In the post game press conference, Gerry Glasco mentioned how Geri Ann would be happy if Mike White won the WCWS championship if her Dad didn't win it. I'm learning of all the connections in Gerry Glasco's world to the top people in college softball.
Glasco's daughters were apparently great players and thus were recruited by good teams. So as a Dad, Glasco got to meet and be courted by several top coaches. Then his daughters played on some of those top teams.
Tex coach Mike White was one of them. Mike White's story is similar to Gerry's story. He is a New Zealander who was a men's fastpitch softball player in New Zeland on a world championship level. He was recruited by US colleges to play college men's softball. He went to a small college in Iowa to play men's softball there. He married a local woman and they had daughters who grew up playing softball. White coached his daughters and eventually earned an assistant and then later, a head coaching job at Oregon.
Geri Ann Glasco played at Georgia initially (where Gerry got his college coaching start as an assistant) and then she transferred to Oregon and played for Mike White. Geri Ann played in the WCWS with Oregon. She graduated from Oregon and moved to Louisiana to be a volunteer coach for Gerry who was the HC at Louisiana Lafayette. When Geri Ann died in a car accident, Oregon added a bench in her honor at their facility.
Of all the emotional stories coming out with Gerry talking about his daughter, the one where I had the most tears was when he said in a presser that he hopes to take one of his teams to play at Oregon someday so he can just sit on Geri Ann's bench.
Back to Mike White... He had great success at Oregon taking them to the WCWS 5 times. In his 9 seasons as HC at Oregon, they won the Pac 5 times, finished 2nd once and 3rd twice.
The Pac 12 was the first dominate conference in softball as it is such a huge sport on the west coast. Thus the record success of UCLA in the WCWS in the past.
Tex hired White in the summer of 2018. Tex has been great but they have been OU's little sister with not much success vs OU until this year. Tex did win the Big 12 regular season last year. And they have been the WCWS runner-up 2 of the last three years. In his 6 full seasons in Austin (2020 cancelled)...
2019 Big 12 3rd, Super Regional
2021 Big 12 3rd, Super Regional
2022 Big 12 3rd, WCWS runner up
2023 Big 12 2nd, Super Regional
2024 Big 12 1st, WCWS runner up
2025 SEC 3rd, ...WCWS runner up
Glasco's daughters were apparently great players and thus were recruited by good teams. So as a Dad, Glasco got to meet and be courted by several top coaches. Then his daughters played on some of those top teams.
Tex coach Mike White was one of them. Mike White's story is similar to Gerry's story. He is a New Zealander who was a men's fastpitch softball player in New Zeland on a world championship level. He was recruited by US colleges to play college men's softball. He went to a small college in Iowa to play men's softball there. He married a local woman and they had daughters who grew up playing softball. White coached his daughters and eventually earned an assistant and then later, a head coaching job at Oregon.
Geri Ann Glasco played at Georgia initially (where Gerry got his college coaching start as an assistant) and then she transferred to Oregon and played for Mike White. Geri Ann played in the WCWS with Oregon. She graduated from Oregon and moved to Louisiana to be a volunteer coach for Gerry who was the HC at Louisiana Lafayette. When Geri Ann died in a car accident, Oregon added a bench in her honor at their facility.
Of all the emotional stories coming out with Gerry talking about his daughter, the one where I had the most tears was when he said in a presser that he hopes to take one of his teams to play at Oregon someday so he can just sit on Geri Ann's bench.
Back to Mike White... He had great success at Oregon taking them to the WCWS 5 times. In his 9 seasons as HC at Oregon, they won the Pac 5 times, finished 2nd once and 3rd twice.
The Pac 12 was the first dominate conference in softball as it is such a huge sport on the west coast. Thus the record success of UCLA in the WCWS in the past.
Tex hired White in the summer of 2018. Tex has been great but they have been OU's little sister with not much success vs OU until this year. Tex did win the Big 12 regular season last year. And they have been the WCWS runner-up 2 of the last three years. In his 6 full seasons in Austin (2020 cancelled)...
2019 Big 12 3rd, Super Regional
2021 Big 12 3rd, Super Regional
2022 Big 12 3rd, WCWS runner up
2023 Big 12 2nd, Super Regional
2024 Big 12 1st, WCWS runner up
2025 SEC 3rd, ...WCWS runner up
