How drug cartel wars led coach Gerry Glasco to Texas Tech: 'Nothing about softball is scary to me'

Texas Tech softball manager Gerry Glasco doesn't fearfulness much.

When Glasco watched Oklahoma's Abigale Dayton blast a game-tying two-run homer successful the apical of the seventh inning connected Monday night, "Sooner Magic" mightiness person momentarily rattled him. But the Red Raiders rallied to decorativeness disconnected Oklahoma's dynasty tally successful the bottommost fractional of the inning.

On Wednesday, Texas Tech dropped the archetypal crippled of the Women's College World Series finals to Texas, a heart-wrenching 2-1 loss to the Longhorns successful Game 1 of the best-of-three bid (Game 2, 8 p.m. ET Thursday, ESPN). But Glasco's not the benignant to panic with his backmost against the wall. He has flooded overmuch much than this.

"Nothing astir softball is scary to me," Glasco told ESPN successful April.

Glasco has lived a colorful beingness and has taken a winding way to becoming 1 of the champion coaches successful assemblage softball astatine 66, making a tally astatine a nationalist rubric successful his archetypal play astatine Texas Tech.

But helium besides has the benignant of position that comes from immense tragedy. In 2019, his youngest girl Geri Ann died successful a car accident erstwhile she was a unpaid manager for him astatine Louisiana.

"Once you recognize that you don't person fearfulness of nonaccomplishment to support you from doing things, you recognize there's things you can't understand," Glasco said. "You spell for it."

Glasco ne'er thought he'd beryllium taking connected Texas successful Oklahoma City. He ne'er adjacent thought he'd beryllium a assemblage softball coach. So how'd we extremity up here? It's simple, said Glasco: Because of cause cartels.

Glasco is simply a talented storyteller, which explains wherefore he's specified a talented recruiter. Still, sometimes helium glosses implicit things. So, let's dilatory down a small bit.

"I'm a hunting guy, a canine handler," Glasco said. "That's each I did for a surviving 4 months a year. And past I spell location and manager softball from March till November due to the fact that I person 3 daughters. I conscionable coached softball for fun."

Glasco became the go-to hunting and sportfishing usher for much than 2 decades, taking businessmen and affluent hunters quail and duck hunting successful Mexico -- astir 2 hours southbound of Brownsville, Texas. He and his woman Vickie wanted to discontinue southbound of the borderline and physique a location aft Tara, Erin and Geri Ann got retired of schoolhouse successful Illinois. He didn't bask being distant from his girls, but helium tried to enactment to equilibrium his livelihood with his household life.

"That was my full childhood," said Tara Archibald, Glasco's oldest girl and his pitching manager astatine Texas Tech. "He would permission successful October and helium would travel backmost successful precocious February, aboriginal March, coming backmost for holidays and stuff. I tin retrieve him driving 48 hours from Mexico to Illinois, wherever helium watched my eighth-grade hoops crippled and drove each the mode back."

But opening successful 2007, his trips crossed the borderline started becoming much treacherous.

"I'm driving 40 guns done Mexico and [the guns] are issued permits by the [Mexican] Army," Glasco said. "In 2006, they stopped maine 3 times and I showed the permits. In 2007, I got stopped 18 times and they made maine get each 40 guns out. And they looked astatine each azygous serial number. I'd ne'er done that."

Finally, successful 2008, immoderate of his guests arrived precocious 1 night, truthful helium was driving to prime them up astatine 1 a.m., erstwhile helium was chopped disconnected by a truck. Glasco says soldiers jumped out, deed the crushed and aimed rifles astatine him. He got retired to effort to guarantee them helium didn't privation immoderate problems, erstwhile helium says helium was struck by the butt of a firearm and swarmed by the Mexican army, earlier helium was released.

The adjacent day, Glasco says helium was summoned by the section comandante, who apologized to him, earlier telling him they'd done that truthful nary trigger-happy worker took a jittery changeable astatine him. But helium was told that the disputes betwixt rival cause cartels made it excessively unsafe for him to proceed operating his concern arsenic usual, and helium couldn't conscionable amusement up unannounced anymore. When helium got backmost location to Illinois, helium had a league telephone with the Drug Enforcement Administration, who told him his clientele were excessively precocious illustration and would go kidnapping targets if their question arrangements oregon hunting licenses were leaked and the incorrect radical knew they were coming.

So Gerry Glasco pivoted.

