Glenn battles adversity to win Bryant-Jordan award

Published 4:37 pm Monday, May 7, 2018

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Noah Glenn hard work both in the classroom and on the playing field earned him the honor of being named a 2018 recipient of the Bryant-Jordan scholar award.

The Jemison High School senior was selected as the recipient in Region 3-5A.

He played varsity football for the Panthers for four years while maintaining a 4.31 GPA and scoring a 30 on the ACT.

Glenn had been made aware of the scholarship the day before the deadline ended. He filled out the application that night and found out about a month later that he had been chosen.

“I was excited about it,” Glenn said.

The award included a $2,500 scholarship.

Getting to this point was not easy for Glenn, who had to endure a couple of obstacles along the way during his high school career.

He tore his ACL during his freshman and junior seasons.

“That knee stuff was rough,” Glenn said.

As time has passed Glenn has learned to look back and search for the positives that resulted from an otherwise adverse situation.

“I look back on the first time and I think that it was really a good thing, because I used to weigh 300 pounds,” Glenn said. “I lost 60 pounds since.”

Despite a pair of ACL injuries Glenn, the only games Glenn missed in his career were three games at the end of his freshman season.

The second torn ACL occurred during spring practice in April as a junior. However, Glenn was determined to not let an injury define his senior year.

The rehab process took four months and he was able to play every game during his final season.

“You have to have a drive for it,” Glenn said. “I just played one sport, but it still takes a certain work ethic.”

Coming home from practice around 7 p.m. and still having to do homework became a normal way of life during football season, but something that Glenn learned to balance fairly easily.

“Noah doesn’t really complain about anything,” said Denise Glenn, Noah’s mother. “He just goes with the flow.”

Glenn will be attending Samford University with a focus on a career in nursing.

“I like anatomy or anything to do with the body and how humans work,” Glenn said.

According to Glenn, what he will miss most about high school is his friends and the feeling of running out onto the field on Friday nights during football season.

Some of Glenn’s other high school achievements and clubs include Boys State representative, National Beta Club induction, multiple The Clanton Advertiser all-area football team selections, as well as being a member of the FCCLA and yearbook staff.