Salem High School needed a new football coach and athletic director Hank Weedin knew just who to call.
Brian Glesing was surprised to hear one of his former Hanover College roommates offer him a job – one that proved too intriguing to pass up.
Glesing formally accepted the head coaching position at Salem last week, leaving Shelbyville after just two seasons and a 2-15 record.
“The timing isn’t great,” said Glesing on Monday from the football office at McKeand Stadium in Shelbyville. “I loved everything our kids have done, my assistant coaches and the parents have done to get to this point and build the program. We are going in the right direction.
“It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.”
In 20 seasons as a head coach at LaVille, Clarksville, Floyd Central, Jeffersonville, Paoli and Shelbyville, Glesing is 120-109. Brought to Shelbyville with a reputation of rebuilding struggling football programs, the Franklin Central graduate established a new culture within the Golden Bears despite only tangible success on the field.
Shelbyville won just one game in the three seasons before his arrival. Glesing helped the program end a 26-game losing streak in 2021 and a 23-game Hoosier Heritage Conference losing streak in 2022.
“That was the hardest thing I’ve done because they’ve done everything we’ve asked them to do,” said Glesing when asked how telling the Golden Bears went. “Their attitude, character and effort is unbelievable and off the charts. It’s tough when you preach hang in there and stick it out and you’re the one that leaves. I told them the other day to continue with attitude, character and effort.
“Whomever the new coach is going to be, you will be in good hands. Keep doing those things and good things will happen.”
Salem finished 2-8 in 2022. In head coach Blair Thompson’s three seasons with the Lions, the program played for a sectional championship in 2020 in a 7-3 season, went 6-3 in 2021 before falling below .500 this past season.
“They called me. I did not seek them out,” said Glesing, who will finish out his teaching contract at SHS before leaving for Salem. “When you are getting a phone call to come down and coach football, that makes you feel good. I will be working for a guy, the athletic director at Salem, we go a long way back. When the job came open there, he called me and said you are our guy.”
Glesing’s wife, Barbara, a teacher at Hendricks Elementary in Shelbyville, is originally from southern Indiana and that factored into the decision.
“I couldn’t turn it down. I’m being selfish in that regard, but my wife is also involved,” he said. “She is originally from southern Indiana and it’s a chance to get back to her mom, who has been in the hospital and been sick. There are a lot of things going on with that and she can be closer to her.”
While Shelbyville has struggled to be competitive on the gridiron in recent seasons against HHC opposition, the school system has invested heavily in recent years building a new lockerroom and purchasing new lights at McKeand Stadium, opening an 8,000-square-foot weight room within the school and, this summer, installing an artificial turf surface that will be ready for the 2023 season.
“Everything is there as far as being on the outside looking in – the turf, this facility we are sitting in here today, and the weight room,” said Glesing. “And great faculty. Everything is there. It’s ready to explode.
“I told the players I want to see it through (here) but sometimes you get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you have to go do and that’s what happened.”
Barring a schedule change, Shelbyville and Salem will meet on Aug. 11 in a preseason jamboree with Madison.
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