Blue White Illustrated

side for so long, he knew what to do, so it was a faster transition than it would've been for anybody else," she said. "But he just became so much busier." Nicole, voted a co-captain by her team- mates, faced a challenging role of her own: not wanting to lobby for her dad, but believing he was the person best suited to the job. Asked about the benefit of having his daughter on the team, Glon smiled. "I don't think this helped," he said with a laugh. "I know she's a great supporter of mine, but it was difficult. Sometimes I was tougher on her than I was on others." Balancing the dual roles of coach and parent ultimately proved a minor concern when compared to managing a roster of a few dozen college fencers. Glon recognized that, in his words, "I now had to be the bad cop," which meant emphasizing ac- countability for all, whether NCAA hope- fuls or little-used walk-ons. "In the be- ginning, it was, 'Coach Kaidanov is not here, so I can miss practice, or I can be late,'" he said. "They found out very quick- ly, it was not like that." Glon held regular team meetings, es- chewing email communication for face- to-face gatherings meant to ensure a level of commitment that early results implied was lacking. "At first, they weren't used to the meetings, and I could see they were kind of bored," he said. "But then I could see them start to understand. They knew, if this class didn't win, they would leave without a ring. They were used to the sto- ries from the past, that every class leaves with at least one ring. I used that to mo- tivate them." It worked. Inconsistency faded as the season went on, and with decades of ex- perience to rely on, Glon helped a talented team find its form. "Two, three weeks be- fore nationals, I saw it," he said. "They started to peak." By March, when the Lions got to Ohio State, host of this year's NCAA meet, Glon's biggest concern was overconfi- dence. "After the first two days," Nicole said, "people from other teams were al- ready saying 'congratulations.' We were running way from them, like 'No, it's not over yet!' My dad was telling us not to look at the scores." Heeding his advice, and buoyed by the vocal support of noncompeting teammates who drove themselves to Columbus – "At times, we were louder than the home team," Nicole said – the Lions finished as strong as they'd started. Kaito Streets, a sophomore in men's sabre, won the team's only individual crown, but with high fin- ishers in nearly every weapon (including Nicole, who placed fifth in women's saber), the Lions compiled enough team points to edge Princeton and St. John's for the title. In May, Glon was named National Coach of the Year by his peers. But it was the postseason evaluations from his fencers that probably meant the most. "They said a lot of nice things behind my back," he said with a laugh. "They appreciated the leadership." ■ <9QKAFFH=FFKL9L= Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Lion Country Lodging.com PENN STATE Parent Discount Plan lioncountrylodging.com Get 15% OFF each time you visit your student Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Get 15% OFF each time you visit your student Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Get 15% OFF each time you visit your student Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Get 15% OFF each time you visit your student Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê L L i o n C Get 15% OFF each time you visit your student Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Get 15% OFF each time you visit your student Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê L i ion n C Co un un tr try y L o d dg in in P PE EN N S TA TA TE TE Pa Pa re e n t D i is c o u un t P PE EN NN N S T Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê n g . c o m Pl Pl la n Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê Ê H O N O R R O L L BETH ALFORD-SULLIVAN CROSS COUNTRY/TRACK & FIELD Alford-Sullivan coaches six teams: men's and women's cross country as well as men's and women's indoor and outdoor track. Two of those teams – women's indoor and outdoor track – won Big Ten championships this past year, while the women's cross country squad =nished fourth. Following the outdoor season, Alford-Sullivan was named Big Ten Women's Coach of the Year. It was the second year in row she's received the honor and the =?h time overall. It came on the heels of Penn State's =?h conference title in the past seven years. TIM MURPHY SWIMMING & DIVING Murphy came to University Park last August a?er 15 seasons at Harvard, where his teams went 122-11 in dual meets and won six Eastern Intercolle- giate Swimming League titles. His =rst season at the helm of Penn State's men's and women's programs was a resound- ing success. Both teams =nished in the top =ve at Big Tens (men =?h, women third) and in the top 20 at NCAAs (men 17th, women 18th). Penn State swim- mers also shined in the classroom with 13 men and 16 women winning Academ- ic All-Big Ten recognition. RUSS ROSE WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL When it comes to this list, Rose is pretty much an automatic quali=er. His teams don't get rattled, and they usually peak at just the right time. The Nittany Lions' NCAA semi=nal match, in which they smoked Washington in three games, was a breathtaking display of mental toughness and execution. Play- ing in front of a decidedly pro-Huskies crowd in Seattle, the Lions outhit their third-ranked opponent .488 to .117 and held them to 43 points, their lowest total of the season. Two nights later, they held o> Wisconsin for the national champi- onship – their sixth overall and =?h in seven years. All of those championships have been achieved under Rose, who was named the AVCA Coach of the Year for the =?h time in his career. CAEL SANDERSON WRESTLING Speaking of automatic quali=ers… Af- ter four national championships in as many years, it's tempting to assert that Sanderson is making this look easy. But this time around, it looked pretty darn hard. Penn State needed some help from North Carolina State and Oklahoma State to hold o> Minnesota in the =nal round at NCAAs. The Nittany Lions got that help, and now Sanderson can turn his attention to an even bigger chal- lenge: trying to defend Penn State's lat- est championship next season without graduated mainstays Ed Ruth and David Taylor. JEFF ZINN MEN'S TENNIS Under Zinn, who came to Penn State in 2011 a?er 15 seasons at Wake Forest, the Nittany Lions set school records for total victories (22), Big Ten victories (eight) and victories over ranked opponents (11). Zinn's squad went 22-6 overall and ad- vanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. When the =nal ITA rank- ings were announced in late May, the Li- ons came in 24th – the =rst Top 25 =nish in the program's history. – M.H. New president seeks further sanction relief Penn State has been diligent about implementing the 119 recommenda- tions contained in the Freeh report and deserves to have its football sanc- tions again curtailed, new university president Eric Barron told the Pitts- burgh Tribune-Review last month. Barron, who took office in May, said he hopes that former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell will recommend that the NCAA reduce the penalties when he issues his annual report later this summer. Mitchell has been serving as independent athletics integrity mon- itor. "The institution has taken [the rec- ommendations] extraordinarily seri- ously," Barron told the Tribune-Re- view. "They've made enormous progress, and my personal view is they should be rewarded for taking those steps and doing it much more quickly –and much better – than I think anybody thought that they could. So I'm hopeful that the sena- tor will look at it and say, 'This is im- pressive. These folks are not messing around. They're hitting it head on.' And he will feel like I do that people who do good things should be re- warded for them." Penn State had its scholarship penalties cut last September on Mitchell's recommendation. But the Nittany Lions are still barred from postseason play for the next two sea- sons, and the school's $60 million fine remains in place, as does the for- feiture of 111 wins from 1998 to 2011. Barron said he "would never want to speak for [Mitchell]. But I will tell you my personal philosophy: Recog- nize and reward those people that do good things and work hard and take things seriously."

• Cover