Army West Point Athletics
MISSION FIRST: Setting The Bar High
November 22, 2016 | General, Men's Gymnastics
With his collegiate gymnastics career having recently come to a close, Jesse Glenn sits on the top floor of the Gross Center, overlooking mats, bars and a foam pit below.
He sits at a table that holds the Nissen-Emery Award that he received in April at the College Gymnastics Association (CGA) Awards Banquet. The prestigious award is presented annually to the nation's top senior gymnast.
His gymnastics career is still too recent to truly reflect on, but it's easy to see how much it means to him.
"Looking back on it, you want to point out one instance that was great or one that was terrible, but there's been so much that I almost can't look back," Glenn says. "I love it, it was hard and I'm grateful that I made it through and had such great experiences with the people I met here and competed with."
Glenn's decision to attend West Point was one that happened suddenly. He came to the Academy for his brother's "R-Day" during the summer of 2011 and was soon able to picture himself fitting in with the order and discipline for which the school is known.
His brother, Josh, was a year older and wanted to come to West Point, but Jesse, despite the admiration and respect for the institution, initially didn't know if it was the right place for him.
"I thought it was cool and I admired everything they did, but I thought, 'It's not for me,'" Jesse says.
It was after meeting with the members of Army's coaching staff and really being exposed to what the school had to offer that Glenn was able to get a sense of what he would be getting himself into at West Point.
"I had been changing my decisions a little bit for where I wanted to go to college because academics were a really big consideration," Glenn remembers. "I just realized that it was the best place for me. It may not be the easiest and I knew it was going to be hard, but I knew I wanted to push myself and see what I could do."
Glenn grew up in a family of gymnasts, with his older brother and three younger sisters all participating.
The five kids attended practices together and often took those practice sessions home, where they worked on handstands and a series of other training routines.
"It's part of who we are as a family and it was cool to have that in common with your brother and sisters," Glenn says. "It wasn't super serious at first, but there was always a conflict, because someone was always taking up the room and trying to pull their stuff out and practice. People were on the couch trying to watch TV and the girls were doing their thing on the beam right in front of the TV. It was hilarious."
By the time he was considering colleges, Glenn knew competing in gymnastics was something he wanted to do, but that wasn't always the case.
Glenn remembers wanting to quit the sport early on, but stayed with it on insistence from his parents. He stuck with the sport long enough to join USA Gymnastics' Future Stars program as a 10-year-old, where he practiced technique and saw a dramatic spike in his ability level.
"After Future Stars, I started getting a lot better," Glenn recalls. "When I was 12 or 13, I made the Junior National Team and I got to compete with all of the big guys and see them compete and that really motivated me. That's when I knew I wanted to go far."
Glenn competed with the Junior National Team for six years and experienced a multitude of highlights, including an appearance at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and winning a gold medal on high bar at the 2011 Men's Junior Olympic National Championships in Long Beach, Calif.
It was that level of stardom that put Glenn on the radar of Army head coach Doug Van Everen, and countless others from around the nation.
Van Everen recalls noticing Glenn by the time he was in eighth grade as part of the Junior National Team, but knew his staff wasn't the only one aware of Glenn's talent and future potential.
"I wasn't really thinking we had a great opportunity to even get him honestly, because by the time he was a junior, he had all of these scholarship offers," Van Everen remembers. "After he came here with his brother, he ended up seeing what West Point was about and the type of people that were here and that was really the big selling point. He got his application done and started telling everybody he was going to West Point, so we thought, 'Maybe he IS coming.'"
Glenn did make the decision to attend the Academy and experienced a strong start in his initial competitions as an Army gymnast, with individual victories in the team's first dual meets of the 2013 campaign. He finished first in the all-around competition during a season-opening setback at fourth-ranked Penn State before tacking on first-place finishes in all-around and high bar disciplines in a loss at Air Force.
He also found an enjoyment in being on a team and embraced the experiences that came with being part of a college program.
