Looking Back

I was saddened to see that my St. Pius X High School Coach Leon Palimsano passed away over the weekend. We had stayed in touch sporadically over the years. I always thought a lot of him because of the decency he always showed to his students. I met him in 1959 as a freshman in P.E. class. My brother Tom and I, (identical twins) were the smallest guys in our class and so we were subject to a lot of that high school hazing. Coach Palmisano put a stop to it one day when some big jock was knocking me around. He took that guy and pinned him against a locker and told him what would happen to him if he ever saw him hassling anyone again. Then, Coach Palmisano appointed my brother and me as official scorekeeper and timekeeper for the basketball team. That pretty much put us out of harms way.

I know I am pretty hard on religion in this blog sometimes, especially with the catholic church in which I was raised. However, I still appreciate the sense of justice, ethics and morality that was pounded into us.

Coach Palmisano symbolized the best of those teachers. He was really a great guy. You know a teacher has fullfilled his role when so many students think of them that way.