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It’s been two weeks since Charles Henderson announced the hiring of John Gluschick as the new head baseball coach.

Since then, the new head coach has taken some time to reflect on his new endeavor and meet his new players.

“I’m blessed to be here,” Gluschick said. “Troy is a baseball town. These kids at Charles Henderson are great. They’re great players. I am proud that I get a chance to coach these guys.”

Gluschick comes to Troy well aware of Charles Henderson’s history of success. He has a strong relationship with former coach Derek Irons and knows the passion the community has for Trojan baseball.

“I have always kept up ever since Derek (Irons) was here,” Gluschick said. “Me and Derek are pretty good friends. I would call him up and pick his brain and he would do the same to me. I have always followed Charles Henderson. Troy’s a baseball town. I know how excited Troy gets when it’s baseball season. They love the game.”

Gluschick has had his fair share of success himself, winning a total of four state championships at Lowndes Academy and Sweet Water.

“I just had some really good players,” Gluschick said. “Players that wanted to buy into a system, hustle and give everything they had. They were just good players. It’s easy to coach when you have good players.”

During his meetings with the players, Gluschick hopes to get his players to buy in to his way of coaching.

“I have different philosophies about baseball,” Gluschick said. “I have three seniors and 10 juniors. This team can be good and good for a long time. Just talking with these boys gets me excited.”

Gluschick attended and played baseball at Huntingdon College.

“I’m aggressive,” Gluschick said. “I played under a tough coach and I knew I didn’t want to be that way. I wanted to keep the game fun. When we start having practice, everything is going to be competitive. I can see already that these guys hate to lose. When you have guys that hate to lose, they kind of put that extra effort into it.”

Doing the little things, making the routine plays and adapting to Gluschick’s hitting philosphy will be the difference in whether the Trojans can get to where they want to get.

“Getting timely hits and making the routine plays,” Gluschick said. “I’m kind of a Ted Williams guy and an educated guess guy when it comes to hitting. I think in high school baseball when you get a 2-0 count, most of the time it’s going to be a fastball. It’s an educated guess. We watch on the bench and these guys will talk to each other. The 1-1 pitch is going to be the hardest to tell and that’s what we have to figure out.”

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