By Alex White
Executive Opinion Editor
Mira Costa government and psychology teacher Glenn Marx uses his basketball coaching experience to shed new light on the subjects he teaches.
Throughout his basketball career at North Hollywood High School, Marx was plagued with an ankle injury. Eventually, he decided the best way for him to stay involved in basketball was to become a coach.
“When I was in high school, I wanted to be involved in sports, but I also wanted to be involved in other things,” Marx said. “I liked both the athletic and intellectual side, so I went into coaching and teaching.”
Being able to simultaneously coach and teach has been a driving motivator in Marx’s career choices ever since. He started coaching at the high school level in 1978 and became the head coach at St. Bernard’s High School. In 1979 at 27, he won the South Bay Coach of the Year Award and led St. Bernard’s to the CIF semifinals.
“I went into teaching and coaching first at St. Bernard’s and went to the CIF semifinals with three different schools,” Marx said.
After his success at the high school level, Marx became a Division I coach in the NCAA at several colleges including the University of Hawaii, which was the only college he taught at due to the conflict between coaching and teaching. After his college stint, he coached at Mira Costa from 1989 to 2002 and currently still teaches.
“When I got back to Costa to teach I never stopped,” Marx said. “For about 13 years I was a coach here while teaching.”
However, Marx ended his career as Mira Costa’s boys basketball coach in 2002. He says that the recent coaching controversies involving parent complaints are similar to the reasons why he stepped down as coach.
“Some of the very kinds of issues that have occurred with coaches this year and the general issues of high school athletics made me decide that I was going to move on from coaching at Costa,” Marx said.
Marx used to scout for the Denver Nuggets and has worked directly with NBA players such as current Los Angeles Clipper Grant Hill. Most recently, Marx has coached Munich’s Academy team of the German professional league in 2012.
“The last 10 or so years I’ve been able to teach kids in this community and coach kids in kind of a different community,” Marx said. “So I get the best of both worlds.”
Marx’s passion for basketball flows into his government and psychology classes.
“Marx brings his intensity to the classroom everyday, and his coaching ability really comes through in class,” AP government student Axel Zwissler said.
Using his love for basketball, Marx relates the material back to basketball. He connects the leadership of government to leadership needed on the court and creates an environment that is similar to that of a fast-paced game of basketball.
“Marx finds ways to include all of his experiences into the classroom, which gives us a deeper understanding,” AP government student Gabby Kula said.
In any case, Marx has had great success both with his profound teaching and his coaching career.
“I’m happy with the place I am now, getting to teach at Costa and work with a variety of young athletes,” Marx said.
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