"I had competed at international competitions, but I think the whole college experience was so much different," Glenn shares. "When you come here, it becomes more of a team sport. Everyone gets really into it and they're not afraid to get pumped up. There was some of that before, but I think it went to another level when I got here."
He added a third consecutive win in all-around at the West Point Open and became the first Army gymnast to earn an all-around title in the history of the event, which started in 1991.
Glenn posted top finishes in all-around and floor exercise in meets against Navy and William & Mary before suffering a wrist injury away from competition that forced him to sit out the remainder of his freshman season.
He rehabbed in the offseason and returned for his sophomore year, but despite his run of success as a freshman, there were times that he struggled with balancing all of the Academy's demands.
"He was just incredible, it was easy to see that right away," Van Everen remembers. "But one of the things that kind of slowed him down a little bit was that he was driven to excel at everything. He doesn't do anything halfway. He would empty his tank on academics and then he would empty his tank when he went to practice. One of the challenges at West Point, no matter what sport you're in, is to try to find that balance. He was such a driven kid that it was just go, go, go."
As is the case with many cadets, the balance eventually became easier for Glenn, as he went on to reach new heights as an athlete and complete his four years with a 3.450 grade-point average as an Engineering Management major.
Glenn helped lead the Black Knights to four straight victories midway through the 2014 season before earning all-around and high bar titles at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships for the first of his nine career individual conference championships. His performances helped him qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time.
While Glenn's gymnastics success continued through his sophomore campaign, it was a moment outside of the gym when he really was able to stop and reflect on his experience at West Point so far.
"I was walking down from the gym and thinking to myself, 'Man this is rough,'" Glenn recalls. "It was a bad day for us, but I realized how much it pushed me and how much I had grown in the year-and-a-half that I'd been here. I don't think anything could replace that and I realized that this was the best place for me. Maybe I would have had an easier life somewhere else, but I knew I was at the right place."
His decision to come to West Point was further solidified at the end of his junior season, as he garnered ECAC individual titles in all-around, high bar, vault and parallel bars to help send his team to its first ECAC championship since 2005.
"That was one of the best moments ever and something we've been chasing for a long time," Glenn says. "Winning as an individual is cool, you get rewarded for working hard, but it's not as fulfilling. You won, but you're up there by yourself. When you win as a team, it's almost more real."
The ECAC championship provided Army an automatic qualification to the NCAA Championships in Norman, Okla., where Glenn advanced to the individual finals on high bar.
As a senior, Glenn and the Black Knights competed to a tie with Navy atop the leaderboard at the ECAC Championships, but Navy earned the coveted bid to the NCAAs due to producing a higher road score during the season.
Despite not advancing to the NCAAs as a team, Glenn qualified for the national tournament for the third time in his career and took home individual titles in all-around, floor exercise and high bar at the ECACs.
Glenn went with nine teammates to the 2016 NCAAs in Columbus, Ohio, as an individual competitor, and while he didn't bring back NCAA hardware, he was presented with the Nissen-Emery Award as the nation's best senior gymnast, becoming the first gymnast in Academy history to earn the award.
"It was pretty special to get the award," Glenn says. "So many people helped me get where I am and I feel like it's a representation of our team more than me. I was sitting there with the team taking a picture with the award and I was like, 'This is our award, we did it and we put our name on the map.'"
Along with helping put Army Gymnastics on the map, Glenn kept himself in the national conversation throughout his career, finishing in the top 10 for all-around and high bar as both a sophomore and junior before ending his senior season ranked first in high bar with an average score of 14.925.
Glenn finished out his college experience by earning the Army Athletic Association Award, presented annually to the top male and female cadet-athletes over a career and regarded as West Point's highest athletic honor.
"I struggled with what I was going to think when I was done because I've been doing this sport for my whole life," Glenn says. "I was trying to enjoy it as much as I can and make it a good experience for everyone and help them love the sport and enjoy that team experience.