Glasco had ever loved softball. As a hobby, helium spent 7 seasons arsenic the adjunct softball manager astatine Johnston City (Illinois) High School, and spent 1 play arsenic the caput manager of the inferior precocious team, wherever helium went 27-0 and won a authorities rubric successful 2007. His Illinois Southern Force enactment that helium built finished successful the apical 20 4 times astatine nationals and won the 2004 18U Gold nationalist championship. That year, Glasco and his unit were named the nationalist question softball coaching unit of the twelvemonth by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

Georgia manager Lu Harris-Champer had recruited 1 of Glasco's prima Force pitchers, Kasi Carroll, who would go 1 of the champion players successful Georgia history. She asked Glasco wherever helium was uncovering each his talent, due to the fact that determination wasn't a immense softball country successful Illinois, and helium explained that he'd enlistee athletes disconnected his daughters' volleyball oregon hoops teams and thatch them to play. She was impressed and told him that if helium ever wanted to beryllium a assemblage softball coach, to springiness her a call.

With his dog-handling days successful jeopardy, helium started pondering that route. The Glascos weren't wealthy. Gerry had grown up connected a pig farm. He called his dada and asked if they could commencement it up again, but past helium remembered however overmuch helium hated pig farming. His dada encouraged him to find thing helium loved.

So successful 2008, helium called Harris-Champer, interviewed, and got the job. He and Vickie took the leap and moved to Athens, Georgia, and the Bulldogs made it to the WCWS title bid successful his archetypal season. Harris-Champer said she was ever drawn to however hard Glasco's players played for him, due to the fact that helium was funny, charming and they knew helium cared for them.

"It's ever fun," she said of moving with Glasco. "He's hilarious. There's energy. Whether things are going successful the close absorption oregon the incorrect direction, doesn't matter. The vigor is there, the passionateness is there. The content is determination and the figure-it-out mindset is there."

And that's what Glasco was doing, figuring it out. First, arsenic a recruiter, past arsenic a hitting manager astatine some Georgia (2009-14), wherever his teams acceptable 20 schoolhouse violative records and astatine Texas A&M (2015-17), wherever they broke eight.

When helium landed the caput coaching occupation astatine Louisiana, helium didn't dilatory down. From 2018-24, Glasco led the Ragin' Cajuns to a 300-88 record, with 5 Sun Belt Conference regular-season titles and precocious to the NCAA tourney each season.

Along the way, helium got to manager Hall of Famer Cat Osterman successful the National Pro Fastpitch league.

He proudly remembers the pilgrimages helium made, taking his girls, past a assemblage freshman, an eighth grader and a preschooler to St. Louis, getting to a crippled 2 hours aboriginal and mounting up tract chairs down the location sheet backstop. It was there, helium told them, that they were going to spot the equivalent of Michael Jordan successful precocious school, a precocious schoolhouse inferior from Texas named Cat Osterman.

She struck retired 20 batters with 50 assemblage coaches successful the bleachers down them arsenic Glasco befriended her father, Gary, an engineer, who told him however helium analyzed the rotation connected pitches and studied the engineering facet of making the shot break.

"And she had the top emergence shot successful the satellite astatine 18 years old," Glasco said.

By 2014, Glasco was nary longer a instrumentality of Osterman. His softball travel allowed him to manager her.

"Who would've thought successful '99, I'm watching the champion pitcher successful precocious schoolhouse softball and 15 years later, I'm going to get to beryllium her coach. That can't happen," Glasco said, adding that helium didn't bash immoderate coaching of Osterman different than to pencil her sanction into the lineup.

Now a wide manager for the Volts successful the Athletes United Softball League, Osterman has admired Glasco's emergence each these years, and seeing him enactment firsthand, she wasn't surprised.

"He enjoyed watching however I worked and wherefore I worked the mode I did, due to the fact that evidently I was good into my nonrecreational vocation erstwhile we crossed paths," she said. "He's ever wanting to learn, which is benignant of chill due to the fact that sometimes radical volition consciousness similar they cognize it each and they're going to travel and impart their wisdom. Gerry was the opposite. He took the accidental to soak successful what everybody had to say."

Osterman, a Texas graduate, knows however awesome his enactment has been astatine Texas Tech, which had ne'er won a league rubric earlier this season. She's not amazed that helium was capable to enlistee NiJaree Canady, supra and beyond the $1 cardinal NIL deal. She knew firsthand however overmuch his Louisiana players loved him, having coached prima hitter Mihyia Davis successful question ball, who scored the game-winning tally against Oklahoma that clinched the Red Raiders' spot successful the title series. She said Davis' prima roseate successful precocious schoolhouse and had Power 4 opportunities, but stayed committed to Louisiana.

"It was due to the fact that Mihyia loved Gerry," Osterman said. "When Gerry was leaving, helium told her she should consciousness retired her options. And she said, no, I'm coming with you. Mihyia entered the portal with the 'do not contact' statement adjacent to her name. She was either going with Gerry oregon not going anywhere."

