Basketball - 2024

Palarz started as a multi-sport local athlete (basketball, cross country, football, golf and ice hockey) at Harvard HS (now Harvard-Westlake) in Studio City. He went on to receive a Bachelor’s Degree from Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) with four letters in golf while getting his start in coaching basketball. Palarz went on to receive a Master’s Degree in History from Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), and a graduate teaching credential from DePaul University (Chicago, IL).

Palarz has been a basketball coach, history teacher and Athletic Director for over 30 years, winning 551 career games to date, including over 65% of all games coached. He has worked the past 14 seasons as the head coach at Calabasas High School, winning six league titles as well as serving as the school’s Athletic Director for six years through spring of 2023. He has coached into the CIF playoffs in 14 of the past 15 years, winning CIF titles in 2012 and 2014.

He started out at Campbell Hall in North Hollywood from 1991-94, leading the Vikings to their first two CIF titles in any sport. Both his 1992 and 1994 teams advanced to the California State semi-finals and quarter-finals respectively. He is in the top 10% of all-time CIF basketball coaches with four CIF titles to his credit.

He has been recognized as both the ‘Los Angeles Times’ and ‘LA Daily News’ Coach of the Year, plus multi-time CIF Coach of the Year. He was an assistant coach at both San Jose State and Harvard-Westlake, plus has coached local club basketball in the off-season. He has been able to work at basketball camps at Duke, Indiana, Purdue, Kansas and the University of Kentucky, plus starting out at the John Wooden Summer Camp.