The future of CHS football is looking better than ever. Head coach Ron Gladnick, a former NFL lineman and his staff are doing a complete makeover of the once anemic program. It is a humongous undertaking. They’ve installed a new $60,000 state-of-the-art weight room, are planning a team trip to Hawaii, hired 15 coaches and have over 90 athletes — the most ever in CHS history. Coach Gladnick is leading the Chieftain tribe on a path toward renovation that he hopes will make the team contenders for years to come.
With the recent addition of a new weight room from private donations from the community and Gladnick himself, the football team is hoping to have the best conditioned team in the county.
The coaching staff also has high hopes of attracting 90 athletes to the football program and eventually having twenty percent of the boys on campus participate.
Gladnick is also looking to establish in the near future a Pop Warner football program strictly for the kids of Clairemont community.
Gladnick adds, “One of the goals that we have for the program is we want kids who are supposed to come to Clairemont, to come to Clairemont. There are kids who are playing at Madison and University City High who live in our school zone. The goal is to create an environment and program where parents send their kids to their neighborhood school because the program there is as competitive as any other school in the city.”
Coach Gladnick is uniquely suited to his role as general manager, coach and “chief” motivator. He coached high school and college football in Michigan and Ohio. And most recently, before coming to Clairemont, Gladnick was a defensive line coach at Torrey Pines High for five years.
The game of football has been a big part of Gladnick’s life: he played high school football in Long Island, New York and at the collegiate level, for four years at Hillsdale College in Michigan (1979-1982) where he was a powerful defensive lineman. He made First-Team All American in 1982, and First-Team All- GLIAC (Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) three times. After having great success at the college level, Gladnick played for the NFL Cleveland Browns for a short time before suffering a knee injury that ended his NFL career.
Moving on from his playing days, Gladnick started coaching at the college level in the mid-80’s. He then quit coaching, for 20 years to go into business. He worked for Proctor and Gamble a huge multinational firm, then left to build a multi-million dollar aviation supply business. He sold his company in 2008 to focus on his first love — coaching football.
Clearly the man is a mover and shaker and is uniquely suited to rebuilding Clairemont’s program.
The 2012 football season was Gladnick’s first year as head coach here at Clairemont. The team finished the season with 5-5 record. It was the start of a massive rebuilding effort for the football program; one he hopes will turn it into a winner.
So, why does a successful businessman devote himself and his energy to a struggling high school football program?
“I wanted a challenge. I’ve really enjoyed my time here, because the kids have been so great to work with,” says Gladnick.
Gladnick is currently trying to find the funding to eventually lead the team on an annual or every other year team trip to Hawaii by the 2014 season.
Athletic director Gerry Knuppel is enthused about Gladnicks’ arrival. “Coach Gladnick is very enthusiastic about participating here at Clairemont High School. He is dedicated to making sure the students are not only good athletes but great student athletes, and making sure that school, work and family is first and athletics is second. His focus is on helping the young athletes to be able to collaborate and to have good time management skills to all fit in their lives. We hope to see great success in not only our football program but all athletic programs in the future with the addition to the weight room facility,” says Knuppel.
The football program now has 15 coaches the most ever who look to make the Chieftain football team a top competitor in the city.
“Our goals are to become the finest football team that we are capable of becoming. We believe if we control our off-season workouts, our in-season workouts and our summer program and do it enthusiastically and with hard work, good things will happen for our team, and that’s what we are focused on for the future,” says Gladnick.
The future looks very bright for Clairemont, as the coaching staff looks to rebuild and achieve the goals to make the football program a county wide contender and eventually bringing a new meaning of “Friday Night Lights” to the Clairemont Community.
