Menlo Atherton High School teacher and coach retires after 55 years
ATHERTON, Calif. - Pam Wimberly has taught and coached at Menlo Atherton High School for 55 years and this year, she's retiring. Wimberly is also being celebrated as the coach with the most wins in school history.
After the numerous awards and accomplishments Wimberly has achieved over the years, KTVU had the opportunity to get a glimpse of the greatness she brought to Menlo Atherton athletics.
"The first couple of days were very disruptive here on this campus.," Wimberly said.
She graduated from Morgan State University in Baltimore, and was hired as a P.E. teacher with eight other African American teachers in 1968.
"We had the National Guard as well as people from the community asking for greater things and better things for the African American community here at Menlo Atherton," Wimberly said.
From 1968 to 2012, she served as head basketball coach for the girls’ team, coaching 1,000 games, winning 663 games and becoming the most winning coach in school history.
"It gives them a chance to socialize with people from all walks of life. I think that’s so important for sports. There are girls who were in my program that would never have graduated on gone on to college basketball or softball or any other sport here at this school," Wimberly said.
Featured
14-year-old becomes youngest graduate of Santa Clara University and snags job with SpaceX
Santa Clara University will hold its 172nd commencement ceremony on Saturday, and one graduate already has a job lined up before he is old enough to drive a car.
Under Wimberly’s leadership, her teams won 19 league championships and four central coast section championships from 1969 to 2009. After retiring as a coach in 2012, Menlo Atherton High named its basketball court after Wimberly. Teacher and Track Coach Eric Wilmurt was hired by Wimberly in 1995.
"I think we won’t really realize how much we’re going to miss her until she’s not here in August, and we’re like ‘Oh,’" said Wimberly.
Nancy Staves, who’s also retiring this year, says she met Wimberly at a district meeting in 1971.
"Pam is like my sister, and we just enjoy doing things together. I said wait Pam, are we going to retire together? She said let’s go now. I said give it one more year, one more year. So she waited, and then she said Staves, I think it’s time. So we made our decision to do it this year," Staves said.
"I look back now and don’t know how I was the girls’ basketball coach, the athletic director, the dept. chairman, teach P.E. and raise three kids. Just all hard work and learning to balance," Wimberly said.
Wimberly was named CCA Coach of the Year in 2001 and is in the Menlo Atherton Sports Hall of Fame. She also coached softball and says now she'll be coaching a women's team in their 70s.