Profile: Coach Glenn guides players on and off court

My last article from this year's Humber Et Cetera (published April 5):

There was a point last year when Chris Thompson, then in his rookie season as a forward for the Humber Hawks men’s basketball team, was on the brink of failing a course.

A philosophy class had got the better of him and it was clear to Thompson he was in trouble. Fortunately for the health and fitness student, head coach Darrell Glenn was in his corner. The third-year coach arranged for a tutor to get Thompson through the rough patch and back on track.

“He’s school first,” Thompson said, while doing schoolwork in the coach’s office last week. “We’re always in here doing our homework,” referring to the many student athletes found in the office on any given day.

Along with his bench boss duties for the Hawks, Glenn is Humber’s only academic adviser for varsity athletes, a job he relishes as much – if not more – than coaching basketball.

“As much as I’ve coached, for me, it’s more about teaching. I look at myself as a teacher first, because that’s what I am. That kind of transfers itself into me as a coach,” he said.

Glenn, also a teacher at Oakwood Collegiate secondary school in Toronto, is working through his second-year as an academic adviser at Humber. It’s a role he assumed after former men’s basketball coach and academic adviser Mike Katz left to coach at the University of Toronto in 2004.

When Katz left, the position seemed to get lost in the shuffle. However, Glenn quickly realized during his first year at the helm of the men’s basketball team that the void needed to be filled.

“We started to see a pattern among a lot of teams that we needed somebody here to help,” Glenn said.

That pattern was players being declared ineligible to play because of spotty school attendance from first-year athletes and poor performances in the classroom, according to Glenn. The solution was simple, reinstate the adviser role with a dedicated staff member on campus to provide some guidance.

“There needed to be somebody here for at least half the day that can look after the needs, or at least monitor academic progress,” he said.

After discussions with Humber athletic director Doug Fox last year, Glenn arranged to reduce his teaching load at Oakwood and become a paid academic adviser for Humber Athletics.

For Glenn, it means his mornings are spent teaching at Oakwood and afternoons spent at Humber helping varsity players, like Thompson, develop strategies for success. It begins with academic orientations at the beginning of first semester and continuing with informative workshops throughout the school year.

“Darrell’s run a number of sessions on time management, career development, financial advising – he’s tried to not just do academic advising, although that is his primary concern – but if a kid’s having problems then how do we arrange, get on top of this quickly and help this kid survive,” Fox said.

The biggest problem, according to Glenn, is the lack of appropriate preparation at the secondary school level for the pressures and demands that college brings.

“Let’s face it, I see this as a teacher, high school doesn’t prepare students for college or university in my opinion. High school does a lot of hand-holding. You get here and it’s every man for themselves and it’s a huge adjustment,” he said. “Some kids don’t make that adjustment well.”

Over the past two years, Glenn feels he’s making some progress. Thompson, for example, is now an honour roll student.

“We look at those kinds of successes and say, ‘Hey, this is working.’”

“There’s always gratitude,” Thompson said. “If there’s anyway we can help Coach, we try and help him as much as he helps us, whether it’s on the court or off the court. We’re all really grateful for what Coach does.”

Glenn stresses that he’s a resource for all varsity athletes though, not just those he coaches.

“This year, I’ve tried to build a better relationship with other sports. I’m starting to build a better rapport with other athletes, and they’re starting to feel more comfortable coming to see me about various problems.”

Fox said having Glenn fill the adviser role is a part of Humber’s plan to develop complete individuals.

“Our theme is building champions,” he said. “It’s building champions on the court and life as well. We’re trying to build people that walk out of here graduating with good grades and that are employable and with the proper character development.”

As for Glenn, his focus now is providing players with the guidance and advice they can use to get through final exams. Beyond that, he remains committed to Humber’s goal of preparing its athletes for the challenges they’ll face even after they graduate from school.

“We’re focused on preparing them for the next phase of their lives, when they leave Humber.”

- JS

Review: Smith's latest an unfulfilling pursuit

Pulled from a class assignment on arts reviews, a bit stale since the movie has been out for awhile but it was just released on DVD at my local Blockbuster, so thought I'd check it out:

In 2001, the author and journalist Barbara Ehrenreich published a book that documented a personal and investigative sortie of hers into the world of America’s working poor.

Ehrenreich’s book retraced a grueling three-month campaign where the author waited tables in the Florida Keys, scrubbed the bathrooms of Maine’s rich, and succumbed to working at a Wal-Mart in Minnesota, all in the author’s attempt to unearth just how the poor manage to get by.

What she found was “a thousand desperate stratagems for survival.”

Ehrenreich’s book is a marvelous tale of the human spirit’s indefatigable impulse to carry on. Cue the segue.

Fortunately for those who haven’t read her book or actually experienced the dearth of poverty first hand—which I hope is the very large majority of you—The Pursuit of Happyness starring Will Smith, provides a palatable if somewhat clichéd substitute for Ehrenreich’s revelation. With much less effort, too.

The Pursuit of Happyness is based on the real life story of San Franciscan Chris Gardner, a poor and downtrodden salesmen who—with what is seemingly his last death kick—manages to miraculously land a lucrative internship and eventual job at a downtown brokerage firm.

Yet in the process, Gardner’s wife leaves him, he and his son become homeless, Gardner faces tax seizure capped by a little jail time to round out the gamut of blows dealt to him. However, this being a story fit for a motion picture, Gardner and son emerge victorious after he gets the job, and both go on to enjoy a comfortable life free from want.

OK, heartwarming. Uplifting…I guess.

If your moral compass points you toward the pursuit of money as the panacea to life’s challenges, this will inspire you.

You’ll relate to the epiphanal moments of the picture, when Gardner sees a Ferrari outside of his future brokerage, and decides then to go after the internship; or when, as the intern, he follows a client home one night to pursue a deal only to become stupefyingly enamored by the client’s sizable house.

Do not get the wrong impression, big houses and nice cars are, well, nice. But they’re not the sole ends of happiness in themselves, are they?

Yet there is something to be said about the reaffirmation of the American Dream here. Afterall, after living for so long in the nightmare shadow of it, Gardner’s vindication is worth watching, and it’s nice to be told that meritocracy is still alive.

To sentimentalize things a bit further, Gardner’s son is played by Jaden Smith, the real life son of father, Will—in a savvy ploy to tug at the heartstrings of the Academy perhaps (to little avail).

The father and son tandem do a commendable job of retelling Gardner’s story. Smith’s (Will) performance is as ever, workmanlike and professional, but not especially noteworthy. Jaden Smith is also passable in this picture; not quite the twinkle of a star yet, but there may be a future for the kid.

All in all, The Pursuit of Happyness is a reassuring story about the triumph of the human spirit over seemingly impossible circumstances. Gardner fought tooth-and-nail out of homelessness into a life of comfort; something we can all relate to on some level, and admire.

Yet it’s difficult to get past the clichéd rehashing of a tired parable, and if one would like to get a true glimpse into the triumph of the human spirit over impossible circumstances, reading Ehrenreich’s book is the more worthwhile pursuit.

-JS