Palminteri Is Selected as Basketball Coach at Villa Park

Frank Palminteri, an assistant basketball coach at UC Davis for the last three years, was hired Monday as basketball coach at Villa Park High School.

He replaces Val Popov, who resigned last April. Popov is now an assistant coach at Foothill High, a rival of Villa Park in the Century League.

Popov had a record of 9-31 during the past two seasons. Last year, the team won five games overall and one in conference.

“This is exciting because this is the rung on the ladder that I missed,” said Palminteri, who coached at Royal High School in Simi Valley for six years before becoming the head coach at St. Bonaventure in Ventura for three years. “I’ve been a head coach at a small high school (St. Bonaventure) and an assistant coach at the college level, but I wanted the chance to be the head coach at a larger high school with the kind of potential for improvement that we have at Villa Park.”

Palminteri will be a walk-on at Villa Park, since no teaching position was available. He said that he would be a substitute at the school and expected to have a teaching position in a year, when Villa Park goes from a three-year school to a four-year school.