To kick off a story for 2024 Austin College Giving Day, I’d like to introduce you to a neighbor of mine.
Meet Danny Glowacz.
Danny is the son of our good friends and next-door neighbors Luann & Mark Glowacz. Danny, who grew up with Dianne’s and my kiddos, has been shooting hoops in his driveway since as long as I can remember. He just finished his senior year playing basketball for our Bowie HS Bulldogs, who enjoyed a fine season in 2024. They made the Class 6A playoffs, falling to the #2 team in the state: the Tigers of Stony Point HS (Round Rock, TX).
Stony Point has one of the best players in the state. Power forward Josiah Moseley, a candidate for 2024 Mr. Texas Basketball, was recently named a finalist for the McDonald’s All-American team. Moseley has committed to college basketball powerhouse Villanova, your national champions in 2016. Most of us old timers fondly remember Villanova’s other national title with Rollie Massimino in 1985.
Stony Point also has one of the best up-and-coming coaches in the state. At just 33 years of age, Antoine Thompson has turned the Tigers into a basketball power. After a high school playing career in the Austin area, Thompson took his basketball skills in 2010 to little Austin College in Sherman, TX. There, he earned 1st team All-Conference honors in 2011. After his playing days in Sherman, Thompson returned home to coach in the Austin area.
The Austin area knows Coach Celester Collier very well. Collier was Head Coach of our Bowie Bulldogs for 31 years until his retirement in in 2022; one of Collier’s first assistant coaches at Bowie was Rodney Terry, the current Head Coach of the Texas Longhorns. One of Collier’s last Bowie players was our next-door neighbor Danny Glowacz.
Collier was a role model for Texans of color determined to enter the coaching ranks in the Austin area. From the Austin American-Statesman: “Collier became one of the few minority head coaches in the area in the early 1990s and spent decades ‘leading by example’ while watching the number of Black coaches increase along with Austin’s population.”
Kangaroo Antoine Thompson, who competed with and against Collier’s son before his days at AC, counts Collier among his idols. From the Statesman: “It’s a privilege to carry on the legacy of coaches such as Celester Collier of Bowie. Seeing the transformation in Austin of having Black coaches in leadership roles is monumental. We have to keep moving it forward and creating legacies.”
Thompson and Stony Point are certainly moving it forward. The #2-ranked Tigers (37-1) captured the Region IV crown on Saturday, advancing to the State Tournament in the Alamodome for the first time in school history. Also advancing to the State Tournament is the #1-ranked team in the state, the undefeated Plano East Panthers (38-0). The Panthers handed the Tigers their only loss earlier this season; a rematch for a state title would be an epic clash. And I’m not the only one interested.
Former Roo basketballer Dr. Kola Alade (AC ’10), who earned All-Conference honors for Austin College, arrived in Sherman as an All-District player from Plano East HS. A psychologist who recently returned to AC as a Cunningham Lecture speaker, Alade chatted with me about Thompson: “I’ve definitely been following [Plano East] this year. I’ve also been keeping up with Antoine’s squad and I’m extremely proud of what he has built at Stony Point. A rematch in the state title game would be great.”
AC Athletic Director David Norman has been following Coach Thompson closely as well. Norman mentioned to me how inspired he was by the “fundamental transformation Coach Thompson has overseen at Stony Point HS, and the impact he has had on the lives of his kids through his ‘coaching is my ministry’ philosophy.”
Last month, I made sure to attend the first-round playoff game between our Bowie Bulldogs and Thompson’s Stony Point Tigers in Austin. I chatted with Luann & Mark about Danny’s final year, noting how special it was to make the playoffs and end a career against a potential state champion with a top player in the state. “Danny will be talking about this game for the next fifty years,“ I told them.
I then left Luann & Mark to take some pictures. One of my favorites shows Danny guarding McDonald’s All-American Josiah Moseley, who may one day add his name to the legends of Villanova basketball. Another came late in the game. With the outcome decided, senior Danny Glowacz was applauded as he was taken out of the game one final time. Danny’s last act on a basketball court was a walk to the opposing bench to shake hands with Coach Antoine Thompson.
It’s AC Giving Day 2024. AC has given me a lot over the years, and this year of Texas HS basketball is yet another example. If you enjoyed reading this Roo Tale about Antoine Thompson, Stony Point, and my neighbor Danny, then perhaps you’ll consider tossing AC a dime? Contributing any amount, no matter how small, is helpful for other AC fundraising. See the link in the comments for more. Thank you in advance, Go Roos, and good luck to Coach Thompson in San Antonio as Stony Point goes for the title.
And Danny Glowacz? Heckuva season my man. Thanks for the ride.
