“My favorite thing about coaching, teaching, and S.A.L.T Club is building relationships with athletes and students in the school,” business teacher and Girls Basketball Head Coach Shelby Gliebe said.
From teacher to coach to S.A.L.T Club leader, few Bulldogs come to be more involved than teacher Mrs. Gliebe.
Starting at a young age Mrs. Gliebe got into basketball and hasn’t stopped loving it since.
“My whole family played, and my uncle was the basketball coach at my high school, so I grew up being around the gym and so I felt it was something I should do so I started playing,” Gliebe said.
Gliebe grew up playing basketball close to the area.
“I was a point guard and a shooting guard,” Gliebe said. “I went to South Central High School.”
Gliebe moved on to the next chapter of her life which also involved basketball.
“I played basketball in college at Maryville University in Saint Louis,” Gliebe said.
While attending college, Gliebe did some things on the side with the idea of possibly coaching later on.
“I did some skill development stuff at the Larry Hughes Basketball Academy while I was out there,” Gliebe said.
“I always thought I wanted to be a coach but I didn’t know how to go about it because at the time; I didn’t plan on being a teacher,” Gliebe said.
Now, Gliebe has been coaching for six years and has learned a lot.
“I’ve grown up into an adult as a coach, it teaches you all around about time management, communication, and all those things,” Gliebe said.
Before NAHS, Gliebe had a short stop at another Clarksville High Schoo where she taught and coached.
“At New Albany you have a bigger school, so you have more girls with all the youth kids. The amount of feeder programs and stuff that we have here at New Albany helps your program,” Gliebe said.
When coaching, Gliebe says she has to treat players from each grade differently.
“As kids come in from eighth grade there is a learning curve there, just with the pace of play and expectations character wise, and team rules, and those types of things as its just totally different,” Gliebe said. “ And you also have fourteen year olds playing with almost grown women so you just have to handle each kid differently.”
This year Gliebe is at the helm of coaching a younger team.
“Its fun and they are obviously very talented, but it does bring about challenges,” Gliebe said.
In games she says she is trying to coach them through mistakes and things that are happening live, because you don’t see a lot of the things happening in practice.
For the team this year Gliebe marks a few key things for their success.
“Definitely communication is big; as well as trust and loyalty with commitment to the team,” Gliebe said.
Gliebe is also a mom to a toddler. She says there is a crossover between being a mom and a coach.
“Especially now, from being a mom, you realize you are dealing with other people’s kids, so it changes your perspective, as you know they are trusting you to take care of their kid,” Gliebe said. “As well as being more empathetic with them and just learning how to motivate and challenge different personalties on the team here.”
“Being a coach you are dealing with kind of like the mom of 16 kids during the day so learning how to take care of them helps with being a mom,” Gliebe said.
For Gliebe, every day she must balance teaching, coaching, S.A.L.T. (Student Athlete Leadership Team) Club and motherhood.
“It’s a lot, I make a lot of lists and do a lot of tasks lists, “ Gliebe said. “This is my first season as a mom so I’m just kind of navigating and learning as I go.”
Gliebe has had many experiences that have led her to this point.
“I started coaching as an assistant at Lanesville when I first moved back to Indiana,” Gliebe said.
“Then when the Clarksville job opened it was kind of like a situation where they wanted me in the building, so I started teaching because of coaching,” Gliebe said.
Beyond coaching, Gliebe has been making a difference at the school with students of all walks of life.
“I wanted to do a S.A.L.T Club a few years ago when I saw that another school had done it,” Gliebe said. “Then last year Mr. Roberson took it over and then he came to me this year and asked if I would be the female person since there were males and females apart of the program, I was super pumped and honored to be able to lead it.”
To be apart of the S.A.L.T Club marks an honor for each student involved.
“There was an application process, we checked grades, attendance, and checked in with coaches, and then went from there based on if they were going to be committed to the things we do,” Gliebe said.
“We do a lot of things outside of school too, so making sure kids were committed and bought into what we were trying to do this year was important,” Gliebe said.
Alongside boosting the moral in general, the S.A.L.T Club has its eyes set on accomplishing something awesome.
“We are trying to get the ‘Champions Together Banner,’ which means that we are trying to bridge the gap between our students with intellectual disabilities with our students that don’t have intellectual disabilities and trying to bridge that gap and include them in activities,” Gliebe said.
Gliebe has had a lot of great moments, but she says one stands out the most.
“Definitely when we gave the letterman jackets to our Unified Track athletes at the assembly,” Gliebe said. “The S.A.L.T. students actually brought it to my attention that they had never really gotten anything for unified track. From being in different cages and storage rooms, I saw there was boxes of unused letterman jackets and I asked [Athletic Director] Mr. Garmon if we could use those for that purpose and he was all for it.”
Mrs. Gliebe says the hours she dedicates to students and players has been worth it.
“I definitely really enjoy leading the S.A.L.T Club and would like to maybe even get more involved with other groups in the school, and try and get more students and athletes involved just so that we can create a better culture at New Albany,” Gliebe said. “As well as some pride, not only athletics but our school as well.”
