Glenn:

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IRVINE — During practice before the final match for the Newport Harbor High girls’ volleyball team, Coach Dan Glenn wore his shirt from the Kauai Challenge Invitational.

He wore it as a symbol, sort of reminding his players about where it all began, at least for this season. He wanted them to remember how they came together and how they improved throughout the year. All of it could end with a state championship.

Saturday night at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center, it did.

The Sailors won the CIF State Division I championship, beating Salinas, 25-9, 25-11, 25-11. It was Glenn’s fifth state crown in his 24 years at Newport Harbor.

But this wasn’t so much about a team uniting and playing its best volleyball at the end of the season. In the background was the coach, who kept pushing the players. When he didn’t, he lived his life, an example of thriving amid adversity.

Earlier this year, Glenn was diagnosed with iris melanoma, a rare form of cancer in his right eye. He never enjoyed talking about it, but sometimes used it as an example for his players. The matches they played, they could control, but something like what he was going through, he could not. All he could do was manage his health, continually visit the eye doctor and remain positive.

The latter comes easy for him, for sure when he’s with his players.

That’s part of the reason he wore the Kauai Challenge Invitational shirt. The team competed in Hawaii, but also had fun, even when they went hiking. In the mornings, Glenn would be the first to rise, heating up the stove to prepare pancakes for his players.

They finished fifth at the tournament, but that seems to be merely a footnote to all else that was accomplished during the trip.

“It’s been a long year and I’m so excited to see their improvement,” Glenn said. “We’ve gotten so much better. It’s nice as a coach to be playing your best volleyball at the end of the year. That’s always the goal as a coach. That’s what you want. I thought we got better and better. This past month we just played some fantastic volleyball.”

Long before the trip to Kauai, Glenn wrestled with adversity. He said he was diagnosed with iris melanoma in February, but he had dealt with the probability of it before that.

Make no mistake, the coach loves to win. But he refused to lend some type of storyline about a coach who dealt with so much pain and won a state title.

Even as he held the state championship trophy he stressed to the media what Saturday night was really all about.

“It’s not about me,” said Glenn, 50. “I’m just so excited for the kids. The greatest thing about this is the path and the journey. This isn’t a one-year deal. With this group it’s been a three- or four-year deal. We had a lot of tough, tough losses, but that just makes this so incredible because to work as hard as these kids work you like to see them have success, especially as a coach. That’s the gamble that you take. You work that hard then you come up short, it’s frustrating for you and frustrating for the kids. The wins are that much sweeter, but the losses are that much harder.”

As a group, the Sailors wanted to win for the school and wanted to be remembered as one of the best in the program’s rich history. But they also wanted to win for their coach.

“He hasn’t complained once [about the iris melanoma],” said Mackenzi Campbell, a senior team captain. “He doesn’t really say anything about it.

“He’s the greatest coach we’ve ever had. We wanted to win for him because he works so hard and for everything he has done for the team. He puts so much time and effort into it. He deserves it.”