Newly-appointed Pirates football coach ready to take over

Newly-appointed Polson High School football coach Kaden Glinsmann couldn’t help but use a sports cliche when talking about his appointment as the new Pirates head coach.

Glinsman feels like he was handed the keys to a Mercedes, referring to the long-term success of the program former Pirates football coach Scott Wilson cultivated starting in the early 2000s.

“Polson is great, and being around a couple of different programs before moving up to high school, I realize the administration (at Polson) is great,” Glinsman said. “It’s nice to have the full support of the administration and to see the program be successful. I think it means a lot.”

Glinsman, who began his career as an assistant at Helena High School and was an assistant for the Bengals’ football program from 2010-2014 as the offensive line and tight ends coach, got his first glimpse at the Montana High School Association Class AA level after graduating from Western Montana University.

After his time in Helena, he moved to Witchita Heights, Kansas and became a defensive back and special teams coach before moving back to Helena to work as the safety and special teams coach.

Now Glinsman has the opportunity to join the ranks as a head high school football coach taking over the reins of a program Scott Wilson built up for nearly two decades.

“My main objective is to get the kids out, and create an environment where they’ll have fun,” Glinsman said. “That is the basis of any good program. Besides the wins and loses, we are competing with our kids on Friday night in the classroom. They take care of business there, and we have to take care of business on the football field and represent the program because we just want to compete.”

Glinsman stated some of his short term and long term goals for the program.

“We have to get the numbers out for Class A football in and around the state,” Glinsman said. “I want to get the kids out and start having fun, play for the love of football. I also want to start collecting a good staff, stay collected and focused, and just have fun.”

Glinsman refused to name specific examples of programs he would like to see Polson be like, but stated he has aspirations to become part of the elite class.

“We just need to build this legacy, and we are going to do it on our player’s backs whether it takes one year, two years or six years, we are going to be successful,” Glinsman said. “It’s going to be successful because of their hard work and dedication. That is the legacy that we will carry on, an elite level of competition, and we want Polson football to be that.”

Glinsman, who was in former Helena High coach Tony Arntson’s coaching cabinet for four seasons, said he learned how to develop the program from Arntson.

“The number of things I learned from Arntson is you start to develop kids, preach good fundamentals and get good athletes coming through once in a while,” Glinsman said.

Glinsman, who will host a practice under the lights like other Mission Valley schools such as Ronan and Charlo and will start on Aug. 16, which is the first MHSA-sanctioned day to practice, hopes he can set the foundation for the new brand of Pirates football now.

“We want to get into our summer workouts and hopefully have a good summer and be able to kick things off under the lights,” Glinsman said. “Hopefully, we will have two good weeks of practice when we kick the season off against Columbia Falls.”

The Pirates will be ready under the lights on Aug. 16.