From Rude Awakening to Championship Dreams for Gators Sprinter Najee Glass
Thursday, March 12, 2015 | Track and Field, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The first light bulb moment occurred when Najee Glass was at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010.
Glass was 16 and a budding football and track star at St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City, N.J. As Glass spent time in Singapore at his first international track event, mingling with athletes from more than 200 countries, he realized which track he was going to pursue.
His days as a receiver and kickoff returner were numbered.
“Football was my heart,'' Glass said. “When I was a little kid I hated track.”
And then over the summer between his sophomore and junior years of high school, Glass finally fell in love with track far from his New Jersey home.
A 400-meter sprinter, Glass qualified for the finals at the Youth Olympic Games but finished in the lower half. Still, the trip opened his eyes to the possibilities.
Here he was in Singapore, attending the Opening Ceremony on a floating stadium on Marina Bay with the city's vibrant skyline serving as a backdrop, competing against the best athletes in the world his age.
Glass saw a new life ahead.
“That experience just blew my mind,'' he said. “It was so fun, meeting people from across the world who actually run track as well. That's when I decided, 'I want to be here, I want to run track, that's going to be my thing.' ”
Glass retired from football soon afterward and quickly elevated his status in the track world. In the summer of 2011 he ran leg on the record-setting U.S. medley team that won gold at the World Youth Championships in France.
Back home in the states, Glass won the 400 at New Balance Nationals in New York in March 2012.
As Glass blossomed as one of the country's top young sprinters, he appeared on the radar of Gators track coach Mike Holloway with the help of a friend with ties to St. Peter's Prep.
The late Bill Donnelly, a longtime friend of Holloway's and a 1954 St. Peter's Prep graduate, happened across an article on the young sprinter from his alma mater when Glass was a freshman. He passed it along to Holloway.
“This kid is going to be really good,'' Donnelly, who died in 2012, told Holloway. “You should keep an eye on him.”
The Gators did. When former UF 400-meter sprinter Erin Tucker returned to campus as an assistant coach in 2011, one of the first things he discussed with Holloway was about landing Glass.
Time passed and when it was time for Glass to choose a college, he knew UF was where he wanted to be.
“He has produced a lot of Olympians,'' Glass said of Holloway. “I want to be one of those people as well.”
Now a junior and one of the favorites to claim the 400-meter title at this weekend's NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships at the University of Arkansas, Glass had another light bulb moment in the fall.
Holloway helped turn on the light.
“Let's quit talking about your potential and let's work to your potential,'' Holloway told him.
The pupil listened.
“He had a tremendous fall and really did some great things in training,'' Holloway said. “Nobody who is out here with him every day is surprised by what he's done. We all think there are bigger things to come. The big thing for him was just trusting and believing in his fitness.
“He's been a guy to doubt himself a little in the past. He has supreme confidence right now.”
Like many young athletes making the transition from high school to college, it took Glass time to adjust to the rigors and time demands of competing at a higher level.
Everything had been easy for him back at St. Peter's, where he set a New Jersey state record for a freshman in the 400. Suddenly, each time he looked around at practice or glanced at the guy in the next lane, everyone was as fast as he was.
That realization stung Glass.
“It was a rude awakening,'' he said. “I had to take a step back and re-evaluate what I have to do better.”
Glass arrived at practice more determined to do something to improve each day. He hit the weight room with energy he didn't know he had. He studied his performances.
The results soon followed, never more than at the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships two weeks ago in Lexington, Ky.
Glass won the 400 with a time of 45.37 seconds, becoming the first UF runner since Kerron Clement 10 years ago to claim the SEC's 400 indoor title. Texas A&M's Bralon Taplin was second in 45.52, while LSU's Vernon Norwood was third in 45.68.
Earlier this week Glass could barely contain a big grin when he discussed what the victory meant to him.
“When you trust in the program, good stuff happens,'' he said. “I have found a new confidence in myself. This year I just totally believe in my abilities and everything that I can do.”
Starting in Lane 6, Glass broke to the front and led the entire race, holding off the challengers down the stretch. Holloway said Glass has matured and is beginning to understand what he is capable of doing.
Glass will face many of the same runners at the indoor nationals that he beat at the SEC Championships, including two of his teammates, Nick Uruburu and Arman Hall.
“I still have stuff to prove,'' he said. “I know I can do better.”
Nearly five years after that trip to Singapore changed the outlook on his future, Glass would like to follow in Clement's footsteps once more. Clement also won the indoor national title a decade ago.
Holloway expects Glass to be right in the hunt as the runners approach the finish line.
“He's still an infant in this sport. He's been running awhile but he wasn't taught a lot before he got here,” Holloway said. “The results are starting to show up.”
