You could be forgiven for expecting Ron Palmer to have slowed down a bit—after all, the Long Beach legend has been coaching basketball for forty years now.  Palmer spent 25 years with Poly (netting a staggering 8 CIF titles in that time), and is currently coaching in Virginia, where his team is performing well.

But when I walked into the Poly gym (which was renamed the Palmer Pavilion in his honor a few years ago) to hear more about the camp he’s hosting in Long Beach this August, Palmer was fact-checking the Moore League title banners hanging on the walls.  “Didn’t we win the title in ’78?” he asked longtime assistant Erroll Parker (who remains with Poly as an assistant and who’s helping to put on Palmer’s camp this summer). 

“You know,” Palmer says, surveying his old court.  “I’ve been in a lot of high school gyms—and there aren’t any other ones with as many banners hanging as this one.”  Of course, Poly has Palmer himself to thank for a number of those—in 25 years of coaching, Palmer’s ‘Rabbits won the league title 20 times, and he compiled a record of 601-150 (80% wins), while bringing home the 8 CIF titles (and appearing in several more, including a few losses to the Artesia team that later forfeited their wins) and winning National Coach of the Year in 1984.

Now, in an effort to give back to the Long Beach community he helped to build for two and a half decades, Palmer is returning to the Beach to help teach the youth once more.  The Ron Palmer Elite Summer Basketball Camp will be hosted at the Long Beach State Gold Mine from August 12-16, and is open to Middle School-aged players—participants will receive a camp shirt, and can stay in the adult-supervised Long Beach State dorms.  Uniquely, in addition to rigorous athletic instruction from Palmer, they’ll spend a little time each day in Math and Language Arts classes.  “Basketball, yes, come and play,” says Palmer.  “But we want to give them something else to take away that will benefit them throughout the year.”

If you’re interested in benefiting from Palmer’s tutelage, or you know a student who is, you can contact Erroll Parker at 562.432.8713 to register, or email him at [email protected]. You can find more info at this link.

Make sure you get in touch early, demand is sure to be high—of course, at his pace Palmer’s not likely to stop coaching any time soon.  “At some point I’ll stop,” he says with a smile.  “When my wife says, ‘Enough is enough.’  But right now, it’s something I’ve been doing for 40 years—and I still love it.”