Despite agonizing over the decision, Gerry Glasco is convinced a week later he made the right call to leave the UL softball program after seven successful seasons to begin a new venture at Texas Tech.
“I had so much fun at Louisiana,” said Glasco, who won 300 games in seven years in Lafayette. “The fans are incredible. It was an amazing experience.
“That was my first head coaching job. I’m very grateful to Dr. (Bryan) Maggard for choosing me and Dr. (Joseph) Savoie for supporting me every day. I don’t have anything bad to say about my time there.”
Any troubling emotions were eased Tuesday when Glasco heard the news that Alyson Habetz was replacing him as the next head coach of the Ragin’ Cajuns.
“I was so happy when I saw that,” Glasco said. “She (Habetz) got me the job at Louisiana. I would have never ever gotten a head coaching job if it wasn’t for Alyson Habetz. Nobody was going to hire a 59-year-old man. No other school was going to do that.”
Glasco said he gladly would have stepped aside for Habetz at any point during his time in Cajun Country.
“When Aly retired, I told Dr. (Jessica) Leger, ‘Hey, the day Aly Habetz wants this job, you let me know and I’ll retire or go get another job. All you have to do is tell me when Aly is ready and it’s hers,’ " Glasco said. "There isn’t a better person for that job than her.”
Likewise, the 65-year-old Glasco believes there isn’t a better person than him for the Texas Tech job.
“I’ve got NIL money here,” Glasco said.
Essentially, top-level recruits whom Glasco attracted to Lafayette are now going for $15,000 to $25,000 a year on the softball NIL market. The price can go way up for pitchers.
“I think Texas Tech has as good an NIL program as anyone in the country,” Glasco said, referring to the program with former Texas Tech football players Cody Campbell and John Sellers through Double Eagle Energy as the driving force. “I just felt like the change of scenery at the Division I level with the NIL made it impossible to bring top players to the (UL) program in the future.”
“Everybody tells me I can’t recruit here (in Lubbock). Every coach I talk to has told me, ‘Gerry, you can’t recruit to Lubbock, Texas. Gerry, you can’t get kids to go there.’ That just fuels me. I believe we’re going to make a big splash.”
Many questioned Glasco for leaving an established program in Lafayette to take over one with only six all-time NCAA regional appearances and where winning seasons are rare.
For Glasco, that fact was a major reason for switching jobs.
“That part is really exciting to me,” he said. “When I went to Louisiana, they already had Yvette (Girouard) and Mike (Lotief) there. They had great coaches and they had a great program. I tried my best to maintain it.
“Here I’m coming to a place that doesn’t have any history … probably just a handful of NCAA regional appearances. The idea of getting to build my own program is super appealing to me.”
There’s another reason for Glasco’s comfort level in Lubbock. While west Texas is unfamiliar to most, it's an old home for Glasco.
After graduating from Illinois and long before he became a softball coach, Glasco spent much of the 1980s and 1990s guiding quail hunts. Football Hall of Fame quarterback Sammy Baugh had a children’s home in the tiny west Texas town of Jayton, about an hour from Lubbock. Baugh ran birddog kennels there and Glasco had a lease in that area.
“I spent tons of time in all of these little towns around there guiding quail hunts and hunting quail,” Glasco said. “In my retirement years, I’ll be set.”
In other words, Glasco’s mind just doesn’t work like many others in the softball world.
For instance, if you think he’s happy about Oklahoma and Texas leaving for the Southeastern Conference, think again. He views that as a negative.
“Zero. That didn’t matter to me at all,” he said. “I wish they were still in the conference. Luckily, we’ve got Arizona and Arizona State coming in.”
While his annual salary increased from $180,000 to $250,000, Glasco said the pay increase wasn’t the deciding factor.
“Look, I was happy where I was and I think we were going to be great next year, but the more and more I looked at it, I realized it’s everything I want,” Glasco said about the Texas Tech job.
