head coach of the highly successful Panthers boys golf team that has won nine WPIAL Class 2A titles since 2006 including a record six straight from 2013-18 that they will take into next season. They also won state championships in 2015 and 2017. During the winter months, ne moved from soft greens to the hardwood and a team that has won five WPIAL boys crowns in his tenure, 2004 and 2009-10 in Class 1A and 2017-18 in Class 2A and a pair of state crowns in 2010 and 2017. Following basketball season he heads out onto the diamond as the Sewickley Academy softball coach -- the only sport he has not yet won a championship -- but the Panthers have qualified for the playoffs each of the last eight years. Oh…and he’s also the school’s athletic director. Win Palmer on coaching in the WPIAL. "I love it. I love the mixture of all the types of schools, from rural to suburban, from steel mill and blue collar to Catholic schools and independent schools, you get such a great variety and interest in the WPIAL is so strong. I think it’s remarkable having come from the DC area, there’s no one drawing card down there like there is in the WPIAL. As good as the Washington D.C. high school sports are, the interest in the District 7 championships is just amazing. I love the fact that the events are so well-run and played at such incredible facilities and to me it’s just a highlight for any kid out there." Win Palmer on coaching three different sports. "It’s a drastic change because golf is logical and basketball is obviously physical and you’re constantly changing players and constantly changing strategies and different gyms have different atmospheres from an opponent. Softball, there’s the pause between pitches and you can think about plays and all that. They’re a complete contrast and I love it. Golf is an individual logical sport, basketball to me is the ultimate team game and softball combines both with the individual being the pitcher versus batter and the team play when the ball’s batted and in play. I love those different features." Win Palmer on the biggest difference coaching boys and girls sports. "I would say that the biggest difference is simply, some of the boys, their egos can get hung up on whether they’re having success or not and for the girls, it’s more that things are going smoothly, there’s fairness on the team and everybody is treated properly. That’s the case in softball. It’s going to go smoothly if there’s equity in how you’re treating kids. For boys, a boy just went 0 for 6 from the 3-point line and he feels like he’s really got to figure it out and may try to do too much the next game to prove he’s much better than that. I find that the girls aren’t going to try to show up their opponent sin the same way and they’re all going to treat everybody nicely and they’re both really fun to coach." Win Palmer on his greatest accomplishment as a coach. "My greatest accomplishment is that I truly think I help kids have fun at sports and truly help them have fun learning what it is being a good teammate. At the end of the day, whether you’re a starter or whether you’re a kid who never got in a golf match or never got in a basketball game or never got in a softball game, you still felt like you contributed to your team’s effort that day." |