New Polson coach gets ready for start of the year

Newly-appointed Polson High School football coach Kaden Glinsmann has high expectations entering his first-ever year as the Pirates’ coach for the 2019 football season.

The Pirates are coming off two difficult seasons under previous coach Pat Danley, who endured the task of inheriting a program from long-time Pirates’ football coach Scott Wilson, who began his 17-year coaching tenure in the year 2000.

Glinsman, who is a former assistant at Carroll College and the Helena High Bengals, is impressed with his critical contributors on the field who have participated in 7-on-7, and mostly skill-position drills in the off season.

“We have a couple of different things, and we have built workout sessions in the afternoon while the guys have participated this summer and they are working their tails off,” Glinsmann said. “The ones who have been in are pretty consistent, and there are a lot of different things going on in the summer. Some of our skill position players have gotten some live reps, and have gotten used to the speed of the game.”

Glinsmann suspects he will have a senior-heavy team scheduled to return.

“We haven’t had an opportunity to take a look at the majority of our skill player), but we did reasonably well,” Glinsman said. “We have a lot of depth at the skill positions, and those guys are lead by our senior group. A senior group leads our players that wants to be successful. It doesn’t matter who wins or loses, the legacy (of this team) will be built on these seniors, no matter who has to start.”

Glinsman, who has established he is excited about his staff as much as he is about the personnel that is set to play for him, is looking to see a lot of growth in his team.

“I was talking with my staff about the growth that we are going to see from week number one to week two, as we continue to try to get better throughout this portion of the season,” Glinsman said. “We just want to try to compete (in every game) because that is our motto this year.”

During his time as part of former Helena High football coach Tony Arntson’s cabinet, Glinsman said he learned something valuable off the field.

“More than anything, I would like to see our guys be successful on and off the field, and that is what we talked about what we are doing on the football field,” Glinsman said. “We tell them one to eight plays will decide a football game. We don’t know what plays they are going to be so we have to play them all.”

Above all, Glinsman wants his players to be exemplary people.

“It is important to me if they are treating their teachers nice, their custodians with respect outside of football and they represent the program well,” Glinsman said. “It’s not necessarily what they did on Friday night, but they are opening up doors (for people) with their jersey’s on or whatever. It’s how they are working, and it’s about how hard they are working. They have known of them for a while, and they have bought into the process that it’s not all about football.”

Glinsman credited Helena High and Carroll College football coach Mike Van Diest.

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix, and I really got as much from all of the head coaches I’ve worked under,” Glinsman said. “I’ve tried to implement that into my own program. I’ve really tried to surround ourselves with good kids, and you can do the best that you can with those.”

Glinsman, who is looking to resurrect the Pirates’ football program to playoff contenders and beyond, knows the process of turning the Pirates program into the successful team it was under Wilson is a long road.

“The biggest thing (I am looking for) is pretty cliche, and it is that I am not looking for specific wins or loses, and it’s not how much we throw or run on Friday night, but it’s about who will do their job to execute,” Glinsman said. “It’s a week to week thing, and I feel like we have to get a win, and to do what we have to do. We have to concentrate on us that week, and get that drive to be able to go ahead and do that.”