Glass has window to a future in coaching

The Cal State Fullerton men’s basketball team flirted with history this season, matching the school’s best start (16-4) and competing for a Big West Conference crown until well into February.

And Corona del Mar High product Eric Glass has had a courtside seat.

Glass, who averaged 5.1 points per game as a 6-2 senior guard for the Sea Kings, before graduating in 2002, is in his second season as a manager for Coach Bob Burton’s Titans.

And while his myriad tasks have included doing laundry and sweeping floors, Glass, an aspiring coach, will be dispensing more than towels and water when the No. 3-seeded Titans begin play in the Big West Tournament tonight at 6 against Pacific.

“If I see something the coaches don’t see, I try to point it out to the players during a timeout,” Glass said. “It’s just little things, like maybe letting our guys know the weak side [defenders are] collapsing on the post.”

Glass said he has accumulated enough little things during his work in the program the last two seasons to both fortify his burgeoning knowledge of the game and kindle his passion for coaching.

“After [being the manager] for two years, I definitely have the coaching bug,” said Glass, who is scheduled to graduate in the spring with a degree in kinesiology.

Glass said he initially became intrigued by coaching when he coached a junior high football team in Anaheim as part of his senior project at CdM.

“That’s when I fell in love with coaching and I started to think about it as a potential career,” Glass said.

After his playing days ended in high school, Glass became the freshman basketball coach at Servite High, where he enjoyed success.

“We went undefeated in league my first year, competing in the same league with Mater Dei and Santa Margarita,” Glass said. “I was blessed to have good players.”

Glass said in addition to working with the lower levels, he sat on the Servite bench during varsity games, all the while taking classes at Orange Coast College.

He said he was offered a job as a varsity assistant with the Friars, but upon transferring to Fullerton, called upon family friend Donny Daniels (a former Cal State Fullerton head coach now an assistant at UCLA) to give him an in with Burton.

“Two days later, I got an interview with Coach Burton and he hired me on the spot,” Glass said.

Glass said he entered the Fullerton gymnasium with a slightly inflated view of his coaching skills, and an urge to pass along his wisdom to the players.

“I was a little cocky and I was very interested in expressing my opinions,” Glass recalled. “But within the first couple days, [Burton] came up to me and told me I was talking a lot. He suggested I should shut my mouth and listen a little more. That was an eye-opener for me and I realized I may have been stepping on [other coaches’] toes. I’ve been listening ever since.”

Glass spent last season as the No. 3 man on a three-manager staff, which left him with all the most menial tasks. This year, however, he is the head manager, and, as such, handles more coaching-related responsibilities, like editing videotape and assembling footage of the Titans, as well as their opponents.

“We don’t have a video coordinator position, but I’m considered the video coordinator,” said Glass, who shares those duties with graduate assistant Hardy Asprilla. Asprilla, with whom Glass rooms with on the road and constantly debates coaching philosophies, played at Fullerton two seasons ago.

Glass said he types up scouting reports dispensed by the coaches and is generally there to take care of any of the players’ or coaches’ needs.

“It’s kind of like being a personal assistant to an entire team,” he said.

Glass said he enjoys interacting with the players and coaches and is considering pursuing the graduate assistant’s job at Fullerton next season.

“Coach Burton’s personality is so fun, he really makes the office lively,” Glass said. “He can be very intense at practice and really get into the guys. But, 20 minutes later, he’s cracking jokes with us in the office.”

Glass said he has learned a great deal about offense from Burton, whose Titans lead the Big West in scoring (82.4 points per game).

“And I’ve stolen so many plays [from Fullerton and its many opponents], I’m going to have enough to help build my library,” he said. “I think I’ll be stealing plays when I’m in my 70s.”

Glass still hopes for a career in coaching, but he said he is leaning toward the high school level.

“There are things about the Division I level I don’t like, like the pressures to win and some of the politics,” he said.