John’s Journal: Remembering Rochester Lourdes Coach Myron Glass

A legendary Minnesota high school girls basketball coach passed away over the weekend. Myron Glass, who led Rochester Lourdes to eight state championships and a record of 719-143 in 31 years as the Eagles coach, was 78. He coached several sports at Lourdes from 1968 until he retired in 2014.

I wrote about Myron and his teams many times over the years. It was always a treat to talk with Myron, who had an easy smile. Among his trademarks were cowboy boots, a calculator wristwatch and meticulous game preparation. In the story below, from January 2004, I focused on Myron’s preparation.

Myron Glass Is A Man With A Plan

Lourdes High School was founded in 1941, and the rafters of the school gym provide evidence of ample athletic glory. The oldest banner celebrates the 1949 state football champions; another hails the boys' state track champs of "957," with a fallen digit that didn't cling as well as the others.

Myron Glass is taking a first-time Lourdes visitor on a tour. They walk down a narrow corridor, the walls thick with plaques, trophies and framed newspaper clippings. They enter the "old gym," built in the 1940s, replaced as a game site in the '80s and now a practice haven with memories resonating from every hunk of hardwood and brick.

"There's a lot of history here," Glass says as a band of grade-school girls' basketball players file out in a high-pitched refrain of "Hi, Mr. Glass . . . Hi, Mr. Glass . . . Hi, Mr. Glass . . ."

They know Mr. Glass is the coach of the Lourdes girls' basketball team. They attend his summer camps and watch their big sisters play for him. He's the high school math teacher who owns the cowboy boots and the calculator wristwatch . . . and the state tournament.

The Eagles have won seven state titles. That's in seven trips to the championship game, including last season's Class 2A crown. That is perfection under Glass.

This month Glass, 59, added to his history by becoming the third girls' basketball coach in Minnesota history to win 500 games. The coaches above him still are at it: Mike Dreier (559) at New London- Spicer and Carol Visness (537) at Kittson Central.

Dreier's teams won Class 2A titles in 1997 and 2002 and played in five other title games, losing to Lourdes in 1991 and 1993.

Master planner                                       

When Lourdes beat top-ranked Breck 35-22 to win last season's title, much was made of the Eagles' preparation. Glass explained that he and assistant coaches Mike Carroll and Tracy Kidd were up until 2:30 a.m. preparing an eight-page game plan on how to beat Breck.

The media oohed and aahed at this, at how Glass worked long into the night, like a crazed scientist, on his master plan for the biggest game of all.

A few minutes before Lourdes played host to Zumbrota-Mazeppa in an early January Hiawatha Valley League game, Glass handed the visitor a stapled document. It was an eight-page game plan on how to beat Zumbrota-Mazeppa.

And there it was, the secret to all that success. As Carroll, who has been with Glass since 1985, explained, "Myron prepares for every game like it's a state championship game."

It's a simple plan, really: prepare, prepare, prepare and leave little to chance. Glass keeps a file on every coach and every team he has faced. Zumbrota-Mazeppa was no different. The game plan, every word typed in ALL CAPS mode, went beyond thorough:

KEYS: 1. NOT LETTING THEM DICTATE THE OFFENSE WHICH THEY WILL DO WITH THEIR 1-4: 1-3-1 AND BALL CONTROL INSIDE OFFENSE. 2. EXECUTION ON OFFENSE. WE HAVE TO HIT THE OPEN PLAYERS. BOUNCE PASSES TO THE POSTS. 3. BLOCK OUT ALL THE TIME. THEY WILL BE QUICK.

ZUMBROTA'S TRENDS: THEY WILL FRONT THE POST. THEY WILL GO UNDER THE PICKS ON DEFENSE. WE CAN BACK DOOR.

OUT OF BOUNDS DEFENSE: 2-3 ZONE. THEY COULD STAY IN THE 2-3. WE HAVE TO GO 1-3-1 THEN. THEY WENT INTO MAN TO MAN AFTER THE 1ST PASS IN LIKE WE DID 2 YEARS AGO.

Four of the eight pages contain diagrammed plays carrying labels such as 1-4 WITH A SCISSORS OFF THE POST and #2 IS A DOUBLE PICK FOR A CUTTER FIRST AND THEN THE POST COMES TO POST.

Also included are scouting reports on Zumbrota-Mazeppa's top six players. The entries include SHE WILL SHOOT FROM THE OUTSIDE. WE HAVE TO SEE IF SHE CAN HANDLE THE BALL AS WELL AS THE OTHER GIRLS and SHE IS THEIR BEST FREE THROW SHOOTER. SHE WILL NOT MISS. WE CAN NOT FOUL HER.

"Myron pays so much attention to detail that all the big stuff comes easy," said Kidd, a 10-year assistant to Glass.

Glass said it's all part of his first love: teaching.

"I have them read it. If I tell you, you won't remember much. But if you read something, you will remember. It might mean only one more steal, but one steal can win a game."

'A huge honor'

Glass' milestone victory was celebrated in a low-key manner, which was fine with the low-key coach. Before the tipoff of victory No. 501 against Zumbrota-Mazeppa, he was presented with a ball signed by the current players and a $500 travel voucher for the lifelong bachelor's annual Canadian fishing trip.

"It's a huge honor," said senior guard Steph Knell. "We're proud to accomplish that for him."

The Eagles have averaged just three losses per season in Glass' 21 years as coach, and that includes a 10-12 record in 1983-84, his debut and only losing season. In the 19 years since, Lourdes has had four or fewer losses 17 times.

The Eagles take an 11-2 record into tonight's home game against Triton. They are ranked third in Class 2A behind New London-Spicer (13-0) and Breck (10-3).

"I have a definite appreciation for Myron's system of play," Breck coach Ray Finley said. "It's a system that requires a lot of discipline and patience to perform and execute, and also to compete against."

Glass' success is all the more remarkable because he didn't play the game. He was cut from the basketball team at Minneapolis South, and worked his way through St. Cloud State as a non-athlete who worked at a Minneapolis gas station during summers, weekends and holidays.

After graduating, he interviewed for teaching jobs at Albany, at a Minneapolis junior high and Lourdes.

"As soon as someone offered you a job, you took it," he said.

Lourdes made the first offer, and Glass has been there since. At times he thought about applying for jobs elsewhere, including some colleges, "but that never seemed to be high on my priority list," he said.

He and boys' coach Rich Decker make Lourdes the only school in the state with 500-game winners in basketball. Decker took Kenyon to state in 1980 and Lourdes in 1999 and 2000.

Before games, Glass tapes ankles. During games, he watches the action like a man watching for a bus. There is no yelling, no stomping and hardly any standing. As he puts it, "We tell the kids to play to the best of their ability. Even if we lose, that's all we can do."

Knell said Glass rarely becomes agitated.

"He won't scream or make you feel bad about yourself, but he will definitely make his point," she said.

Oh, Glass has made his point. More than 500 times, in fact, including that remarkable 7-0 record in state championship games.

"We take it one game at a time," he said. "And we prepare for every game the same way."

He's a man with a plan.

--MSHSL media specialist John Millea has been the leading voice of Minnesota high school activities for decades. Follow him on Twitter @MSHSLjohn and listen to "Preps Today with John Millea” wherever you get podcasts. Contact John at jmillea@mshsl.org