Miklo, Glenn take the basketball, wrestling reins

The winter sports season officially started earlier this week for both boys? basketball and wrestling.

The adjustment period for FHS student athletes consists of heading to practice every day after school, new plays and techniques to get down, and maybe the biggest of all, getting in sync with a new head coach. It?s something every male athlete is dealing with as Bob Glenn takes over the wrestling program and Tyler Miklo steps in as head of the basketball team for the first time.

All the while, Glenn and Miklo also have to get used to their new digs.

?The most enjoyable for me is to just get practice going, then sit back, watch and see what they can do. See what guys are good at, what they can work on,? said the wrestling coach, who has made his way back after graduating from FHS in 1975. ?At the same time, I?m trying to get to know them. Some guys I have in class, then there?s some that I never see throughout the day.?

Miklo has a leg up in that department as he spent a healthy amount of time with many of his players as the defensive coordinator for Trojan football team this fall, and was also around for camps and workouts this summer and throughout the offseason.

?I got to know most of the kids pretty well over the summer. We don?t have any that weren?t around then, so it?s just a matter of getting back in with some of the things we did then,? he said.

Some of those things include, as always, conditioning and an intensity that Miklo will look for day in and day out to try to change the climate that has been established for Fairfield basketball the last few years.

?It?s all about getting out and competing. Competing against each other and understanding that there?s only five spots on the floor,? he said. ?I?ve really seen that the first few days, and everyone has gotten after each other.?

Glenn, on the other hand, inherits a veteran team that includes 10 seniors on the 37-man roster. His focus through four days of practice has been to let those leaders do what they have done the past three years under former coach Jeff Courtright ? now the FHS activities director.

?The veterans I have are already very fundamentally sound. For some of them, it?s the first time they?ve been on a mat in eight or nine months, but we can go through some things and their memory is jogged right away,? said Glenn. ?Brushing off the rust, and slowly sharpening them to an edge is what good coaching is all about.?

While Glenn was busy coaching youth wrestlers on the opening night of Stars and Stripes Wrestling Club practice Thursday, his team was being introduced to Fairfield fans at the first-annual winter sports ?Meet the Trojans? night.

Basketball fans received more of an up-close look at Miklo as his squad participated in a short scrimmage with each member of the 33-man team getting up and down the court. Miklo will make his Fairfield head-coaching debut when the Trojans open the season Nov. 29 at Oskaloosa.

Glenn will be mat-side for the first time with his team traveling to Keokuk for a quad along with Davis County and Centerville.