Coach feature: Dan Glenn - Playing off experience

Barry Faulkner

Though he has become one of the most respected volleyball coaches

in the state, perhaps even the nation, playing is still the thing for Dan

Glenn.

“The best thing for me as a coach is that I still play,” said Glenn,

entering his 15th season as boys and girls coach at Newport Harbor High.

“I still meet with my friends in the mornings to play at the Huntington

Beach Pier and I still play in the men’s league at the Balboa Bay Club.

As a player, I’ve been able to grow as the sport grows. It helps me

figure things out and see how different people are doing different

things.”

Whatever adjustments Glenn brings from the court to the bench, seem to

have little effect on the sameness that is the Sailors’ success.

His girls teams have won five CIF Southern Section titles, four CIF

state championships and one national crown, while his boys teams have two

section titles. He also has coached five section and one state

runners-up, including a title-match appearance by his only Edison High

boys team in 1986.

His prominent Harbor girls alumni include national prep players of the

year Misty May, Jenny Evans (now Jenny Griffith) and April Ross, as well

as notables such as Melissa Schutz, Jennifer Carey, Maureen McLaren,

Sienna Curci and Tara Kroesch.

A football, basketball and volleyball player at Huntington Beach High

(Class of 1977), Glenn said he fell in love with volleyball playing with

his buddies.

“I learned the game playing in Mike D’Alessandro’s back yard,” said

Glenn. D’Alessandro is one of several friends who now read as a virtual

who’s who of Orange County coaching.

D’Alessandro (Golden West College men) Rocky Ciarelli (Huntington

Beach High boys and girls), Albert Gasparian (GWC women) and Tom

Pestolesi (Irvine Valley men and women) also came out of the coaching

culture jar that germinated behind D’Alessandro’s Huntington Beach home.

Glenn, who still competes alongside this coaching honor roll, still

counts them as his closest friends. And, whenever they get together,

volleyball usually filters into the conversation.

“It’s funny, because all our styles are a little different,” Glenn

said. “But we all influence each other.”

Glenn also credits local coaching guru Charlie Brande as a major

influence, while crediting Newport Harbor colleagues like Jeff Brinkley

(football), Bill Barnett (water polo), Larry Hirst (basketball) and Mike

Bargas (football/weightlifting) for helping add to the methods he uses to

maximize team peformance.

Known for his disciplined and demanding practices, Glenn is also

notorious for his rigorous schedules.

“I always want us to play as many of the best teams as possible,

because that’s how you get better” he said. “Sometimes it takes a loss

for me to see how to change things so we can get better. And if we lose

to a team early in the season, I always believe we’ll eventually get

another shot at them in the playoffs.”

It’s a fine line Glenn straddles, between his disdain for losing and

his quest for ultimate competition.

“I hate to lose. I’m scared of losing,” he said. “But to me, playing

the top teams is the only way to have fun. I love the CIF playoffs, and

it’s still so exciting to get that CIF bracket.”

Glenn’s competitiveness forces him to put his affable personality

aside when it comes to drilling his players.

“I’m not that concerned that my players like me while they’re

playing,” he said. “But, if they don’t appreciate what I did five years

after they graduate, then I’m doing something wrong.”

Glenn, who enjoys the classroom as much as the court, teaches

economics. He married Newport Harbor counselor Mary Lackey last summer

and they’re expecting their first child in September.

Glenn refused to single out a favorite moment in his coaching career,

which has also included stints working with the now-defunct four-on-four

women’s beach tour.

“Fortunately, I haven’t had just one,” he said. “There have been so

many. There’s a quote that the journey is better than the end and I

really believe that. I want to keep becoming a better teacher and coach.

I think I still have a long way to go.”