New Coach Named at Castle Park

Dan Winters, who coached the Castle Park High School junior varsity boys’ basketball team to the best record in the South Bay last season, has been selected to replace Forest Partch as the school’s varsity coach beginning next season.

Partch, who coached the team to the South Bay League title the past three seasons and the best record in the South Bay over that time, announced March 21 that he would not return for a fifth year as basketball coach. He said he would remain as the school’s athletic director and boys’ and girls’ cross-country coach.

“What I set out to do has been accomplished,” Partch said. “Dan is a smart kid, and I think he’ll be an excellent role model.”

Winters, 25, was a 1980 graduate of Castle Park and played under Partch there.

“Anything I know about basketball I know from him,” Winters said.

Winters graduated from San Diego State in 1986 with a degree in Spanish and a minor in linguistics. He coached the seventh- and eighth-grade teams at Castle Park Middle School while working on his degree and was hired as a teacher last fall.