Beaufort High to honor longtime, state championship winning girls track coach
Herbert Glaze was caught off guard at Tuesday’s Beaufort County School Board meeting.
The longtime Beaufort High girls track coach was thinking he was on the virtual session for one reason but was surprised as committee member Angie Peterson read the resolution to name the school’s track after Glaze.
“I thought I was going to help with something else, but you got me on this one,” an emotional Glaze said during the meeting. “This is truly an honor, an honor that words cannot say how I feel.
“I couldn’t imagine 44 years ago when I started the track program that it would come to this particular day or point.”
The dedication in Glaze’s honor will be held at a later date.
Glaze’s accomplishments befit the honor. His girls track teams have won 10 state titles, including four in a row in the mid-1980s and two second-place finishes.
Glaze’s teams also have won 28 region championships. He has been inducted into the S.C. Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame and the S.C. Coaches Track and Cross Country Hall of Fame in 2006. He also is a member of the Beaufort County Hall of Fame.
“He is a treasure to both our school and our community. Mr. Glaze has made his mark on Beaufort High School, and our school is better for it because of expertise and influence,” Angie Peterson said during the meeting. “It is an honor that is fitting for an educator of his caliber.”
Glaze has been a fixture at Beaufort High School since the early 1970s. He was hired as a teacher in 1972 and was picked to start the Eagles’ girls track program a few years later.
Glaze wasn’t the first choice to lead the program. He told the Island Packet on Wednesday that Sammy Goodwater was originally asked first but couldn’t because he couldn’t coach two spring sports.
So, Goodwater mentioned Glaze, who arrived at the school just out of college a few years earlier.
Glaze recalled the early days of the program struggling at times. He picked up and brought kids home on the day of the meet to make sure they had a ride. But the girls started to buy into the program, and it took off when the Eagles won four straight Class 3A titles from 1985-88.
“That got the ball rolling,” Glaze said. “We had our lumps in our origin and infancy stage. But we always had the commitment to the young ladies. We began walking around the halls and recruiting girls to come out and play.
“We had some young ladies there that were always devoted, dedicated and work hard.”
But more than championships and hall of fame honors, Glaze said he is more thankful of the impact he has had on girls’ lives and helping them get college scholarships.
Sixty-four of Glaze’s former athletes went on to compete in college; five are in college now.
“I told them, ‘You will be rewarded for your efforts as long as you handle your academics. It is my job to make sure you get some sort of assistance in college,’” Glaze said. “People say I never want to talk about my accomplishments, championships and awards. My main thing is to see how many kids I financially helped get into school. That is why I continue to do it, so they can get rewards for their effort.”
Glaze knows he is near the end of his coaching career; he said he might have a year or two left in him. He is confident the program is in good hands when he does decide to call it quits and credits his assistant coaches for their help through more than four decades at Beaufort.
“I got some young coaches to take over that are ready,” Glaze said. “The program won’t miss a beat.”
