'She’s a champion for women’s basketball': Clark coach Pat Glispin retires after 37 seasons

WORCESTER — Pat Glispin never — “ever,” she stressed — planned for a career in coaching. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts in 1975, she spent the next seven years perfectly content teaching physical education at Grafton High, her alma mater.

Then the illustrious Barbara Stevens, whom Glispin knew from playing in the Greenwood Park summer league, asked Glispin if she would be interested in joining her staff at Clark. Glispin spent two seasons, one at Clark and one at UMass, working with Stevens, before returning to Clark in 1984 to become the Cougars’ head coach.

“And the rest,” Glispin said, “is in the history books.”

After 37 years at Clark, where Glispin won more than 500 games, positively impacted and developed hundreds of players, and brought women’s basketball to local, regional and national prominence, Glispin, on Thursday, announced her retirement.

Her departure from the Cougars is the end of an era at Clark, in Worcester, and in college basketball.

“She was someone I wanted to play for for a long time,” said Marissa Garrity, a Clark standout from 1996-2000 and whose older sister Meegan starred for the Cougars from 1993-97. “Besides my parents, she’s probably made the most impact on my life. She’s been a great mentor and teacher and everything you would want in a coach as a young adult. She’s been awesome to have in my corner since the first day I met her.”

Glispin said she had been mulling retirement throughout this season, but didn’t make her final decision until the end of it.

During their last home game, on Feb. 19, the Cougars celebrated Senior Day.

“I felt like it was my Senior Day, too,” Glispin said. “I knew it was probably my last game in the Kneller Athletic Center if I went through with retirement. That was pretty emotional because, of course, it’s emotional anyway saying goodbye to the seniors.

“I love the game, and I love working with the young people,” Glispin said, “but the energy level required in coaching is high, and I don’t want to shortchange the game.”

The Cougars finished November on a four-game winning streak, but battled COVID and injury issues and struggled to a 1-8 record in NEWMAC games. Clark finished 8-15.

“I just realized it’s time to move on,” Glispin said. “I don’t quite have the energy at this point to rebuild the program again.”

Glispin met with this year’s team Thursday afternoon.

“I’m probably one of hundreds and hundreds of people who feel the same way,” graduate forward Hannah Favaloro of Blackstone said, “she really changed my life. She’s a coach that creates productive people to put out in the world that are going to do amazing things because of who she is as a person and the life skills she teaches you, like compassion and resilience.”

Coached memorable Cougar squads

Glispin, who accumulated 569 victories, is the winningest coach in Clark men’s or women’s basketball history. She guided the Cougars to seven NCAA Division 3 Tournament appearances, and in the magnificent 1988-89 season, the NCAA Elite Eight.

Led by greats Tara McGuire and Fanny Hector, the ’88-89 Cougars went undefeated (26-0) during the regular season. A most memorable moment for Glispin was that team’s NCAA D3 Northeast Regional final against Southern Maine at a packed Kneller Athletic Center.

“It lit up the campus in terms of excitement,” Glispin said, “and I think it had to have an impact on young women. To play in front of a standing-room-only crowd was unheard of then for a women’s basketball game. It was a tribute to the players and how exciting they were to watch.”

Clark won the game, 51-47. Glispin was the District 1 Coach of the Year.

In addition to McGuire, Hector and the Garrity sisters, Glispin also coached All-American Maria Giolas (1987).

With 2,793 points, Meegan Garrity is Clark’s all-time leading scorer. Marissa is fourth with 1,607.

“I clearly will never forget the Garrity era,” Glispin said. “It was seven years of being carried by two very good players.”

Under Glispin, Clark was the first dynasty of the NEWMAC era. The Cougars played in the first five NEWMAC Tournament championships (1996-2000). Glispin guided the Cougars to three ECAC New England Division 3 titles (1988, 1990, 1996).

“She laid the foundation and blazed a trail for women’s basketball and coaches in Central Mass. and beyond,” WPI coach Cherise Galasso said. “She was really ahead of her time and really had such a big impact.”

Galasso arrived at WPI, one of Clark’s NEWMAC foes, in 1999.

“When I came into the area and into the league,” Galasso said, “Pat was someone I looked to — ‘I want to get to her level.’ She was a fierce competitor, but so classy and such a great colleague and supporter off the court. She’s a champion for women’s basketball, and she is Clark women’s basketball. It will be so strange not to see her on the sideline coaching.”

'About the people'

Glispin was a two-time NEWMAC Coach of the Year (1997, 2004), but, for her, her career was never about personal accolades or achievements.

“It was about the people,” Glispin said, “the people that I had the chance to work with and the players, obviously. I’ve always been a person-to-person woman. That’s been my thing — a commitment to individual players and the collective team. Our NCAA runs were huge, and any time you make it into the tournament and the individual performances of some of our players to really elevate and carry us forward really stand out with me because it demonstrates how much they grew through the experience, which is really important.”

Glispin is very proud of her former players who went on to coach, including Marissa Garrity, who spent five seasons on Glispin’s staff and is now the girls’ coach at Clinton High.

“She 100% inspired me to get into coaching,” Garrity said. “The avenue is basketball, but it’s about being around people and trying to get them to use their skill sets to be the best they can be. She did that for me, and I saw her do that for others when I coached alongside her.”

This spring, Glispin is looking forward to getting her garden in order, and in the near future possibly getting back to teaching a class or two somewhere.

“I think I still have some experience and wisdom I can offer, just in a different venue,” she said.

About five years ago, Glispin had both of her hips replaced and she said she is feeling great physically.

“That’s part of why,” she said, “I think it’s time to spend time doing some other things.”

—Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTolandTG

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Popular Clark women's basketball coach Pat Glispin retires after 37 seasons