Conversation with Coach – Bob Palko, Mount Lebanon

Tagged under: Coaches Corner, District 7, News, pfn

Phil Myers | September 7, 2022

Bob Palko is coming off a Cinderella Season for the ages.  In 2021, his Mount Lebanon Blue Devils not only went 15-0 to win the 6A state title, but they slayed the giant and three-time defending state champion, St. Joseph’s Prep in the grand finale at Hershey.  It was Mount Lebanon’s first football state championship.  On top of that, Coach Palko was named the Don Shula NFL National High School Coach of the Year.

PM: “First of all, congratulations on being named the National High School Coach of the Year.”

Palko: “Thanks, man.  I appreciate it.  Pretty remarkable thing and once again, it’s just another team award that had to go to somebody.”

PM: “Looking back now, what are your thoughts on winning that award?”

Palko: “Obviously, my first thought is the reason all the individual accolades occur is because of a team, a group of kids and coaches that got together and decided to do things as one.  To say I did it on my own wouldn’t be very intelligent.  So, to me the initial thought is it’s another great award for the team, for the community, and for the school.  I am honored, very honored especially with the award being named after a guy like Don Shula.  It’s a neat thing the NFL does.”

PM: “Before the 2021 season started, did you have a feeling your team would be that good and accomplish the things they did?”

Palko: “Well, to say we would finish 15-0 and win the state championship, you know I don’t think that would be very intelligent either.  But we were fortunate and there was a strong belief system and just a magical feel to what was happening.  You always hope that happens, but you never plan on anything like that.”

PM: “How was the response of the community to your run last year?”

Palko: “That was just remarkable!  We came back and had a parade down the middle of town.  It was like a scene out of ‘Hoosiers.’  It was unbelievable!  The genuine joy and happiness that those people had for their kids and the team was cool.  I’ve never been associated with anything like that.  It was magical.  Just a cool thing to be a part of.”

Bob Palko is a real living legend in the WPIAL and around the state of Pennsylvania.  His time is precious, yet he was gracious enough to spend an hour with me.  To him coaching is a lifestyle, not a job and certainly not a hobby.  He didn’t like talking about himself, but he has a great sense of humor and made me laugh on numerous occasions.  He doesn’t know how many games he has won over the years.  For him success is definitely not an accumulation of wins and championships.

Palko’s record speaks for itself though.  At the start of the 2022 season, his overall win and loss count at West Allegheny and Mount Lebanon is a combined 243-81 in his 27 years of being a head coach.  He coached 24 seasons at West A. and 3 so far at Mt. Lebo.  He is tied with Bill Cherpak for the most WPIAL Championships with 9.  He also has notched 2 state titles, one with West Allegheny and one with Mt. Lebanon.  Here is the rest of my very interesting interview with Coach Palko.

PM: “Tell me about your family growing up and your current family.”

Palko: “My dad’s name was Gilbert.  He’s been gone now for 17, 18 years.  My mother, Laverne, is 96 and still taking care of herself.  In fact, we just sold her car.  She was driving too.  She’s a tremendous, tremendous woman.  I have two older sisters, Patti and Susie.”

“The best athlete in the family is my daughter, Amy.  She was a volleyball player and won the state championship her senior year at West Allegheny.  She had a full ride to Duquesne to play volleyball.  My son Luke played wide receiver for St. Francis in Loretto and Tyler was quarterback at Pitt.”  (Tyler went on to a 5-year NFL career.)

PM: “Wife’s name?”

Palko: “Yeah, the better half, Sally.  Sally was a hell of an athlete by the way.  She did go to West Allegheny too.  We were high school sweethearts.”

PM: “Grandkids?”

Palko: “Six.”

PM: “The first time I saw you coach was back in 2001 when your son Tyler was quarterback.  West Allegheny slaughtered Moon Township that night and I believe you went on to beat Strath Haven for the state championship.”

Palko: “Yeah, that was the year we finally won the state championship.  We were in it three years in a row against Strath Haven.  I think they got tired of beating us.”

PM: “Coach, how about a little background information, like where you went to high school, the year you graduated, and things like that.”

Palko: “I went to West Allegheny.  I was a ‘78 grad.  I played football and my entire career we went 3-6, 3-6, and 3-6.  Very consistent, very average.  My senior year we had 18 football players.  I also punted, I kicked, I returned punts, and I returned kickoffs.  Just one of those things back in the 70s at that time.”  Palko was the Indians’ quarterback and played safety on defense.

“It was a great place to go to school.  I had great mentors, but it just didn’t happen for whatever reason.  I went to college.  I got a scholarship to go to Montana Tech out in Butte, Montana which was an NAIA school.  I was a four-year starter at quarterback.”  (He was also an NAIA All-American.)  “It was a great experience and more than anything, it was a great experience for me on how not to do stuff.  I didn’t know how to coach when I got out, but I knew what I wasn’t going to do.”

PM: “Did you play other sports in high school?”

Palko: “I was the starting point guard on the basketball team, also played baseball, and ran track.  I was always a gym rat my whole life.”

PM: “What was your degree in college?”