Four of the Red Raiders' apical 7 hitters came with Glasco from Louisiana, thing that wasn't mislaid connected Canady erstwhile she was considering making the move.

Those relationships substance to Glasco. He was devastated to bushed different of his erstwhile players, Oklahoma pitcher Sam Landry, who wore No. 12 arsenic a tribute to Geri Ann astatine Louisiana and had Geri Ann's sanction connected her mitt during Monday's game. The 2 embraced aft their semifinal game, with Gerry telling her helium loved her.

"We're each portion of Gerry's family," Osterman said. "His woman knows each of us. We each cognize Miss Vickie. I've gotten to cognize his daughters implicit time. He wants everyone to consciousness similar they're portion of the Glasco family."

That adjacent includes his person Texas manager Mike White, who coached Geri Ann astatine Oregon. He admires White for his path from New Zealand to a stellar coaching vocation successful which he's ne'er mislaid a regional, thing Glasco says is "impossible."

"I thought astir it past night," Glasco said successful a Tuesday quality conference. "If Geri Ann was here, I don't cognize if she'd basal for maine oregon White due to the fact that she loved Whitey. She utilized to comparison america a lot. She'd say, Daddy, Coach is conscionable similar you. He's conscionable got a much colorful vocabulary. She astir apt thought helium was a small smarter than I am."

Archibald, who near a caput coaching occupation astatine Eastern Illinois wherever she went 40-17 past twelvemonth to get a accidental to enactment with her dad, said those household memories -- including keeping Geri Ann adjacent -- person been a large portion of the Red Raiders' acquisition successful Oklahoma City.

"There's a batch of pride, there's a batch of happiness, there's a batch of excitement, but there's besides immoderate grief involved," Archibald said. "It's hard to enactment into words obviously, but I consciousness similar Geri Ann's truly close present with america and sending america signs everyplace we go. We locomotion successful the stadium contiguous and there's a 12 successful beforehand of our face. I spell to the laundry country and there's a 12 connected my washing machine."

"I conscionable consciousness similar it's benignant of been written and expected to beryllium this way. With Sam [Landry], that was hard. That was so, truthful hard due to the fact that she is simply a girl to my parents and has been conscionable truthful bully to our family."

Now, aft ending the Oklahoma dynasty and beating Patty Gasso, who has the highest winning percent (.811) of immoderate manager with astatine slightest 1,000 wins, Glasco has 1 much changeable astatine past successful a title bid against Texas.

Harris-Champer expects Glasco to spell each out, laughing however "awesome" it was to spot Glasco calling Makayla Garcia to bargain location successful a triumph implicit UCLA connected Saturday, saying she doesn't retrieve ever seeing anyone bash that astatine the WCWS before.

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Texas Tech's Makayla Garcia stuns UCLA by stealing location successful epic fashion

Makayla Garcia breaks the stalemate by stealing location for Texas Tech successful the apical of the 5th inning vs. UCLA.

"He loves to bargain home," she said. "He loves to squeeze, loves to bash things that are to unit the offense, to unit that aggression."

Archibald said that's each portion of Glasco's makeup. He goes for it.

"If we don't person what we request to get it done, we're going to find it," Archibald said. "If we can't people a run, we're going to bargain home. It's an strength that's unmatched. He's going to bash things the close way, but wherever astir coaches would beryllium disquieted astir however anserine americium I going to look if we get thrown retired stealing home, helium doesn't care. If that's however we've got to people a tally for NiJa, we're going to fig retired however to people a tally for NiJa."

As the WCWS has gone on, Glasco has go an overnight star, overmuch similar Canady was 2 years ago. There's an adage astir Lubbock this twelvemonth with the media attraction that she has drawn: They'll travel for NiJa and enactment for Gerry.

"When we archetypal started this full process, immoderate radical were talking astir doing a documentary connected NiJa and the communicative and the team," Archibald said. "We started laughing and we're like, yeah, they deliberation they're going to bash a documentary connected NiJa. They're going to get present and they're truly conscionable going to travel Gerry everyplace helium goes. He's the existent show."

When helium tin find the clip distant from softball, Glasco inactive hunts quail, inactive has his part-time hunting usher business, and inactive goes to Mexico. He believes immoderate things are predestined, including getting the Tech occupation erstwhile helium did, astatine a schoolhouse that was consenting to spell all-in connected NIL, allowing him to onshore Canady and physique an discourtesy astir her. He's made his people connected softball history, the athletics that saved him from pig farming.

He has 1 past accidental this play to spell for it.