New members for Palma's Hall of Fame
Dickens commits to Sonoma State
After going 13 years without an induction, Palma will enshrine five new members into the school's sports Hall of Fame.
The list includes former NFL quarterback David Fales, current Stanford manager David Esquer, as well as basketball icon Bob Burlison and the late Steve Clayton and Marc Matock.
Fales, the youngest member from the class of 2009, guided Palma to a pair of league titles before embarking on a college career at Monterey Peninsula College and San
Jose State.
Drafted in the sixth round by the Chicago Bears in 2014, Fales spent five seasons in the NFL, starting one game for the Miami Dolphins.
Arguably one of the best athletes to ever come out of Palma in 1983, Esquer was an all-leaguer in football, basketball and baseball, landing a baseball scholarship to Stanford.
After the former shortstop led Stanford to a national title in 1987, Esquer spent time in the minor leagues with the Angels before beginning a coaching career that landed him a manager's job at Cal.
Esquer has returned to his roots at Stanford, having compiled over 600 wins as a manager over more than two decades.
Burlison was the Mission Trail Athletic League's Most Valuable Player in basketball in 1973 and 1974, earning all-Northern California honors as a senior.
He returned to the program as a coach, taking Palma to its only State Division IV championship in 1992. Burlison has also coached at
MPC and CSU Monterey Bay.
Matock was three-sport standout that earned a spot in the state track and field championships in the shot put in 1994 and helped the football team to a pair of Central Coast Section divisional titles.
He was also on Burlison's 1992 state championship basketball team as a sophomore.
The defensive lineman earned a football scholarship to USC, where he earned All-Pac 10 honors as a senior, spending a training camp with the Detroit Lions.
Clayton was the school's Athlete of the Year in 1976, returning to Palma to serve as a coach and athletic director for 23 years.
While serving as the AD, Clayton also coached football, basketball, track and field and golf for stretches.
Having juggled basketball and softball at Monterey Peninsula College for the past two years, Kaiya Dickens' full attention will turn to softball after committing to play at Sonoma State in 2024.
Dickens, who leads the Lobos in scoring at 11.8 points a game through 24 games, is also hitting .417 for the softball team through its blistering 7-0 start to the spring.
Platooning between shortstop and third base, the right-handed slugger sports a .481 on-base percentage, having driven in four runs.
Moonlighting on the basketball court, Dickens is one of four players to have played in all 24 games for the Lobos, averaging a double-double at 11.8 points and 10.2 rebounds a game. She is also second on the team in assists and steals.
The former Hollister High multi-sport standout will join a Sonoma State program that won the California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament last season. Last spring Dickens led the conference in triples, and hit a team-high .431, while sharing the team lead in homers (5) and runs batted in (37).