Palko: “Phys. Ed.  I also got a degree in Science and Drivers Ed.  My first job was at Jeannette.  I was a half day science teacher and half day elementary phys. ed. Which led to being hired at West Allegheny where I became a Phys. Ed. teacher there too.”

PM: “How did you get into coaching?”

Palko: “When I was done at Montana (Tech), I came home and enrolled at IUP where I got my degree in Phys. Ed.  I was in engineering.  When I got back, I knew I wanted to teach Phys. Ed. and coach.  I got hired at IUP as a student assistant when I was working on my P.E. degree under George Chaump.  Coach Chaump had recently taken a job at IUP and I wouldn’t leave his office till he gave me a job.  I was persistent.”  (Chaump went on to coach at Marshall University and the U.S. Naval Academy.  He was also an assistant to Woody Hayes at Ohio State and to John McKay with the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers.)

While at Jeannette, Palko was hired as the offensive coordinator from 1985 to 1990 serving under the legendary Joe Mucci the first year.  Some other big names were on the Jeannette staff in the mid-80s including Art Tragesser, Bob Murphy, Ray Reitz, and Roy Hall.  Palko was in his wheelhouse talking football and exchanging ideas with those WPIAL greats who all coached Jeannette at one time or another.  Palko moved on to Seton LaSalle for the 91-92 seasons coaching under Greg Gattuso in ’91 and Ollie Phillips in ’92.  He took a position at Duquesne University for two years when Gattuso was there, before becoming West Allegheny’s head man for the 1995 season.  The rest is history as they say.

But West Allegheny football traditionally was not very good  In fact, Palko was told not to get his hopes up when he was hired.  It took a couple of years but Palko’s system, passion, and organization turned things around for the program and the community that had gotten used to West Allegheny football being average at best.

PM: “So, how were you able to build a winning program at West Allegheny?”

Palko: “Honestly, it’s learning from George Chaump and learning from Joe Mucci and learning from Greg Gattuso and learning from Ollie Phillips.  That’s all we did was talk football.  Meeting all kinds of people, working camps and developing a passion.”

PM: “So, just putting all that stuff you learned into practice once you became head coach really helped you build that program then?”

Palko: “Yeah, and obviously hiring a staff was number one.  I hired some unbelievable people, but the guy who probably influenced my head coaching, being a head coach for the first time, was Guy Rippole.  He was my mentor.  I met Coach Rip when coaching at Duquesne and we hit it off.  He came after my first year.  So, Coach Rip was with me for a boat load of years until he tragically had a heart attack and died.  He was special.”

“I also grew up with guys like Mark Davis who recently passed away from a massive heart attack.  Guys like that and those relationships plus former players came back and we built a family-like atmosphere.  That’s when we knew we had it rolling, when former players came back teaching and coaching.  Obviously, you try to do things right and take care of all the other things that matter.”

“Winning is kind of a by-product of doing all those other things.  We didn’t know how to win, but we knew how to do those other things and winning became a by-product.  You know, there was a tremendous buy in from the students, the kids, and the parents.  One guy can’t do it all.  So, I was fortunate to hire some unbelievable assistant coaches.  It was a neat thing to be a part of.”

“Just because you don’t have the most talented team or kids doesn’t mean you can’t win.  When you get a group of kids who don’t really care about individual accolades, and all they care about is winning, they’ll do whatever it takes to do it.  There’s not a whole lot of that going on right now, now a days cause everybody’s worried about how they look on twitter or something.”

PM: “So, how were you able to build the program at Mt. Lebanon to where it achieved a state title in only 3 years under your leadership?”

Palko: “Yeah, again it was the buy in from the kids, the parents, the community.  After year one we made some changes on the staff.  Now we have a staff who believes in the same thing.  It was truly a magical thing that happened.”

PM: “How do you measure success?”

Palko: “You know what?  That’s a great question.  I’ve done a million interviews.  I can’t remember what I say to people.  I just speak from my heart.  To me, if kids come back and help the program or thank you for helping them…football is a vehicle to help young people grow up, to help them make great life decisions.  Success of the program I don’t really think it’s in wins and losses.  My job is to help people turn into great adults, to help people find out who they are and want to be.  That to me is the measure of success, not how many games you won or how many mercy rules, etc.  I try to be a great ambassador for high school athletes and sports.  That’s all I care and think about.”

PM: “Great answer.  Coach, what’s the toughest thing about coaching?”

Palko: “I mean listen we all want to think there’s no bad things that happen.  I mean obviously, you hate to see injuries happen or something like that, career ending things.  Obviously, parents seem to be more vocal than in the past.  I have great relationships with the parents, but you still need to deal with things in the parenting department.  I worry about stuff I can control.  I got to worry about being me.  I can’t worry about this person, parent, or teacher, or any kind of stuff I can’t control.  I’m going to worry about helping these kids become young adults.  Let’s be honest, I don’t think there’s anything in life that there’s never going to be trials and tribulations, or there’s going to be hurdles, or there’s going to be bad things.  But I believe the good things outweigh the bad things in coaching.”

PM: “How has coaching changed since you first started?”

