Hagerstown Community College women's basketball coach Marlys Palmer will coach the final home game of her 33-year career on Wednesday night when HCC hosts Prince George's. (By Joe Crocetta/Staff Photographer) |
HAGERSTOWN—
Wednesday, Marlys Palmer is going to find out just how George Armstrong Custer felt.She is going to make her last stand.
Palmer, the Hagerstown Community College women’s basketball coach, will be coaching her last home game at HCC’s athletic complex Wednesday at 6 p.m. when the Hawks face Prince George’s in a Maryland JuCo Conference game.
It will be the final home game of her 33rd season with the Hawks. It will be the last time she stands in front of her team’s bench to give her players on the floor directions. Palmer announced in November that she would retire after the 2011-12 season.
It will be the last stand before the home crowd. It’s the Hawks’ last regular-season home game and HCC doesn’t host the Maryland JuCo or Region XX women’s tournaments.
“I’m aware of it,” Palmer said Monday after HCC won its 16th straight game in a 100-23 victory over Anne Arundel. “Wednesday is it on this floor on this schedule, and sure, I’m aware of it.”
HCC has a tentative home game on the schedule with Northern Virginia on Feb. 22, but the game will probably not be played. It falls in a three-week period between the Maryland JuCo and Region XX tournaments and might put the Hawks over the NJCAA’s 30-game limit.
HCC (21-1, 10-1) is in the thick of both battles. The Hawks would be the second seed in the league tournament if it started today. They also would be ranked highly in the region.
Those two factors keeps Palmer’s mind off the closing moments of a career that has 603 wins in 954 games.
“I’m just so focused on this team,” Palmer said. “I keep working on what needs to be done to get them ready to play and what we can do as coaches to make them better.
“This team is unbelievable. I would have never have predicted that they would be so successful. The stars have been in alignment. This team can write its legacy as one of the best of all-time here.”
Then, in her eyes, you can see Palmer thinking about the moment at hand, those final 40 minutes of standing along the sideline of a home game.
“I just have to say I have loved my job,” Palmer said. “I have loved it in its entirety, including this part of standing here on this floor. From the day I stepped on this campus, I knew and I felt that (HCC) is an amazing place.
“The thing that moves me the most is when I see the success of one of my students or our athletes. I appreciate what these young women have now. Basketball is a vehicle to get them to move on with their lives, to help them get to whatever they want to do. That always has excited me.”
