Freshman Point Guard Leads GAC North in Scoring

Kids in the ninth grade just aren’t supposed to be able to do what Fort Zumwalt North freshman basketball player Chaz Glotta has been doing this season.

Not only is the sharpshooter starting for the Panthers varsity boys basketball team, he's also leading them in almost every category.

Glotta is leading Zumwalt North to heights it hasn’t seen in almost a decade, with an 18-6 overall record this season, and a No. 2 seed in the Class 5 District 8 playoffs that begin at Fort Zumwalt East High on Monday.

“I really don’t think of myself as being just a freshman,” Glotta said. “The guys really don’t treat me like that. We all look at each other like we’re on the same level. So we all just play hard and try to win games.”

And boy, have the Panthers been winning. Since the calendar turned to 2011, Zumwalt North boasts one of the best boys basketball records in the area at 12-4, including scintillating wins this week over St. Charles (63-44) and St. Charles West (57-55).

But the key factor in all 18 Fort Zumwalt North wins this season has been the magnificent play of its freshman point guard Glotta, who not only wowed many area basketball experts by earning a starting spot on the varsity, but nearly floored them all by winning the GAC North league scoring title with his 19.1 points per game average.

“This is the first time I’ve actually coached him on my team,” Fort Zumwalt North Head Coach Charles Glotta, Sr., who also happens to be Chaz’s dad, said. “I tried to shield him away from that 'coach’s son' stuff as much as I could.”

The Glottas moved to O’Fallon from Kansas almost three years ago, when Charles Sr. took the head coaching job at Fort Zumwalt North.

Chaz was in the seventh grade then, but spent tons of time around the team, helping out and playing pick-up games.

He also played on Fort Zumwalt North’s summer league team and even though he was always playing against bigger, stronger, older guys, Chaz proved himself worthy of a varsity spot by leading the Panthers to several summer league wins.

“I put him in there over the summer to see how he’d do,” Charles Glotta Sr., said. “And he just kept getting better and better. That’s when I knew, putting him on varsity this year would be the right thing to do.”

Having Chaz Glotta on the Fort Zumwalt North varsity team has clearly been the right thing from the opening game of the season, when he had 28 points in a win over Wright City.  

And it’s continued throughout a season in which Chaz Glotta has led the Panthers in scoring, three-pointers made, three-point percentage, free throws made, free throw percentage, steals and cheers from the crowd.

Fans have been flocking to Fort Zumwalt North games recently, hoping to see the freshman phenom do something they’ve never seen before, like the sick, lefty crossover-and-stepback-three-pointer move he put on a defender from St. Charles West Friday night, or the half-court alley-oop pass he made to a teammate during Wednesday’s win over St. Charles.  

The real magic Chaz Glotta and his teammates have in store for fans might come this week though, when the Panthers will go for their first district championship since 2002.

As the No. 2 seed in Class 5 District 8, Fort Zumwalt North will open district play against No. 3 seed Francis Howell Central on Wednesday, Feb. 23, at 7 p.m.

Should the Panthers win that contest, they’d advance to the district championship game next Friday, Feb. 25, and likely face a rematch with Fort Zumwalt South.

“We’re excited about where we might be able to go,” said Charles Glotta Sr., who turned two once-downtrodden programs into winners back in Kansas. “It’s been a bigger job than I thought, but the kids work hard. They do everything we ask, and that makes it easier.”