How Texas Tech coach Gerry Glasco found his way to softball - ESPN

Texas Tech softball coach Gerry Glasco doesn't fear much.

When Glasco watched Oklahoma's Abigale Dayton blast a game-tying two-run homer in the top of the seventh inning on Monday night, «Sooner Magic» might have momentarily rattled him. But the Red Raiders rallied to finish off Oklahoma's dynasty run in the bottom half of the inning.

On Wednesday, Texas Tech dropped the first game of the Women's College World Series finals to Texas, a heart-wrenching 2-1 loss to the Longhorns in Game 1 of the best-of-three series (Game 2, 8 p.m. ET Thursday, ESPN). But Glasco's not the type to panic with his back against the wall. He has overcome much more than this.

«Nothing about softball is scary to me,» Glasco told ESPN in April.

Glasco has lived a colorful life and has taken a winding path to becoming one of the best coaches in college softball at 66, making a run at a national title in his first season at Texas Tech.

But he also has the kind of perspective that comes from immense tragedy. In 2019, his youngest daughter Geri Ann died in a car accident when she was a volunteer coach for him at Louisiana.

«Once you realize that you don't have fear of failure to keep you from doing things, you realize there's things you can't understand,» Glasco said. «You go for it.»

Glasco never thought he'd be taking on Texas in Oklahoma City. He never even thought he'd be a college softball coach. So how'd we end up here? It's simple, said Glasco: Because of drug cartels.

Glasco is a gifted storyteller, which explains why he's such a talented recruiter. Still, sometimes he glosses over things. So, let's slow down a little bit.

«I'm a hunting guy, a dog handler,» Glasco said. «That's all I did for a living four months a year. And then I go home and