Tradition Holds

Gladstone’s is Still “Feeder” for Pali High Football Program

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Little did Palisades Charter High School football mom Meghan Wald know that when she loaded trays of pasta, salad and garlic bread into the back of her SUV in the Gladstone’s parking lot on a Friday afternoon with the help of the restaurant assistant general manager Alex Peniston, she was continuing a tradition started 35 years ago by the school’s Life Experience Coach Joe Spector.

Varsity players grabbed plates of food and enjoyed the pre-game meal in the bleachers at Stadium by the Sea, and a few hours later, bellies full and appetites whetted, they took the gridiron and took care of visiting Hamilton.

For three and a half decades now the eatery at Pacific Coast Highway and Sunset Boulevard has served meals to players before home games. To date, the total has grown to approximately 6,400 meals served to an estimated 1,800 players since Spector began the custom in 1987 when his son Todd was a senior left tackle under head coach Jack Epstein. Since then, the Dolphins have hired nine head coaches but with each era, the pre-game Gladstone’s meal has continued.

The tradition is near and dear to Spector, who also presents the Joe Spector Award to the varsity team’s Most Valuable Player every year at the program’s postseason banquet in December.

“So many of the kids never had a place to eat before a game because they were bused in from all over,” recalled Spector, a father figure to players and coaches alike, whose inspirational words have fired up many a locker room. “That’s how it started, and we’ve kept it going all these years.”

Gladstone’s also provided meals for the Dolphins’ homecoming game versus Westchester.

Even in the pandemic-delayed 2020 season (which was reduced to four games, all of them played in April 2021), Spector arranged for food to be brought from the restaurant to the campus cafeteria for players to eat before their league contest with Fairfax.

Wald’s son Saxon is a junior free safety on varsity and a former PPBA All-Star.