Coach DePalma Made Champs Of Us.
A couple of days ago one of my best childhood friends who lives in Anderson, SC, Michael Burriss, messaged about 15 friends and me that Mike DePalma passed away. While I’m aware that 95% of my friends will wonder why I’m typing about this person, there are those who know exactly why.
Mike DePalma was many things, but to me and some of my best friends from Anderson, he was our soccer coach before we all hit High School. He was the coach that brought a “Classic League” State Championship to Anderson, SC, a town that barely knew what soccer was in the 80s, much less field a competitor to the Greenville and Charleston clubs of the world. Shoot, our parents (or my grandparents, Mimi and Boyce, in my case) had to drive us to Greenville just to buy cleats and shin guards. Don’t get me wrong, my parents were at every single game and every single tournament, no matter how far away. Mimi and Boyce were in charge of my cleats. We had some from trips to “The Near Post” in Greenville.
