by Michael D. Gunnell
Southwest Sports Information
The Baylor University Lady Bears softball team recently completed a season that most teams would love to have. They ended the year with a 49-16 record and made it to the NCAA Women's World Series before falling to eventual champion Florida in the semi-finals.
Leading the way for the Lady Bears was 14th-year head coach Glenn Moore, a native of Liberty, MS, and a member of the Southwest Sports Hall of Fame. Moore took time recently discuss his team's success and his own personal success as a head coach.
Asked to summarize the 2014 season, Moore said "Each year I set goals according to the talent I feel I have. I try to evaluate where we are at the start and determine where I feel we are capable of going. I felt I would have my second most talented team ever, but one that would need refining and molding into a great team."
Moore said the team discussed in the fall the qualities of the team they wanted to be and what they would need to do to become that team. "I felt this team could reach the World Series if tested and tried through a very difficult schedule," Moore said. "I honestly prayed for a difficult journey and that we would be tested."
But, Moore said he learned to "be careful what you pray for." Fighting through travel issues, injuries and a "very, very tough schedule", the Lady Bears were awarded a host site for the first round of the NCAA regionals "only to find that we had to beat possibly the best pitcher in the nation (from the University of Tulsa)-twice! We did that and what was our reward?"
The team was then forced to fly to Athens, GA, to face 4th-ranked and SEC champion Georgia in the Super Regional on their home field for a chance to make it to the World Series (Baylor defeated Georgia in 2011 to reach the World Series). Baylor beat Georgia in two games and "that was the road to Oklahoma City (site of the World Series). "But, we made it," Moore said. "Like I said, be careful what you ask God for."
Despite falling short of a national title, Moore said he still considered the season a success. "I have never allowed my record to define a season's success. We have been blessed by Almighty God to use a sport-yes, a sport-a game, to glorify Him and further his Kingdom."
"I coach to win the race in the profession I've been called to," Moore continued, "and I want to win! Christ has won the greatest battle already. He overcame death! His example is my motivation in competition but also my motivation to win the souls of those entrusted to me. This season was a success on the field and in the classroom, but also in the hearts and souls of the athletes and campers who visited us and, hopefully, many others watching."
Moore said the highlight of the season for him was being a part of "the greatest comeback in World Series history. We were down 7-0 in the sixth inning (to Kentucky) and rallied for three, then tied it with four in the seventh" before getting the win on a walk-off bunt in the eighth "in front of 9, 300 fans (a record crowd) and a prime-time ESPN audience."
During the regionals, Moore picked up his 700th win as a head coach. He now has 705 wins overall with 566 coming at Baylor and has never experienced a losing season (he spent one year at William Carey and two at LSU before moving to Baylor in 2000). To what does he contribute his success through the years?
"It's not me," he said. "I have stolen everything I do from someone else. I was taught sports initially from my father and older brothers. I learned to be competitive and aggressive if I wanted even a piece of chicken and I learned to get beat up, but to fight back. I never was taught to like or accept getting beat and I still don't."
"I have failed," Moore went on, "but, I've learned many valuable lessons through failure. I have watched others do it right and wrong and learned from both. If I have a quality, I believe it is common sense or possibly a very low fear of failure; common sense in the fact that I learn quickly from mistakes and rarely duplicate them. My lack of fear of failure comes, without a doubt, from my prayer life and the confidence I have in that power."
Moore also contributes his success to having a quality staff. "I have 12 staff members working either directly or indirectly with my program who are supposed to answer to me," Moore said. "And, then there's my wife, Janice, who runs our 5 plus camps-she never answers to me" he laughingly said. "They take ownership in our program. It's all of these things that have led to the success I get the credit for."
As stated earlier, Moore is a native of Liberty, MS (a small town in the southwest portion of the state). What is it like for him to find himself now enjoying success on a national stage and to reach this point in his life?
"I love where I'm from and want people to know it," he said. "What success I've had is a credit to southwest Mississippi, my family, ASC (his high school, Amite School Center), SMCC, and Hebron Baptist Church, for raising me with all the tools I needed. I love southwest Mississippi and my home town of Liberty and I can promise you that no other coach has more support from his or her home area than I do."
Moore said he is "amazed at the outpouring of support. Sometimes I think 'I'm just a softball coach', but I hope that my home community knows what it means to hear from them and that I truly want to make them cheer and smile when we are successful. Mississippi is not an afterthought. Mississippi motivates me and I know who raised me."
Moore said it has been "busy, but exciting" reaching this stage of his life and career. "I used to think I never wanted to coach on this level because I wanted to be a family man. I want to be with my family all the time. Fortunately, my profession has taken me all over the world through recruiting, playing, coaching and missions and I've been able to have my family join me most of the time. We live a bit of a country life on a small lake with small acreage to play on. A few chickens are included in the zoo my daughter Jacey maintains" which includes, Moore said, "squirrels, turtles, dogs, cats, ducks, a bird and rabbits."
With his team's season now at an end, what is on the agenda for the always-busy Moore? "No rest for the weary," he said. "We have to capitalize on a great season. My whole staff will be out recruiting and we are starting two weeks of camps (the week of June 9)."
"Camps are draining," he said, "but, they are our opportunity to affect lives eternally. That's motivating and we are very serious about this mission field. We will recruit all summer with a week of vacation somewhere. Summer and fall are the heavy recruiting periods and that's the lifeline of a program."
