As the only new head high school football coach in the area for the 2012 season, Grand Valley’s John Glavickas admits his first game as a head coach — Friday night against Conneaut at Conneaut Stadium — has snuck up on him a bit.
“I cannot believe the season is already upon us. It really hasn’t sunk in,” he said. “I have been too busy to really allow the butterflies to get going. I know come Thursday night, they will be buzzing all around.
“I’m too busy worrying if I have gotten everything in.”
Glavickas has certainly paid his dues along the way to becoming a head coach.
He served on Grand Valley’s football staff for the past 11 of his 16 years at the school, including the past seven as former head coach Tom Henson’s offensive coordinator.
The Long Island native, a 1988 graduate of Sayville High School, also graduated from Slippery Rock. It was there he met his wife, the former Amber Walters, daughter of storied Ashtabula and Lakeside coach Bob Walters, and herself a multisport standout during her days as a Panther.
John and Amanda have two sons, 13-year-old Noah and 10-year-old Jacob.
Though excited to become a head coach, Glavickas realizes replacing a tremendous group of graduated seniors, many who played at the varsity level for four seasons, won’t be a simple task.
Be that as is may, he understands nothing is accomplished without hard work.
“There aren’t any magic wands or magic potions,” he said of his players. “Everything they do will have to be earned. They are taking the right steps in working hard, but there isn’t anyone to do it for them.
“They need to do it and I feel they will.”
Having worked closely with such a larger-than-life presence in Henson, Glavickas went into his new position with eyes wide open.
“As a first year head coach, this preseason has been a lot different than ones past,” he said. “It’s just the day-to-day operations that I never had to think about. Tom Henson used to take care of the day-to-day operations and I just came in to coach.”
That has changed, to say the least.
“Now, it is up me that has to make those decisions,” he said. “It can probably be best compared to a person building a house for the first time. There are so many little, minute details that you have to think about from your smallest freshmen to your biggest seniors.
“From fundraisers to bus departure time, everyone is affected in some way.”
His opposing number Friday night — Conneaut’s Rocco Dobran — was in the same situation this time last fall, embarking on his first game as a head coach.
He said things are much different this fall compared to last.
“Just in knowing my players better, knowing my coaches better and building relationships with those guys in the offseason,” he said. “Our practice plans fit our kids and our coaches coach to their strengths.
“Being here a year, I already know the hurdles we’re going to have to jump, and I know the things that will run smoothly.”
With that in mind, Dobran, when asked, had what appears to be good, sound advice for his counterpart as he kicks off his head-coaching tenure.
“Be yourself, do what you do and what you want to do,” he said. “If you believe in what you’re doing, things will work out, even if it takes a while.”
Dobran stressed being true to one’s self is so very important.
“I think some young coaches try to be someone who may have mentored them,” he said. “You may learn a lot, or even everything you know, from guys you played or coached under.
“But when you get your shot ,you take all that in, make it your own and do your thing.”
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