Bob Glazier to coach final regular-season home game on Friday
By FRED KRONER
Bob Glazier had been a member of the St. Joseph-Ogden football staff for about a month in 1988 when he began to wonder what he had gotten himself into.
He was hired as an assistant coach. The St. Joseph and Ogden areas were appealing. After relocating from Fairfield, the family was about an hour away from his wife Linda’s parents in Decatur and had trimmed almost 3 hours off the commute to his own parents’ home.
With two years of coaching experience on his resume, Glazier was looking forward to transitioning to a new job with new challenges.
It was a good time to start at SJ-O. Both he and the head coach were to be entering their first year at the school. Glazier didn’t need to be concerned about being the outsider or about trying to fit into an established program.
The staff was going to learn, grow and build together.
As Glazier was settling into a routine, meeting prospective players in the summer, his world was turned upside down.
The head coach, who was coming to Illinois from Ohio, unexpectedly resigned.
“I met him in June,” Glazier recalled. “We went over the offense and the defense.
“In July, he decided not to come.”
With just weeks separating that coach’s decision and the start of preseason practice, SJ-O administrators knew they had to act quickly.
“Dale Doehring (athletic director) and Lynn Strack (principal) asked me if I would take over if they couldn’t find anyone,” Glazier said.
He didn’t jump at the opportunity.
“I had only coached two years,” he said. “I said I wasn’t really comfortable with that.”
The question proved to be moot. SJ-O found a qualified candidate in Dick Duval, and Duval stayed on the job for the next 28 years, winning more than 75 percent of his games.
Glazier stayed, too, and then some.
He is currently in his fifth decade on the SJ-O football staff and – ironically – is working under a head coach who was a sophomore at the school in 1988 when he first arrived at St. Joseph-Ogden.
Shawn Skinner was in the first group of players that came under the tutelage of both Glazier and Duval.
Skinner remembers his first impressions of Glazier.
“He had a presence about him,” Skinner said. “He demanded that you pay attention and demanded that you give maximum effort and do the job you were supposed to do to the best of your abilities.
“That’s what he expected in the classroom and on the sports fields.”
Glazier was in charge of the summer conditioning and the weight training program in his first year at SJ-O.
“We developed quite a rapport,” Skinner said. “You never questioned where you stood with him.
“When you did something good, no one celebrated with you more than him.”
When the effort was lacking or when players were slacking, Glazier didn’t hesitate to call them out.
“He was tough, but fair,” said Nick Bialeschki, a 2006 SJ-O graduate and currently an assistant coach with the football program. “He was the first to jump you when you messed up, but the first to high-five you when you did something well.
“He wanted to get the best out of kids and was a guy you wanted to play for.”
Ben Gorman is now a colleague of both Glazier and Skinner. He has been an assistant coach with the Spartans for nine years and enjoys the different perspective.
“I get to see the more fun-loving side,” Gorman said, “and the behind-the-scenes part.”
Gorman, a 2005 high school graduate, also played at SJ-O.
“He was a hard-nosed type coach, no nonsense,” Gorman said. “Do your job was the main emphasis or he would find someone who would.
“He won’t let you be lazy.”
Skinner addressed the issue of how Glazier has changed — or not — over the years.
“The first day of (practicing) defense this year, he said, ‘I want you to play hard, and if you do, we’ll take the results,’” Skinner said.
It sounded strangely like the words Skinner heard as a player 33 years earlier.
Many of Glazier’s players got to know the man when they reached high school or if an older brother had played for the Spartans.
Bialeschki’s encounter was on a more personal level.
“His wife and my mom taught our Bible study group,” Bialeschki said. “While the moms were teaching class, he was running hall duty.
“I wanted to be a football player and I knew who he was. When I was confirmed, he was my sponsor. I’ve seen him from the time I was little until now as a colleague.”
Glazier said he didn’t really consider whether SJ-O would be a destination stop when he started in 1988.
“It’s hard to say,” he said. “It was close to Champaign and my wife was working in Champaign.
“It was closer to family, that was the main thing. We liked the St. Joe area. It worked out well for us.”
As the couple’s children became school age, it was more of a given that he would remain in the district.
“I never went out looking for (other opportunities),” Glazier said. “I never looked at it as, ‘Let’s pull everyone up and go.’
“The community was great. The school was great. Why leave something like that?”
Duval was a key factor in Glazier’s longevity at SJ-O.
“Dick gave me a lot of leeway on the defense,” Glazier said.
When SJ-O settled on Duval as the head coach in Glazier’s first year, he was given three assignments.
On offense, Glazier would coach the wide receivers. On defense, he would coach the linebackers.
And, he would serve as the defensive coordinator.
In 2021, for a team with a 4-3 record entering Friday’s regular-season home finale (against Rantoul), Glazier has the exact same three assignments.
When Skinner was hired to replace Duval as head coach, he didn’t interfere with the defensive game plan.
“It’s 100 percent his,” Skinner said. “From the minute I was hired, I stayed out of his way.
“He knows what he is doing.”
That view is shared by others.
‘He is meticulous in how he sets up his defense,” Bialeschki said. “He is always the most prepared coach I’ve seen. He knows what everyone needs to do to be successful.”
