All-Area Girls' Lacrosse Coach of the Year: Ledyard's Bill Glenn

What They're Saying About Bill

"With him, the atmosphere is you always have to work together. If you don't, you won't succeed. He doesn't yell, he instructs. He gives us a frame, he gives us a box to work within and we're responsible for the rest. It's comfortable. It works. ... Him coming here completely turned our program around."

Michaela Holland, Ledyard junior

What You Need To Know About Bill

After serving as an assistant coach at East Lyme High School when his daughter Liz was a standout there - she graduated following the Vikings' state championship season in 2006 - Bill Glenn became head coach at Ledyard in 2010 not knowing a soul there but believing he had something to offer. The Colonels were 6-9-1 the season before he started, 2-6 in the Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division. This season, Glenn's third, Ledyard won its second straight ECC Small Division title and reached the championship game of the ECC tournament for the first time. Ledyard was 12-7 overall, 6-2 in the Small Division, winning divisional games 13-12 over St. Bernard, 11-9 over Stonington and 9-8 over Waterford. The Colonels, apparently comfortable in the clutch, had two first team Class S all-state selections in attack Michaela Holland and goalie Colleen Rusk. "I'm a huge believer in the team concept and I know that term is overused," said Glenn, The Day's 2012 All-Area Girls' Lacrosse Coach of the Year. "We discipline ourselves as a team; if one person is late we're all late. We're all responsible for each of us." Glenn said his goal at Ledyard was for the team to make a reasonable amount of progress in a reasonable amount of time and that getting to the ECC finals this season may have "changed the culture." "They're such a great group of kids," Glenn said. "They never complain, not to me anyway. They're just always there for me, for us." Glenn, who played football, baseball and wrestled in high school in Simi Valley, Calif., is a retired Norwich policeman who has his own business as a private investigator. He and his wife Mary Puhlick have three daughters. Glenn credits former East Lyme head coaches Gigi Begin and Lori Balantic - "I couldn't have asked for two better mentors," he said - as well as his assistant coaches at Ledyard, Tinita Larmann and Sheri Grills.

- Vickie Fulkerson