Texas Tech softball coach Gerry Glasco would not concern a lot.
When Glasco watched Oklahoma’s Abigale Dayton blast a game-tying two-run homer within the high of the seventh inning on Monday night time, “Sooner Magic” might need momentarily rattled him. However the Pink Raiders rallied to complete off Oklahoma’s dynasty run within the backside half of the inning.
On Wednesday, Texas Tech dropped the primary recreation of the Ladies’s Faculty World Collection finals to Texas, a heart-wrenching 2-1 loss to the Longhorns in Sport 1 of the best-of-three collection (Sport 2, 8 p.m. ET Thursday, ESPN). However Glasco’s not the kind to panic along with his again in opposition to the wall. He has overcome far more than this.
“Nothing about softball is frightening to me,” Glasco advised ESPN in April.
Glasco has lived a colourful life and has taken a winding path to changing into top-of-the-line coaches in school softball at 66, making a run at a nationwide title in his first season at Texas Tech.
However he additionally has the sort of perspective that comes from immense tragedy. In 2019, his youngest daughter Geri Ann died in a automobile accident when she was a volunteer coach for him at Louisiana.
“When you notice that you do not have concern of failure to maintain you from doing issues, you notice there’s issues you possibly can’t perceive,” Glasco stated. “You go for it.”
Glasco by no means thought he’d be taking up Texas in Oklahoma Metropolis. He by no means even thought he’d be a school softball coach. So how’d we find yourself right here? It is easy, stated Glasco: Due to drug cartels.
Glasco is a gifted storyteller, which explains why he is such a proficient recruiter. Nonetheless, generally he glosses over issues. So, let’s decelerate a little bit bit.
“I am a searching man, a canine handler,” Glasco stated. “That is all I did for a dwelling 4 months a 12 months. After which I am going house and coach softball from March until November as a result of I’ve three daughters. I simply coached softball for enjoyable.”
Glasco grew to become the go-to searching and fishing information for greater than 20 years, taking businessmen and rich hunters quail and duck searching in Mexico — about two hours south of Brownsville, Texas. He and his spouse Vickie wished to retire south of the border and construct a home after Tara, Erin and Geri Ann received out of faculty in Illinois. He did not get pleasure from being away from his women, however he tried to work to stability his livelihood along with his household life.
“That was my entire childhood,” stated Tara Archibald, Glasco’s oldest daughter and his pitching coach at Texas Tech. “He would depart in October and he would come again in late February, early March, coming again for holidays and stuff. I can keep in mind him driving 48 hours from Mexico to Illinois, the place he watched my eighth-grade basketball recreation and drove all the way in which again.”
However starting in 2007, his journeys throughout the border began changing into extra treacherous.
“I am driving 40 weapons via Mexico and [the guns] are issued permits by the [Mexican] Military,” Glasco stated. “In 2006, they stopped me thrice and I confirmed the permits. In 2007, I received stopped 18 occasions and so they made me get all 40 weapons out. And so they checked out each single serial quantity. I might by no means finished that.”
Lastly, in 2008, a few of his visitors arrived late one night time, so he was driving to select them up at 1 a.m., when he was minimize off by a truck. Glasco says troopers jumped out, hit the bottom and aimed rifles at him. He received out to attempt to guarantee them he did not need any issues, when he says he was struck by the butt of a rifle and swarmed by the Mexican military, earlier than he was launched.
The following day, Glasco says he was summoned by the native comandante, who apologized to him, earlier than telling him they’d finished that so no trigger-happy soldier took a jittery shot at him. However he was advised that the disputes between rival drug cartels made it too harmful for him to proceed working his enterprise as traditional, and he could not simply present up unannounced anymore. When he received again house to Illinois, he had a convention name with the Drug Enforcement Administration, who advised him his clientele have been too excessive profile and would turn into kidnapping targets if their journey preparations or searching licenses have been leaked and the incorrect individuals knew they have been coming.
So Gerry Glasco pivoted.
Glasco had at all times liked softball. As a pastime, he spent seven seasons because the assistant softball coach at Johnston Metropolis (Illinois) Excessive Faculty, and spent one season as the pinnacle coach of the junior excessive crew, the place he went 27-0 and gained a state title in 2007. His Illinois Southern Drive group that he constructed completed within the high 20 4 occasions at nationals and gained the 2004 18U Gold nationwide championship. That 12 months, Glasco and his workers have been named the nationwide journey softball teaching workers of the 12 months by the Nationwide Fastpitch Coaches Affiliation.
