Ex-basketball coach assisted at BGSU, led DeVilbiss team

5/17/2007

Mark D. Paluszak, 62, a former head basketball coach at DeVilbiss High School and a former assistant coach at Bowling Green State University, died Monday in the James Cancer Hospital at Ohio State University from complications of cancer.

Mr. Paluszak, of Westerville, Ohio, most recently worked for the Delaware Area Career Center and coached basketball and golf in the Big Walnut, Ohio, school district.

He coached five seasons at DeVilbiss, through 1975, and amassed a 52-44 record. His teams won Red Division co-championships in two of his last three years. He also taught human relations at DeVilbiss.

Afterward, he was an assistant coach at Eastern Michigan University. He was an assistant to BGSU head coach John Weinert for two seasons, beginning in 1984.

He formerly was a head coach at George Williams College, Chicago; Ohio Dominican University, and Lake Superior State College in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. He also coached at Otterbein College and at Whetstone High School in Columbus.

"He always liked influencing people," his brother, Tim, said. "He was a very patient man. That's how he reached so many."

Mr. Paluszak played basketball for St. Francis de Sales High School and was named to the All-City second team. He was a guard on the University of Toledo team. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from UT and was a freshman basketball coach there.

Surviving are his wife, Jackie, whom he married June 8, 1968; son, Mark II; daughter, Jennifer Hadden; mother, Catherine Paluszak; brother, Tim Paluszak, and two grandchildren.

Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. today in St. Paul Church, Westerville, of which he was a member. Memorial services will be at 7 p.m. tomorrow in St. Francis de Sales High School.

The family suggests tributes to St. Francis de Sales High School.