A former collegiate student-athlete, David Paladino enters his fourth year as an assistant coach with the California (PA) men’s and women’s golf programs in 2026-27.
Paladino has helped the Vulcans produce a group of All-PSAC golfers over the last three seasons. Since his arrival, six different Cal golfers have combined for seven All-PSAC Second-Team selections with Ari Kaser earning the honor in both 2025 and 2026 and Gavin Goodrich and Chaz Ekoniak both receiving the accolade in 2026.
The men's program also produced several of the strongest individual scoring seasons in recent program history during Paladino's tenure. In the 2025-26 season, Goodrich recorded the lowest single-season scoring average since Cal began tracking individual scoring averages in 2008, while Ekoniak posted the second-lowest mark. As a senior, Reese Watson carded the fourth-best mark while qualifying as an individual for the 2024 NCAA Atlantic/East Regional Championships.
Paladino was a four-year golfer at Westminster (PA), an NCAA Division III program, from 2010-14. As a freshman, he earned All-Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC) Second-Team honors with a top-10 finish at the league championships held at the Oak Tree Country Club. Paladino later was a leading team scorer at the PAC Championships in his last two seasons after the 2012 event was cancelled due to weather.
Paladino serves as a golf instructor at Cool Springs Golf Center in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, and is a caddie at the Oakmont Country Club. He previously was a client solutions director at Robert Half for seven years and also had professional experience with The Princeton Review and PNC Financial Services.
A native of Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania, Paladino earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting with a minor in economics from Westminster in 2014.