Georgia coach Lu Harris-Champer had recruited considered one of Glasco’s star Drive pitchers, Kasi Carroll, who would turn into top-of-the-line gamers in Georgia historical past. She requested Glasco the place he was discovering all his expertise, as a result of there wasn’t an enormous softball scene in Illinois, and he defined that he’d recruit athletes off his daughters’ volleyball or basketball groups and train them to play. She was impressed and advised him that if he ever wished to be a school softball coach, to offer her a name.
Together with his dog-handling days in jeopardy, he began pondering that route. The Glascos weren’t rich. Gerry had grown up on a pig farm. He referred to as his dad and requested if they might begin it up once more, however then he remembered how a lot he hated pig farming. His dad inspired him to search out one thing he liked.
So in 2008, he referred to as Harris-Champer, interviewed, and received the job. He and Vickie took the leap and moved to Athens, Georgia, and the Bulldogs made it to the WCWS championship collection in his first season. Harris-Champer stated she was at all times drawn to how arduous Glasco’s gamers performed for him, as a result of he was humorous, charming and so they knew he cared for them.
“It is at all times enjoyable,” she stated of working with Glasco. “He is hilarious. There’s power. Whether or not issues are getting in the proper route or the incorrect route, would not matter. The power is there, the fervour is there. The assumption is there and the figure-it-out mindset is there.”
And that is what Glasco was doing, figuring it out. First, as a recruiter, then as a hitting coach at each Georgia (2009-14), the place his groups set 20 college offensive data and at Texas A&M (2015-17), the place they broke eight.
When he landed the pinnacle teaching job at Louisiana, he did not decelerate. From 2018-24, Glasco led the Ragin’ Cajuns to a 300-88 report, with 5 Solar Belt Convention regular-season titles and superior to the NCAA event every season.
Alongside the way in which, he received to teach Corridor of Famer Cat Osterman within the Nationwide Professional Fastpitch league.
He proudly remembers the pilgrimages he made, taking his women, then a school freshman, an eighth grader and a preschooler to St. Louis, attending to a recreation two hours early and organising garden chairs behind the house plate backstop. It was there, he advised them, that they have been going to see the equal of Michael Jordan in highschool, a highschool junior from Texas named Cat Osterman.
She struck out 20 batters with 50 school coaches within the bleachers behind them as Glasco befriended her father, Gary, an engineer, who advised him how he analyzed the spin on pitches and studied the engineering facet of constructing the ball break.
“And she or he had the best rise ball on this planet at 18 years outdated,” Glasco stated.
By 2014, Glasco was not a fan of Osterman. His softball journey allowed him to teach her.
“Who would’ve thought in ’99, I am watching one of the best pitcher in highschool softball and 15 years later, I will get to be her coach. That may’t occur,” Glasco stated, including that he did not do any teaching of Osterman apart from to pencil her identify into the lineup.
Now a common supervisor for the Volts within the Athletes United Softball League, Osterman has admired Glasco’s rise all these years, and seeing him work firsthand, she wasn’t stunned.
“He loved watching how I labored and why I labored the way in which I did, as a result of clearly I used to be effectively into my skilled profession once we crossed paths,” she stated. “He is at all times eager to be taught, which is sort of cool as a result of generally individuals will really feel like they know all of it and they will come and impart their knowledge. Gerry was the other. He took the chance to soak in what all people needed to say.”
Osterman, a Texas graduate, is aware of how spectacular his work has been at Texas Tech, which had by no means gained a convention title earlier than this season. She’s not stunned that he was capable of recruit NiJaree Canady, above and past the $1 million NIL deal. She knew firsthand how a lot his Louisiana gamers liked him, having coached star hitter Mihyia Davis in journey ball, who scored the game-winning run in opposition to Oklahoma that clinched the Pink Raiders’ spot within the championship collection. She stated Davis’ star rose in highschool and had Energy 4 alternatives, however stayed dedicated to Louisiana.
“It was as a result of Mihyia liked Gerry,” Osterman stated. “When Gerry was leaving, he advised her she ought to really feel out her choices. And she or he stated, no, I am coming with you. Mihyia entered the portal with the ‘don’t contact’ label subsequent to her identify. She was both going with Gerry or not going wherever.”
