By Regan Edwards
With Glenbrook High School’s move to the Louisiana High School Athletic Association, the transition presents a lot of different challenges for the coaches. But the Apaches’ basketball programs are finding plenty of benefits as well.
Fundamentally, each sport at Glenbrook other than football is facing uncharted waters setting their offseason practice schedule and the game schedule. Additionally, the school is currently in process of hiring a new softball coach, but with that sport competing next spring, there’s not a pressing need for it or the other spring sports to finalize plans any time soon.
Glenbrook’s boys basketball coach, James Thurman, is very pleased that LHSAA membership has made it much easier to make the basketball schedule.
“With there being a lot more options of teams that are closer and able to compete against, the non-district schedule is still being worked on” said Thurman, who coached at Minden High when Glenbrook athletic director and football coach David Feaster was with the Crimson Tide.
The district schedule is set, starting soon after the new year in early January.
Thurman said with the transition to the LHSAA creating a lot of unknowns, he is waiting until after classes start in August to fill out the Apaches’ roster.
The girls coach, Cheryl Ford, is in her second year at the school and her identity is an asset for Glenbrook’s program. The daughter of Louisiana Tech and NBA great Karl Malone, she also has a very tremendous resume when it comes to the sport.
Ford, who played high school basketball at Summerfield, has an excellent understanding of the LHSAA competition. After high school, Ford also went on to play at Louisiana Tech where she was the Western Athletic Conference “Player of the Year” two years in a row from 2002-2003. In 2003, Coach Ford was drafted No. 3 overall by the Detroit Shock in the WNBA. After playing for 10 years, being a three-time WNBA Champion, and a two-time WNBA rebounding champ, she decided to retire from playing to become a coach.
As with the boys schedule, the girls’ district schedule will be played beginning in January, and the non-district schedule is still being worked on. It has been a lot easier than last year to develop, since there are many more options nearby than the Lady Apaches had with the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools. Also, Louisiana teams are surely finding scheduling the Glenbrook girls appealing given Coach Ford’s fame in her home state.
In the LHSAA, girls playoffs start a week earlier in February than the boys postseason.
