Bob Palko is headed back to West Allegheny and will be back on the sidelines as the school’s new head football coach.
Palko was officially hired as the West Allegheny head football coach at a school board meeting on Wednesday evening.
“Home is where the heart is,” the district’s athletics page said announcing his hiring and return.
“I’m coming home and maybe people don’t understand what that really means,” Palko said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Maybe I took being here for granted before, I don’t know. But to be able to come home now at this point. C’mon, man. This is fairy tale stuff.”Â
Bob Palko is returning to West Allegheny where he previously coached for 24 seasons.
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In a statement, the school board said it’s excited to welcome Coach Palko back to the sidelines.
“His impact on generations of athletes goes far beyond wins and losses; he has helped shape their character and supported their success,” the statement read. “We look forward to the continued positive influence Coach Palko will have on future players both on and off the field.”
During 24 seasons at West Allegheny from 1995 through 2018, Palko sported an impressive record of 217-73, winning eight WPIAL championships and one PIAA state title in 2001.
After his two decades on the sidelines at West Allegheny, Palko retired but that was short-lived as he returned to coaching in 2019 when he took over the program at Mt. Lebanon.
In his third year at Mt. Lebanon, Palko led the team to a WPIAL championship and its first-ever PIAA state title.
Palko then left the high school coaching ranks for a second time, joining James Franklin’s staff at Penn State as the program’s director of high school relations for football.Â
With an overall career coaching record of 249-87 Palko ranks second in WPIAL history with nine championships, trailing only Thomas Jefferson head coach Bill Cherpak, who has won ten titles.