Four football coaches highlight 2024 FACA Hall of Fame Class; Talley earns Wink Barnette Award while Castle earns Dub Palmer Lifetime Achievement Award

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Florida Athletic Coaches Association announced their 2024 Hall of Fame Class which includes four football coaches, all well-known for making their impact on teams across the Sunshine State, two of whom just retired after the 2022 season concluded as part of one of the largest Hall of Fame classes since the 2014 class inducted seven members.

The first of the four football coaches to be inducted will be Bill Castle who just conclude a 52-year career at Lakeland in Polk County, with the last 47 of those years as head coach where he racked up 473 wins, which marks the most wins by any one coach in Florida history. It took Castle until his final season as head coach to eclipse the previous record of 466 wins over the late Corky Rogers of Bolles (Jacksonville). Castle came to Lakeland after following Paul Quinn after one season that he spent with Quinn at Columbia (Lake City). He took over as head coach in 1976 at Lakeland when Quinn departed for nearby Bartow as the school handed things over to Castle. Castle led Lakeland to eight state championship victories in 1986 (5A), 1996 (5A), 1999 (5A), 2004 (5A), 2005 (5A), 2006 (5A), 2018 (7A), and 2022 (4S). Between the 2004 and 2007 seasons, Castle guided Lakeland to a state-record 53 consecutive victories which broke the old one set by Union County (Lake Butler) with 52 victories between 1994 and 1997. Castle also claims two national championships to his record with those coming during the 53-game win streak in 2005 and 2006.

Castle will also be honored with the Dub Palmer Lifetime Achievement Award which is awarded to a retiring football coach who exemplified the same standards of excellence as Coach Dub Palmer did. Castle becomes the 18th different retiring football coach to receive the honor which includes the likes of Sam Budnky of Cardinal Newman (West Palm Beach), Walt Frazier of Miami Carol City, George Smith of St. Thomas Aquinas, Paul Maechtle of Southeast (Bradenton), Joe Kinnan of Manatee (Bradenton), Corky Rogers of Bolles, and Bill Krammer of Naples, just to name a few that have the honored bestowed upon them.

Darrell Sutherland is the second of four head coaches to be named to the FACA Hall of Fame and the second of the coaches that retired during the 2024 season after building the Bartram Trail (St. Johns) program from the ground up the moment the school opened in 2000. During that time, Sutherland led Bartram Trail to 19 playoff appearances in 23 years as a head coach including four trips to the state semifinals in 2007, 2011, 2013, and 2017 with the 2017 team reaching the Class 7A state championship game where they finished as state runner-up to Venice that year. Sutherland led the Bears to 182 wins in the course of his tenure as head coach while being involved in numerous community activities while also having his school host as a practice site for the New England Patriots during Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville back in 2005. Sutherland’s team in 2007 was involved in helping raise money and visiting Barrow, Alaska the most northern point in the United States that has a high school football team in helping them install an artificial turf surface for Barrow High School to be able to play football games on with that story captured in the book Northern Lights by Cathy Parker who spearheaded the project.

The third football coach to get name names to the FACA Hall of Fame class is former head coach Yusuf Shakir who previously was the head coach at Manatee (Bradenton) between 2017 and 2020 along with stints at his alma mater in Tallahassee from 2009 until 2016 where he won a state title with the Trojans in 2010 in Class 4A. Shakir, who started his head coaching career at Gibbs in St. Petersburg where he spent two seasons in 2007 and 2008, was 110-59 in his coaching career including 71-32 at Lincoln, 29-16 at Manatee, and 10-11 at Gibbs.

The fourth and final football coach to be named to the FACA Hall of Fame class is Tim Tharp whose last stop was at Jupiter after five seasons between 2017 and 2021 where he led a rebuilding of the Warriors program where he eventually led Jupiter to their first winning season in quite a while in 2019 while finishing each of his three final seasons at Jupiter with no less than five wins each season. However, Tharp is more known for his time as the former head coach of Palm Beach Gardens High School where he led the Gators between 1998 and 2004 racking up a 56-20 record on the field. The 2004 team that was coached by Tharp set the nucleus for the 2005 team that would win the Class 6A state championship. Before Tharp arrived at Jupiter to mark his return as head coach, he spent time as the athletic director at South Fork in Stuart where and previously spent time at Vero Beach’s athletic director after he had left Palm Beach Gardens in early 2005.

Others selected to the FACA Hall of Fame class for 2024 include longtime softball coach and athletic director Larry Bishop who has been at Citrus (Inverness) for many years, Steve Lyons who has coached track and cross country at schools in the Jacksonville area including Bishop Kenny and Nease (Ponte Vedra), St. Thomas Aquinas girls volleyball coach Lisa Zielinski, and current Hagerty athletic director Jay Getty who also has coached track and cross country.

The 2024 FACA Hall of Induction ceremony will take place on Saturday, January 6, 2024, at the Drury Plaza Resort at Disney Springs just southwest of Orlando.

TALLEY EARNS WINK BARNETTE AWARD HONORS

Current Duval County Public School athletic director Tammie Talley, who recently served as the first female president for the FACA Board of Directors for the 2021-2022 school year has been named the 2024 Wink Barnette Award winner.

The Wink Barnett Award was created in 2011 and named after former executive director Wallace “Wink” Barnette who served as Executive Director of the FACA for 32 years from 1978 until 2010, making him the longest executive director in FACA history. The Wink Barnette Award is given to those who possess the same qualities as Barnette did with longevity, service, and commitment to the FACA. Some of the past winners have included Jeff McLean from Merritt Island, Randy Bethel of Vero Beach and Sebastian River, and Mike Knowles from Manatee.

Talley will be honored with the Wink Barnett Award officially during the FACA Hall of Fame Induction ceremony on Saturday, January 6, 2024, at the Drury Plaza Resort at Disney Springs just southwest of Orlando.