Dale Palmer Has Called Sparkman Home For 22 Years
HARVEST- In today’s arenas of sports, there’s a spirit of constant change with the coaching ranks. It’s a rare occurrence should a coach remain with a school or program for any length of time giving the impression to many the dedication and commitment of those are nonexistent.
For Dale Palmer, he stumbled into a teacher and coach position at Sparkman High and has been the cause for a sort of throwback to yesteryear. Palmer has been at his position as head softball coach since he arrived at the Madison County School and is now in the midst of this, his 22nd season.
With a recent 11-1 victory over Brentwood High of Tennessee, Palmer notched his 950th career win. The Lady Senators remain atop the Class 7A state rankings according to the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Sparkman lost to Buckhorn in the state finals a season ago in their attempt to win their seventh state title under Palmer.
“This team, much like all of the others we’ve had at Sparkman, are very coachable and want to be successful. You couple that with a discipline environment structured to do everything the right way and you have success,” said Palmer.
Once a multi-sport coach at Sparkman, Palmer chose to stick strictly to softball 15 years ago and the program has been one of if not the top program in Alabama ever since. Overall, Sparkman has won state titles in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016. Along the way, an assemblage of enormous talent has graced the dugout at Sparkman. This season the squad is led by six seniors including All-State player and 2018 Bryant-Jordan Achievement Regional Winner Taylor Davis.
“We don’t play for ourselves and that’s cool because if we were just playing for ourselves that wouldn’t be much fun,” said Davis. “Coach Palmer makes sure we put ourselves to the side for the good of everyone else. For the good of the team.”
Palmer is proud of the fact his teams are always faith based and community involved. He instils discipline, dedication, sportsmanship and desire to excel as a team in every player, at each game for every season.
“These girls are not just playing for their own self-gratification. They are playing for something that is much bigger,” said Palmer. “I don’t expect our success to change.”
Neither will the Sparkman community see a change at coach in the Sparkman arena any time soon.
