TROY – From state champions to kids who rarely got off the bench, Dave Palmer has spent four decades working with thousands of student-athletes.
For the last 40 years, Palmer has been either an athletic director or an athletic trainer. That meant plenty of late nights and weekends making sure athletic events went off without a hitch and injured student-athletes received the care they needed.
And now, as he prepares to retire as the Troy High School athletic director at the end of the school year, a position he’s held since 2013, Palmer is looking to spend a lot more time with the ones he loves most. That means seeing more of his wife, Carol, children Jon, Austin, Sarah and their spouses, and of course his grandchildren, Abigail, Carter, Cooper, Annalise, Audrey, Owen, Caroline, Charlotte, and Jaxon.
“Spend more time with family,” Palmer said when asked what he was going to do with all the free time that is about to fall into his lap now that he’ll no longer be working 60-70 hours per week during the school year. “That’s No. 1. This job is very demanding; you spend a lot of time taking care of other people’s kids. And in the process of what you do, you neglect a lot of things within your own family. I think for me, I have a great spouse and I have great kids who understood what my role was and have supported me in all of those things. But I think even though they understood what my job demanded, I owe it to them to be a little more present. I just want to take it easy and spend more time with them.”
Of course, while he’ll have more time to spend with his family at home, he will miss spending time with his school family. Palmer said working at Troy the past dozen years has allowed him to grow close to student-athletes, coaches, parents, boosters and staff members. In particular, Palmer thanked Barb Roberts, the longtime athletic director at Troy Junior High School.
“It wasn’t an easy decision,” Palmer said. “I love doing what I do. I love our athletes and working with our coaches, and running events and everything that’s involved with what I have to do for the job as athletic director. So it’s a little bittersweet. I think 20 years, 40 years total, is a good, round number.”
Palmer said he will take a treasure trove of memories and experiences into retirement with him, most of which revolve around the student-athletes and coaches he had an opportunity to work alongside.
“I’m proud of the work of my coaches as well as the successes of all of the student athletes who have donned the Trojan Star,” he said. “I have had so many exciting moments while at Troy; these moments are memories that I will remember forever and will always cherish.”
One of the biggest projects that Palmer took on during his time as athletic director at Troy was the installation of turf fields at Troy Memorial Stadium and Ferguson Field, giving the district separate facilities for football and soccer.
“Some of the upgrades that we’ve been able to do, especially the last few years, putting turf into Memorial Stadium obviously is a big thing,” he said. “I think our players and coaches who play here and coach here deserve that. I think our community really wanted that. So I’m pretty proud about finally being able to make that happen. There are not that many schools that, in addition to a turf football stadium, have a dedicated turf soccer stadium. Those are pretty few and far between with schools in our part of Ohio.”
For all his efforts during his career in high school athletics, the Southwest District Athletic Board recently gave palmer the SWDAB Distinguished Service Award, which is “presented to an association member each year in recognition of their length of service, special accomplishments and contributions to athletic administration at the loca, state and national levels.”
Palmer previously won the Southwest District’s Meritorious Service Award in 2023 and was named the 2018 OIAAA Athletic Director of the Year by the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association.
“It’s nice to be recognized for all the hard work that you put in in your career, and it’s special because it’s voted on by your peers in the Southwest District,” Palmer said. “It feels good that other people from the entire district recognize that you’ve done a nice job.”
Palmer will be replaced by Brandon Wright, who is currently the athletic director at Circleville High School. When asked if he had any words of advice for his successor, Palmer had two things to say.
“I would say the first thing is always do what’s best for kids,” Palmer said. “For me, I treated my athletes as if they were my own kids. And when you make decisions, you have to make decisions on what is best for your student-athletes. I think that’s No. 1. If you are student-centered and student-focused, then I think you are going to go a long way.
“Second, I think for a district our size, we host a lot of stuff here. I think you’ve got to treat your staff the right way, and make sure you’re not going to ask your staff, whether that’s somebody working a gate, or somebody working in the press box or a custodian to do something that you’re not willing to do yourself. If you treat them the right way, they’re going to be good to you.”