"If I can leave and everyone's enjoying the sport and remembers why they're doing this sport, that makes me happier than winning any award."
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He sits at a table that holds the Nissen-Emery Award that he received in April at the College Gymnastics Association (CGA) Awards Banquet. The prestigious award is presented annually to the nation's top senior gymnast.
His gymnastics career is still too recent to truly reflect on, but it's easy to see how much it means to him.
"Looking back on it, you want to point out one instance that was great or one that was terrible, but there's been so much that I almost can't look back," Glenn says. "I love it, it was hard and I'm grateful that I made it through and had such great experiences with the people I met here and competed with."
Glenn's decision to attend West Point was one that happened suddenly. He came to the Academy for his brother's "R-Day" during the summer of 2011 and was soon able to picture himself fitting in with the order and discipline for which the school is known.
His brother, Josh, was a year older and wanted to come to West Point, but Jesse, despite the admiration and respect for the institution, initially didn't know if it was the right place for him.
"I thought it was cool and I admired everything they did, but I thought, 'It's not for me,'" Jesse says.
It was after meeting with the members of Army's coaching staff and really being exposed to what the school had to offer that Glenn was able to get a sense of what he would be getting himself into at West Point.
"I had been changing my decisions a little bit for where I wanted to go to college because academics were a really big consideration," Glenn remembers. "I just realized that it was the best place for me. It may not be the easiest and I knew it was going to be hard, but I knew I wanted to push myself and see what I could do."
Glenn grew up in a family of gymnasts, with his older brother and three younger sisters all participating.
The five kids attended practices together and often took those practice sessions home, where they worked on handstands and a series of other training routines.
"It's part of who we are as a family and it was cool to have that in common with your brother and sisters," Glenn says. "It wasn't super serious at first, but there was always a conflict, because someone was always taking up the room and trying to pull their stuff out and practice. People were on the couch trying to watch TV and the girls were doing their thing on the beam right in front of the TV. It was hilarious."
By the time he was considering colleges, Glenn knew competing in gymnastics was something he wanted to do, but that wasn't always the case.
Glenn remembers wanting to quit the sport early on, but stayed with it on insistence from his parents. He stuck with the sport long enough to join USA Gymnastics' Future Stars program as a 10-year-old, where he practiced technique and saw a dramatic spike in his ability level.
"After Future Stars, I started getting a lot better," Glenn recalls. "When I was 12 or 13, I made the Junior National Team and I got to compete with all of the big guys and see them compete and that really motivated me. That's when I knew I wanted to go far."
Glenn competed with the Junior National Team for six years and experienced a multitude of highlights, including an appearance at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and winning a gold medal on high bar at the 2011 Men's Junior Olympic National Championships in Long Beach, Calif.
It was that level of stardom that put Glenn on the radar of Army head coach Doug Van Everen, and countless others from around the nation.
Van Everen recalls noticing Glenn by the time he was in eighth grade as part of the Junior National Team, but knew his staff wasn't the only one aware of Glenn's talent and future potential.
"I wasn't really thinking we had a great opportunity to even get him honestly, because by the time he was a junior, he had all of these scholarship offers," Van Everen remembers. "After he came here with his brother, he ended up seeing what West Point was about and the type of people that were here and that was really the big selling point. He got his application done and started telling everybody he was going to West Point, so we thought, 'Maybe he IS coming.'"
Glenn did make the decision to attend the Academy and experienced a strong start in his initial competitions as an Army gymnast, with individual victories in the team's first dual meets of the 2013 campaign. He finished first in the all-around competition during a season-opening setback at fourth-ranked Penn State before tacking on first-place finishes in all-around and high bar disciplines in a loss at Air Force.
He also found an enjoyment in being on a team and embraced the experiences that came with being part of a college program.
"I had competed at international competitions, but I think the whole college experience was so much different," Glenn shares. "When you come here, it becomes more of a team sport. Everyone gets really into it and they're not afraid to get pumped up. There was some of that before, but I think it went to another level when I got here."
