By MATT CRESS
Matthew.Cress@newsandtribune.com
November 16, 2008 02:25 am
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Brian Glesing knows a thing or two about winning football games, so it’s not a surprise that he’s up to his old tricks.
The kicker? He’s doing it at Floyd Central.
After a 10-2 season in 2003, the Highlander program went into a free fall. Floyd Central won just six games over the next three seasons combined, finally bottoming out with a 1-9 campaign in 2006.
Enter Glesing.
The former coach at LaVille and Clarksville, he was charged with saving the program. And in the 2008 campaign, the rebuilding project officially got off the ground.
With his team’s strong closing kick, a winning record and — finally — a sectional victory, Glesing was named as the Evening News and The Tribune Area Coach of the Year.
“I’ve always preached that you have to play your best at the end of the year,” said Glesing, a three-time winner after a wildly successful two-year stint with the Generals. “Our goal was to play into November. We didn’t get to do that, but we definitely played our best at the end of the year.”
After a surprising three-game winning streak to open the season, including victories over Providence and his old program at Clarksville, Glesing watched things unravel with the coming of the Hoosier Hills Conference slate.
A brutal stretch that included home games with defending Class 5A sectional champion Jeffersonville and Class 4A powerhouse Columbus East, along with tough road matchups at Seymour and Bedford North Lawrence, resulted in four straight losses. The bottom of it all came with a 35-7 loss to the Stars.
Good teams keep at it through adversity, and Glesing’s system — with a stable of strong running backs — spurred a dramatic turnaround.
“Our offense is simple. We run the ball, there’s some play action stuff,” Glesing said. “We don’t run the spread offense like a lot of teams do. We do what works for us, and that’s not spreading out.”
It’s a system that meant great success for Clarksville’s Ryan Masters, the Area Player of the Year in 2006, and a host of Highlanders this season. Four different players — Aaron Sparks, Daniel Deere, Matt Lowe and quarterback Max Guenther — had games in which they rushed for more than 100 yards.
Those big games came mostly in the end.
Deere’s emergence spurred a 31-12 win over Jennings County to halt the losing streak. In the following week, Floyd fell into a 14-0 hole against rival New Albany when something happened. It was the moment where the weight of Glesing’s two years at the helm finally seemed to click.
What followed was a textbook victory for the coach — sturdy defense, a relentless running game, intelligent decisions by Guenther and, most importantly, a comeback victory.
It was the final regular-season game for the school’s Scott Field, which will be replaced by a new facility in time for next season. Glesing, however, was adamant at the time that it wouldn’t be the last contest the stadium would see.
That meant winning a sectional game on the road against the same Bedford team that dismantled the Highlanders weeks earlier.
“We were very fortunate in our sectional draw,” Glesing said. “We wanted to play the teams that had beaten us earlier in the year in Bedford and Jeff.”
The coach got his wish and Floyd got past the Stars on the shoulders of a huge performance from Sparks, who ran for 159 yards and scored on a 48-yard pass from Guenther in the 23-14 win. The nine-point margin represented a 37-point swing.
It was the sort of stunner that can put a program back on the map.
Even though the momentum ran out against the Red Devils the next week, Glesing and his team had produced a winning season, exceeding the expectations of fans, media and even the coach himself.
“Realistically, we thought we could get five wins, and we got six,” Glesing said. “We’re right on schedule. The thing is that being at Floyd Central has been very beneficial. We’ve had the full support of the administration to get this program to where it needs to be.
“We had to get bigger, faster and stronger. Right away, we were allowed to implement our strength and conditioning programs and that’s made a difference. There are certain aspects that you can’t control as a head coach, but we’ve been allowed to do everything that we need to do to build a successful program.”
With a new field, a host of talented returnees like Sparks and Guenther and a rising freshman team that had a 5-2 season of its own, the expectations will be much higher next season.
And the reigning Area Coach of the Year is ready to get started now.
“I can’t wait for August,” he said. “This program will be something that everyone can be proud of.”
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