Coaches
HeHead Coach: Terry Theobald
176 Wins-77 Losses
Terry has been our girl's gymnastics head coach since 1993. Before becoming head coach, Terry was an assistant at Palatine for 13 years, including 1988 and 1989 when Palatine's team won the state meet. Terry has been honored in the Mid-Suburban League Conference with head coach of the year status in 2000 and 2001. The Illinois High School Coach's Association choose him as the state coach of the year in 2001, 2005, 2006, and 2012. Terry was also inducted into the association coach's hall of fame in 2002. Terry has also worked as the floor manager at the state meet (which is held at Palatine). Terry has also served as an assistant boy's coach at Palatine (4 years) and Fremd (5 years).
HeAssistant Coach: Scott Hagel
This is Scott’s twenty third year as a boys gymnastics coach at Palatine High School. Scott was the head coach for twenty two years and has been a girls coach and IHSA judge since 2000. Scott has been honored by the Mid-Suburban League Conference as the boy's head coach and girl’s assistant coach of the year. In 2007, 2017, and 2021 he was chosen as the Illinois High School Gymnastics Coach's Association State Coach of the Year and was inducted into the IHSGCA Hall of Fame in 2018. He is a past-president of the Illinois High School Gymnastics Coach's Association. He earned a degree in physical education and math from NIU in 2000, a master's degree in P.E. from Chicago State University in 2003, received his National Board Certification in P.E. in 2005, and a master's degree in Principal Preparation in 2018. Scott also is the Department Chair of Wellness at Palatine. He competed at Mundelein High School from 1991-1995 where he was a member of 2nd and 4th place state teams, qualified to state in the all-around, and was a state finalist on parallel bars.
HeAssistant Coach: Kathy Blaheta
Kathy is very excited to once again be a part of the Palatine gymnastics team. She previously competed for PHS in 1999-2000 and during that time qualified for IHSA State Competition on bars and placed 7th at the State Finals on Floor Exercise. As a club gymnast, she was the 1999 level 9 USAG State Bar champion and took 5th on Vault in 2001 at the USAG level 10 Region 5 competition. Since 2002, she coached club gymnastics at Iowa State University’s Cardinal Gymnastics Academy for 4 years and Gymkhana Gymnastics Academy in Hanover Park for 6 years. In 2007, she began coaching IHSA gymnastics. She was an assistant coach to the 2007 State Champions (Fremd), a head coach in 2008 for the Bartlett-South Elgin Co-op, an assistant coach in 2010 (Barrington), and most returned to Palatine High School in 2011 as an assistant coach. She is also currently teaching math at Walter R. Sundling Junior High.
HeAssistant Coach: Chris Lunsford
This is Christian Lunsford’s second year as boys head coach and fifth year assistant girls coach. He helped the Palatine Boys Team win 3rd (2021) and 1st (2022) place finishes. He has been coaching gymnastics since 2018 and competed club, high school, and college (NIU) for sixteen years. Christian is a 2018 Palatine graduate and was a 4x varsity gymnast. During his high school career he was a 4x state qualifier, finalist, and medal winner. Christian was also part of the 5th (2016) and 4th (2017) teams and was honored as the Senior Gymnast of the Year in 2018. He is also an IHSA boys gymnastics judge. In 2022 he graduated from the University of Iowa with degrees in History and Secondary Social Studies Education. He is currently the EL Lead and History Teacher at Wauconda High School and assistant coach for Northern Illinois University Men's Gymnastics Team.