He added a third consecutive win in all-around at the West Point Open and became the first Army gymnast to earn an all-around title in the history of the event, which started in 1991.
Glenn posted top finishes in all-around and floor exercise in meets against Navy and William & Mary before suffering a wrist injury away from competition that forced him to sit out the remainder of his freshman season.
He rehabbed in the offseason and returned for his sophomore year, but despite his run of success as a freshman, there were times that he struggled with balancing all of the Academy's demands.
"He was just incredible, it was easy to see that right away," Van Everen remembers. "But one of the things that kind of slowed him down a little bit was that he was driven to excel at everything. He doesn't do anything halfway. He would empty his tank on academics and then he would empty his tank when he went to practice. One of the challenges at West Point, no matter what sport you're in, is to try to find that balance. He was such a driven kid that it was just go, go, go."
As is the case with many cadets, the balance eventually became easier for Glenn, as he went on to reach new heights as an athlete and complete his four years with a 3.450 grade-point average as an Engineering Management major.
Glenn helped lead the Black Knights to four straight victories midway through the 2014 season before earning all-around and high bar titles at the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championships for the first of his nine career individual conference championships. His performances helped him qualify for the NCAA Championships for the first time.
While Glenn's gymnastics success continued through his sophomore campaign, it was a moment outside of the gym when he really was able to stop and reflect on his experience at West Point so far.
"I was walking down from the gym and thinking to myself, 'Man this is rough,'" Glenn recalls. "It was a bad day for us, but I realized how much it pushed me and how much I had grown in the year-and-a-half that I'd been here. I don't think anything could replace that and I realized that this was the best place for me. Maybe I would have had an easier life somewhere else, but I knew I was at the right place."
His decision to come to West Point was further solidified at the end of his junior season, as he garnered ECAC individual titles in all-around, high bar, vault and parallel bars to help send his team to its first ECAC championship since 2005.
"That was one of the best moments ever and something we've been chasing for a long time," Glenn says. "Winning as an individual is cool, you get rewarded for working hard, but it's not as fulfilling. You won, but you're up there by yourself. When you win as a team, it's almost more real."
The ECAC championship provided Army an automatic qualification to the NCAA Championships in Norman, Okla., where Glenn advanced to the individual finals on high bar.
As a senior, Glenn and the Black Knights competed to a tie with Navy atop the leaderboard at the ECAC Championships, but Navy earned the coveted bid to the NCAAs due to producing a higher road score during the season.
Despite not advancing to the NCAAs as a team, Glenn qualified for the national tournament for the third time in his career and took home individual titles in all-around, floor exercise and high bar at the ECACs.
Glenn went with nine teammates to the 2016 NCAAs in Columbus, Ohio, as an individual competitor, and while he didn't bring back NCAA hardware, he was presented with the Nissen-Emery Award as the nation's best senior gymnast, becoming the first gymnast in Academy history to earn the award.
"It was pretty special to get the award," Glenn says. "So many people helped me get where I am and I feel like it's a representation of our team more than me. I was sitting there with the team taking a picture with the award and I was like, 'This is our award, we did it and we put our name on the map.'"
Along with helping put Army Gymnastics on the map, Glenn kept himself in the national conversation throughout his career, finishing in the top 10 for all-around and high bar as both a sophomore and junior before ending his senior season ranked first in high bar with an average score of 14.925.
Glenn finished out his college experience by earning the Army Athletic Association Award, presented annually to the top male and female cadet-athletes over a career and regarded as West Point's highest athletic honor.
"I struggled with what I was going to think when I was done because I've been doing this sport for my whole life," Glenn says. "I was trying to enjoy it as much as I can and make it a good experience for everyone and help them love the sport and enjoy that team experience.
"If I can leave and everyone's enjoying the sport and remembers why they're doing this sport, that makes me happier than winning any award."
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