In 2015, Glazier was inducted into the state football coach’s association Hall of Fame.
He still finds his selection as one of life’s unbelievable moments.
“I was just an assistant coach,” Glazier said. “I didn’t get into this for that (honor).”
Each year, when a new class is enshrined, Glazier feels compelled to look at the program and find his name, he said, to “check and make sure I’m not dreaming.”
While Glazier’s expectations for his players match the ones he had 33 years ago, he has not been reluctant to make changes in schemes and philosophies.
“He has always had a great defensive mind,” Skinner said. “He has adjusted as the offenses changed. He has seen everything from the winged-T to the no-huddle spread.
“He makes sure the defense is ready to defend the offenses of today.”
Glazier implemented a 5-2 defense in his early years with the Spartans.
“After four or five years, we were finding out we couldn’t line up with teams and beat them in the playoffs,” Glazier said. “If the offense is changing, and the defense isn’t able to stay with the offense, you’ve got to do something different.”
In that era of the 1990s, NFL teams such as Miami and Chicago were employing a 4-3 concept.
“You didn’t need big, bulky guys. You used your speed,” Glazier said. “We were never a big team, but we were fast.
“I contacted Dave Wannstedt (Bears coach) and he sent me a video.”
Glazier studied the principles of the defense and introduced it at SJ-O in the mid-1990s.
“It served us well,” he said.
Less than a decade ago, another change was in store.
Glazier didn’t make the switch without first consulting other staff members.
“I did a lot of research and sat down with Dick (Duval) and Coach (Marshall) Schacht,” Glazier said.
Exploring various options, such as the 3-4 and the 3-3-5, he explained, “‘here’s what’s good and here’s what’s wrong,’” Glazier said.
They settled on the 3-4 alignment, which is still in use.
“Offenses are ever-changing,” Gorman said, “and you have to adapt to what you’re up against.”
Dylan Koss, a 2014 SJ-O graduate joined the football coaching staff at his alma mater in 2018. He gets to see his coach from a different perspective.
“He gets on players because he expects perfection,” Koss said, “but deep down, he is like a big ole teddy bear.
“I know the guy as Bob, but I never call him Bob. Coach Glazier is an amazing coach and a great person.
“He has taught us so many things. A lot of it is life lessons. He is always prepping us for other stuff. He has no idea how much he means to the entire St. Joe coaching staff. He is one of the main reasons I got into coaching.”
Glazier sought a head coaching position one time. He applied at SJ-O when Duval resigned following the 2015 season, but didn’t harbor any ill feelings when Skinner was selected, and he opted to remain as an assistant coach.
“I like Shawn and wanted to help him get going,” Glazier said. “I enjoy being at St. Joe. I enjoy the kids and I enjoy the coaching staff.”
After the 2017-18 school year, Glazier retired as a full-time teacher. He has continued to work two hours each school day, teaching two classes of physics along with his football duties.
The timing felt right to make his departure official as the Class of 2022 prepares to graduate.
“I’ve had some back problems and it’s time for me to bow out and let someone else take over,” Glazier said. “Nothing happened personnel-wise.
“Shawn asked, ‘Are you sure?’ and I said, ‘Yep. It’s time.’”
Though Glazier feels like he has slowed down, it’s not obvious to others.
“He has as much passion as he ever did,” Bialeschki said.
From Glazier’s view, however, “While I have worked hard this year, I feel I haven’t put in the energy I should, and am cheating the kids.”
Glazier wasn’t surprised that Skinner has enjoyed a long and successful career in coaching. (He was an assistant at Westville for back-to-back state championship-game appearances.)
He saw the potential back in 1988.
“As a sophomore when I got there, Shawn didn’t say much,” Glazier said, “but as a junior and senior, he was more of a team leader.
“He understood and knew the game, and you could see he had that kind of ability (to coach).”
Skinner said he owes a special debt to Glazier.
“He was so instrumental in me going into teaching and coaching,” Skinner said, “and in asking me to come back home in 2012.
“As a young coach getting started and becoming a defensive coordinator, he shared what he had.”
Glazier is guaranteed of preparing the Spartans’ defense for two more games, the upcoming contest against Rantoul and an Oct. 25 contest at Paxton-Buckley-Loda.
He wouldn’t mind if a postseason berth extended the career of a person who has been involved for more football wins – and all five state championship-game appearances – than any coach in school history (276 and counting) with the Spartans.
When another high school football season arrives in 2022, Glazier knows it will be “difficult,” and said if he attends games, “I’ll sit along the rail.”
Though there will be changes on the coaching staff, Koss is confident of something that will remain the same.
“We will continue what he has brought to St. Joe,” said Koss, who didn’t get his wish when Duval retired and won’t when Glazier steps aside either.
“I wish they could have coached forever,” Koss said. “Him and Duval are the best to ever do it.
“They’re brought so much success and set the expectations so high.”
Skinner said he prefers to reflect on what the past has been like rather than what the future will look like with Glazier’s departure.
“I haven’t tried to think about that,” he said. “It’s going to be difficult without him.
“I’m trying to sponge every ounce of him that I can, and I’m glad we’ve had him all this time.”
