After 31 years, Penns Valley coach Terry Glunt’s legacy goes beyond his numerous athletics successes
Terry Glunt always wanted to know why coaches were called to the brown trailer.
He would take his Penns Valley cross country teams to the PIAA State Championships and would hear coaches get called to the peculiar trailer near the end of the race, but never knew what would happen once they were inside.
In 2017, he finally found out. Glunt’s Rams were going to win the meet and the state title, and it was then that he heard a request for the Penns Valley cross country coach to report to the structure that eluded him for years.
“We would go down to states and I would tell the kids about the brown trailer,” he told the Centre Daily Times. “At the end of the race they’d say, ‘Would the coaches of so-and-so and so-and-so please report to the brown trailer.’ And I’m like, ‘huh, I wonder what that’s all about.’ And then one year I got invited to the brown trailer. ... It was just telling them how you wanted the kids announced when they put the medal around their necks. I now have that inside information on what happens in the brown trailer.”
Glunt’s successes in athletics — like that state title — dot his tenure as Penns Valley’s boys’ cross country and basketball coach, but the memories and impact he’s had on student-athletes greatly supersede the accomplishments he’s reached in his 31 years as a coach — a tenure that will end with his retirement following the end of the 2020 cross country season next week.
His enumerable accomplishments include the aforementioned state championship in cross country, the first district title in boys’ basketball, the first appearance in the state tournament in boys’ basketball and plenty more. But his impact has created indelible impressions on those who have come in contact with him.
“It’s hard to put my experience (with Glunt) into a few short words,” Keith Griffith told the CDT. “I learned a lot from him. I learned about leadership, I learned a lot about running, I learned a lot about how you should be as a person. Even beyond the running aspect, I feel like I learned so much from him. ... He’s had an impact on hundreds of kids, not just in cross country but basketball and students that he’s taught through the years as well. I owe a lot to where I am today as a leader to the opportunities that he gave me.”
Griffith — who graduated from Penns Valley in 2016 — ran for Glunt’s cross country team after giving up football. His newness to the sport created a first for Glunt in his long tenure as a cross country coach.
“His first race, he was so excited he got out in front of everybody at the Big Valley Invitational,” Glunt said with a laugh. “He’s the only kid in my three decades that I had to yell, ‘Keith! Slow down!’ I have that on tape.”
Griffith credits Glunt for teaching him the leadership he now employs as the 2020 drum major in the Blue Band at Penn State — where he would usually be performing a flip during the pregame show of each home football game. Most importantly, Griffith learned about self accountability and how it can impact the entire team.
“I think Coach Glunt does a great job of developing leaders as a whole,” Griffith said. “There are times that I’ve missed the flip in practice and I know that I have to react in a way that’s representative of both myself as a leader and us as an organization. I think that mentality of working through that really helped.”
And while Griffith learned from his former cross country coach during the fall sport, Glunt was just as impactful in his years as the Rams’ boys’ basketball coach. The 2019-20 team that qualified for states was his final team — and one of his most successful. Kevin Montminy — a 2011 graduate from Penns Valley who went on to play basketball as a walk-on at Penn State and is one of the most accomplished athletes in Rams’ history — said his former coach made sure his players knew his care for the athletes went beyond basketball games and cross country meets.
“In college I kept in touch with Coach Glunt and have kept in touch with him since,” Montminy said. “I think what Coach Glunt really does is keep a really light atmosphere. While between the lines it was business time, he definitely cared about his players. He wanted to see them succeed on and off the court. He did that through keeping a light attitude. He was always first to crack a joke, but whenever we walked between those lines it was business. Knowing how to differentiate between the two is something he did really well.”
Montminy and Griffith’s past successes and experiences are examples of what the current group of Penns Valley runners can expect to take with them from Glunt.
Brendan Colwell and Colton Sands are the team’s top two runners and two of the best runners in the state — if not the country. Colwell is committed to run at Penn State, while Sands is committed to do the same at North Carolina. Each will be ending their high school career at the same time Glunt ends his coaching career, and for them, that makes the season even more special.
“It’s really special,” Sands said. “It’s bittersweet for me and I’ve been here four years ... I can only imagine for him, being here for 31 years. It’s got to be a whole different feeling. It’s certainly special to know that we’re the last group that’s going to get to experience Coach Glunt.”
The two current runners cited similar lessons to the ones Griffith and Montminy did — learning about responsibility, leadership and camaraderie while competing at the highest level.
Glunt was able to instill those lessons and keep his practices light and relaxed while staying competitive throughout his decades of coaching. He didn’t need to be an authoritarian because he already had everything a successful coach needs from his athletes — their respect.
“There aren’t a lot of coaches who are as respected as he is,” Colwell said. “Everybody knows who he is and he has a well-built reputation. ... Him being respected made him work harder at being a coach. He’d come back to practice with stacks of papers and statistics and times. Everything you can think of, he’s probably printed off and read multiple times at this point.”
Like the two former athletes, the current duo had plenty of instances that they’ll never forget with Glunt. They’re almost too innumerable to pinpoint specific instances, but there are certain memories that stand out to each athlete.
There was the time Sands missed practice this season because of an injury, and Glunt could tell he was upset he couldn’t practice. So the coach walked to his truck, grabbed two gloves and a baseball and played catch with the senior to get his mind off his injury.
Or the time Griffith and his teammates outperformed their projected finish at the district meet and found out they qualified for states when Glunt came sprinting toward them yelling the good news during their cool-down run.
Or when Montminy and his teammates started the season slow despite high expectations, but Glunt stayed the course and provided the calm and steady hand, leading them to a district title.
And of course, the brown trailer. When Glunt led his team to a state championship for the first time, a moment he was able to share with both Colwell and Sands when they were freshmen in 2017.
But all of that is coming to a close for the Penns Valley coach. He hasn’t run with his cross country teams in recent years due to hip issues — something he dearly misses — and he’s decided this is the right time to have the curtain close on his time as a coach and a teacher — he teaches fourth grade in the school district.
And while Glunt’s career may be coming to an end, his impact will continue. His runners and basketball players have all felt his influence in their lives and that will never go away. Glunt isn’t exactly sure how he’ll replace coaching in his life, but he’s sure there’s plenty to look forward to. He even picked up golf again over the summer.
But for now, his clubs can stay in their bag. He still has work left to do.
He has one more Rams cross country team to guide through the rest of the postseason. They’ve already won their seventh-straight Mountain League title and Glunt’s 14th district title, but the best could be yet to come.
If his team can regain its health and return to form, Coach Glunt may get one last trip to that brown trailer.
This story was originally published November 1, 2020 at 8:30 AM.