Palko: “I’ve been in the game a long time, approaching 40 years.  I think the way in which we teach tackling, I think the way in which we practice, I think the game has evolved.  I think the way it has evolved is a good thing.  We’re just finding different ways to do things that’s better.  It’s pretty cool.  We can practice once or twice a day, not three.  Look at the equipment we’re wearing now.”

“There’s a lot of things that has changed.  The game, the rules, but you know more than anything is this…you went to one school (back in the day) and that was it!  Now kids are transferring, moving here, moving there.  I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but it’s different.   I’m not picking on those schools or anything but they can recruit.  I’m not allowed to recruit here.  I wish I could, but I’m not allowed.  Yet we are playing against schools that do that.  Somewhere along the line I just don’t know what’s right from wrong, what’s fair and what’s not.  Is it good?  Yeah, I think some of it is good.  Is it bad?  Yeah, I think some of it is bad too.  You better adapt to the change.  I think that’s something we need to look into.”

PM: “What’s the most important concept you try to teach your players?”

Palko: “Oh, man.”  (Thinks for a couple seconds.)  “Again, if I can get the kids to believe in team above all things, then all individual goals will come into play if you put the team before yourself.”

PM: “What motivates Bob Palko to keep on coaching?”

Palko: “I don’t know.  I will tell you this isn’t a hobby!!  It’s a lifestyle!!  So, it’s something I live every day.”

PM: “What’s been the biggest thrill for you in all your years of coaching?”

Palko: “Honestly, watching kids grow up and become dads, watching kids grow up and raise their families, seeing what kind of fathers they are.  That, to me, is the most important.  Life lessons, man!  Watching my own two sons, who I coached, raise their families and be daddies.  I get to see a lot of kids do that.  It’s pretty cool.”

PM: “What do you want your legacy to be?”

Palko: “I don’t know what my legacy will be.  It’s for someone else to figure out.  If I can wake up tomorrow and try to do things better than I did today and continue to grind.  I think good things will happen.  It’s just the way I was raised.  Maybe it’s the right way, maybe it’s not.  But it’s the way it is for me, and it’ll continue to be that way.”

We proceeded to talk a little about midget football and how the Mt. Lebo players try to be visible to the youngsters and that they officiate a flag football league.

When I asked Coach Palko about any changes he’d like to see in the high school game he spoke briefly about the boundary and non-boundary schools.  He feels it is something that needs to be dealt with.

PM: “Coach, how about a few ‘fun’ questions?  If you could talk to any football coach past or present, who would it be?”

Palko: “Wow!  I’ll tell you I had the opportunity to golf a few weeks ago with Dick LaBeau.  That was awesome.  That’s a tough question.”  (LeBeau was mainly a defensive backs coach or defensive coordinator in the NFL from 1973 to 2017 with 7 teams including the Steelers.)

PM: “What do you do with your spare time?”

Palko: “Coach and raise my family.  Again, to me it’s a lifestyle.  I wish I could golf more and I wish I was better at it.  I never caught a fish in my life.  I went skeet shooting for the first time last year.”

PM: “Is there somewhere in the United States you’ve never been, but would love to see at some point?”

Palko: “I’ve never been to Alaska.  Never been to Hawaii.”

PM: “That would be a goal of mine, to get to Alaska.”

Palko: “Now there you go.  You figure out how to pay for it and I’ll go with you.  Is that a deal?”

PM: “That’s a deal.”

Palko: “Okay, brother.”

PM: “What does Bob Palko’s favorite meal consist of?”

Palko: “Wow!  You’re killing me with these.  You always ate what your parents put on your plate.”  (We laugh.)  “I love all kinds of food.  Do I have a favorite?  No.  There is not a whole lot of food that I haven’t eaten or liked.  I’m not a picky guy.  I’ll eat whatever.”

PM: “That leads to the next question, do you have a favorite dessert?”

Palko: “No, I don’t have a favorite dessert.”

PM: “Do you have a favorite movie?”

Palko: “I wish I had time to watch movies, classic movies.  I don’t know.  Sandlot.”

PM: “Do you have a favorite TV show?”

Palko: “Sports Center.”

PM: “If you could go back in time and meet someone, who would it be?”

Palko: “Dang, this is like ‘This is Your Life.’”  (We laugh.)  “I would have liked to meet my mom’s dad.  I was fortunate enough to meet my dad’s dad, but I never met my mom’s dad.”

PM: “What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?”

Palko: “I love to paint.  Not pictures, I can’t even draw a stick man.  I enjoy painting a room because it’s inanimate.  It doesn’t say anything.  It doesn’t talk back to me.  I get immediate results.  And it doesn’t ask questions.  (Deep laughter.)

PM: “Anything else you’d like to touch on or say?”

Palko: “I don’t think so.”

PM: “What’s the outlook for the upcoming season?”

Palko: “Cautiously optimistic.”

Coach Palko has taken Mount Lebanon football to new heights.  As long as he and his staff continue coaching at Mt. Lebo, the Blue Devils are a team that will have to be reckoned with each and every year.  Move over Central Catholic and North Allegheny.  As the 70s band, the Eagles once sang, ‘There’s a New Kid in Town.’

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