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GRAND FORKS, N.D. (7/17/08)--

Glas comes full circle
Article written by: Kevin Fee - Grand Forks Herald

MOORHEAD — Rich Glas sat back in his new, mostly bare, office on the Concordia College campus wearing a Cobber T-shirt and matching shorts. As workers repaired the adjacent auditorium where his Cobbers will play this winter, Glas talked about how he feels his men’s basketball coaching career is being renovated.

And how his life as a college basketball coach has come full circle.

More than 30 years ago, Glas became the head men’s basketball coach at Minnesota-Morris. While the school had an NAIA program when Glas took over, Morris switched to NCAA Division III while Glas was there in the 1970s.

Now the 60-year-old Glas, who spent 18 years as head coach at Division II UND, returns to Division III as the Concordia College head coach.
And the Cobbers and Glas open the season against Morris.

“At this point, I’ve tasted it all,” Glas said. “I was even a high school coach for a year in Hawaii. The fun is just working with the players and trying to develop a team that can go out and have success on the court.
“This is just the right atmosphere to do it in.”

Different than D-I. The atmosphere will be different than what Glas witnessed in Division I. He spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at Northern Iowa under his former player, Ben Jacobson, before taking the Concordia job in April.

Smaller venues with fewer bright lights will await Glas. So will bus rides instead of charter flights. His summers now will feature duties other than putting a team through offseason workouts or reviewing his available scholarship dollars.

And he figures he’ll have to do less babysitting than he did in Division I.

“The majority of them want to get the education,” Glas said of Division I players, “but there are some who just want to play ball. And trying to get them to class, that gets a little old.

“If I’m going to babysit, I’d rather babysit my grandson or granddaughter, not a 21-year-old guy who just wants to go play pro ball some place.”

In Division III, no athletic scholarships are awarded. That can make recruiting difficult, but Glas says he has a lot to offer besides dollars at Concordia.

“You sell the school, you sell the opportunity to come and have this kind of environment,” he said. “Some people want a Christian environment as a place to go to school. Some want the opportunity to play two sports. The academic reputation is also very critical, and Concordia has a great reputation.”

On the court, Glas’ goal will be to return to the Division III national tournament. He credits Minnesota-Morris and his players at the school for jump starting his career that took him to Williamette University of Oregon as a head coach and athletic director, the University of Arizona as a volunteer assistant coach, the University of Hawaii as an assistant coach, UND as a head coach, Northern Iowa as an assistant coach and, finally, Concordia as a head coach.

A friend called him to tell him about the Concordia job opening. Once he told the school he was interested, it was just a matter of days before Glas was offered the job.

Drawing him to the school were several factors. He liked the idea of returning to a program as head coach after stepping back and watching somebody else do the job for two years at Northern Iowa and being closer to family and friends living in North Dakota and Minnesota.
Concordia’s strong academic reputation also lured him to go from Division I to Division III.

“I enjoy the young people who are here, as far as those returning,” Glas said. “They seem to be an eager group. Class is important to them. I think of the 10 people we have returning, seven of them are well over a 3-point GPA.

“They are just guys who are here to get an education and want to play. Our goal is to try to help them become a successful basketball team and have fun playing the game and learn lessons of life they can carry with them.”

At UND, Glas had his best success in his first few years. In just his second season, he led the Sioux to a first-place North Central Conference finish, an NCAA regional title and a berth in the national Elite Eight tournament during the 1989-90 season.

A year later, UND repeated as conference and region champion and advanced to the Elite Eight.
UND also won a conference title in 1994-95. Glas’ next 11 teams didn’t finish higher than third in the NCC, leading some to voice their opinion that a change was needed in the program.

“It was time to leave,” Glas said. “I had a great run. It’s still home. I have a great love for UND, but I’m really excited about being at Concordia. It’s the right atmosphere. It’s the right place at the right time for me.
“I’m at peace, and I’m very appreciative of Ben Jacobson for giving me the opportunity to have a choice to either be at UND or go to Northern Iowa. It was a great opportunity for me because it was time to leave UND.”

Recharged and ready for another chapter in his coaching life, Glas is pleased with the Concordia opportunity.

“I see this as being the last stop,” Glas said. “You never say never, but this is a place I’m really enjoying. And it’s nice to be wanted. They feel good about my being here. Of course, I’m undefeated right now.”

Fee is sports editor of the Herald. Reach him at (701) 780-1127; (800) 477-6572, ext. 127; or send e-mail to kfee@gfherald.com.