4 of the Pink Raiders’ high seven hitters got here with Glasco from Louisiana, one thing that wasn’t misplaced on Canady when she was contemplating making the transfer.
These relationships matter to Glasco. He was devastated to beat one other of his former gamers, Oklahoma pitcher Sam Landry, who wore No. 12 as a tribute to Geri Ann at Louisiana and had Geri Ann’s identify on her glove throughout Monday’s recreation. The 2 embraced after their semifinal recreation, with Gerry telling her he liked her.
“We’re all a part of Gerry’s household,” Osterman stated. “His spouse is aware of all of us. Everyone knows Miss Vickie. I’ve gotten to know his daughters over time. He needs everybody to really feel like they’re a part of the Glasco household.”
That even consists of his good friend Texas coach Mike White, who coached Geri Ann at Oregon. He admires White for his path from New Zealand to a stellar teaching profession wherein he is by no means misplaced a regional, one thing Glasco says is “unattainable.”
“I thought of it final night time,” Glasco stated in a Tuesday information convention. “If Geri Ann was right here, I do not know if she’d root for me or White as a result of she liked Whitey. She used to match us rather a lot. She’d say, Daddy, Coach is rather like you. He is simply received a extra colourful vocabulary. She in all probability thought he was a little bit smarter than I’m.”
Archibald, who left a head teaching job at Japanese Illinois the place she went 40-17 final 12 months to get an opportunity to work together with her dad, stated these household reminiscences — together with protecting Geri Ann shut — have been an enormous a part of the Pink Raiders’ expertise in Oklahoma Metropolis.
“There’s a number of satisfaction, there’s a number of happiness, there’s a number of pleasure, however there’s additionally some grief concerned,” Archibald stated. “It is arduous to place into phrases clearly, however I really feel like Geri Ann’s actually proper right here with us and sending us indicators all over the place we go. We stroll within the stadium in the present day and there is a 12 in entrance of our face. I am going to the laundry room and there is a 12 on my washer.”
“I simply really feel prefer it’s sort of been written and presupposed to be this manner. With Sam [Landry], that was arduous. That was so, so arduous as a result of she is a daughter to my mother and father and has been simply so good to our household.”
Now, after ending the Oklahoma dynasty and beating Patty Gasso, who has the very best successful proportion (.811) of any coach with not less than 1,000 wins, Glasco has yet one more shot at historical past in a championship collection in opposition to Texas.
Harris-Champer expects Glasco to go all out, laughing how “superior” it was to see Glasco calling Makayla Garcia to steal house in a win over UCLA on Saturday, saying she would not keep in mind ever seeing anybody try this on the WCWS earlier than.
0:33
Texas Tech’s Makayla Garcia stuns UCLA by stealing house in epic style
Makayla Garcia breaks the stalemate by stealing house for Texas Tech within the high of the fifth inning vs. UCLA.
“He likes to steal house,” she stated. “He likes to squeeze, likes to do issues which can be to pressure the offense, to pressure that aggression.”
Archibald stated that is all a part of Glasco’s make-up. He goes for it.
“If we do not have what we have to get it finished, we will discover it,” Archibald stated. “If we won’t rating a run, we will steal house. It is an depth that is unmatched. He’ll do issues the proper method, however the place most coaches can be anxious about how silly am I going to look if we get thrown out stealing house, he would not care. If that is how we have to attain a run for NiJa, we will determine methods to rating a run for NiJa.”
Because the WCWS has gone on, Glasco has turn into an in a single day star, very like Canady was two years in the past. There’s an adage round Lubbock this 12 months with the media consideration that she has drawn: They’re going to come for NiJa and keep for Gerry.
“After we first began this entire course of, some individuals have been speaking about doing a documentary on NiJa and the story and the crew,” Archibald stated. “We began laughing and we’re like, yeah, they suppose they will do a documentary on NiJa. They will get right here and so they’re actually simply going to observe Gerry all over the place he goes. He is the actual present.”
When he can discover the time away from softball, Glasco nonetheless hunts quail, nonetheless has his part-time searching information enterprise, and nonetheless goes to Mexico. He believes some issues are predestined, together with getting the Tech job when he did, at a college that was prepared to go all-in on NIL, permitting him to land Canady and construct an offense round her. He is made his mark on softball historical past, the game that saved him from pig farming.
He has one final probability this season to go for it.
