New Look—Gladiator’s Basketball

By Liam Day

Arguably the most important person on the court during basketball season, is the one that draws up the plays. Especially when it comes to high school basketball, the head coach can get more out of his players than they know they are capable of. Over the last 15 years, coach Jansen McMillan has done exactly this and taken a school not generally known for the individual talent they bring to the court, and turned them into a team that can compete with anyone in the county on any given night. His former All County Forward, Ryan Davis expressed that “McMillan was a great coach and he deserves respect for what he’s done for Glenelg and for me as a player.” Despite his success, he has decided to step down as Glenelg’s head coach to pursue his interest in becoming an administrator at Wilde Lake High school.

Taking McMillan’s place will be former JV basketball coach, Alex Blazik. The sudden change in head coaching now leaves the rising Varsity players shocked, going into a season with raised expectations due to the success of the 2017-18 JV team, now developed two years later. This will be Blazik’s third year as a coach at Glenelg taking over a Varsity team he coached to a 13-4 record at the JV level in his first season. Senior Forward, Jack Walsh said “Blazik is a really good coach, he knows what he’s doing.” Having just two years under his belt at Glenelg, he has already earned the trust of the players he coached on JV. Junior Guard, Max Pearcy elaborated that “It's good that we’ve gotten the chance to grow with him from JV and his first year is with guys that he knows how to play. It's going to be a lot of fun.”     

Basketball is a sport where coaching can make a huge impact on the performance of players, but when it comes to Glenelg, Mikey Small believes that “We’re going to go out every night and give him everything we’ve got. We all respected Coach McMillan, and we’ll respect whoever dedicates as much time as it takes to coach us.” It will be interesting to see how the team will grow and improve with the new Varsity coach during the upcoming season