Westwood Girls Track Coach Has Long History in the Sport

George Glover, head coach of the recently very successful Westwood Lady Cardinals track team, comes from a family of track athletes and has participated in track since an early age.

"I have been involved in track and field since elementary school field day, and my father and grandfather were both competitive track athletes," said Glover. "I started coaching high school track right out of college, which was 30 years ago."

Glover ran track for Suffern High School in Rockland County, New York. He uses much of what he learned there in his coaching today at . Suffern had a successful program that taught Glover a lot, he said.

Winning is great, but he said there are also many other rewarding parts to coaching track.

"I must say that the highlights are not statistics, but relationships," said Glover. "I have so many good memories of student athletes who really gave their all, believed in themselves and put their trust in me.  That said, reaching the pinnacle of something is always memorable.  this year has been very rewarding and a career highlight for me, because it took years to get there. Students see things four years at a time, but I can see things long term."

Glover also had extremely successful years coaching the boys team in 2004, 2005 and 2006. The team was dominant and a force to be reckoned with.

Making the National Championships this year was an incredible accomplishment for everyone involved with the Lady Cardinals and memories were made that Glover will never forget.

"This was a special season because a lot of long term goals were realized," said Glover. "The girls were really on top of things and prepared to compete at the highest levels possible. This is a new feeling of pride and accomplishment for me. I am a positive thinker, and I expect to find success every season, but I was pleasantly surprised at the storybook ending to this year. It could not have gone better, really, and that almost never happens with all the variables we deal with in high school sports."

Track is in Glover's blood and he said the sport helped him during his adolescence.

"When I was a teenager, I really needed some direction in life, and some great coaches gave it to me," said Glover. "Their belief in me, and their ability, through track, to bring out the desire and success inside me, has really shaped my adult life. I have so many good memories from this sport, as a high school, college and even post college competitor, and of course, as a career coach, that I don't think I will ever be able to stop. Really, sports are not life, but in my case they have provided a passion and direction in life."