By: Trent Strafaci
William Glesge, sophomore exercise science major from North Port, Florida, competes as a thrower on the men’s track and field team. Glesge brings a lot of great experience to NSU. He threw the discus and the shot put for four years at North Port High School and was a district and regional champion in 2014 and 2015, respectively. He holds North Port’s all-time discus record at 162 feet and 8 inches. As a freshman in 2016, Glesge competed in all four throwing events for NSU and was named Peach Belt Conference Field Freshman of the Year. He finished fourth in the shot put with his best throw at 13.01 meters and third place in the discus at 41.55 meters.
When did you start track and field?
“I was just turning 12 years old when I started. So around 8 years ago when I was just going into seventh grade.”
What is your biggest accomplishment in track and field?
“Well it has to be, for me, probably competing for arguably one of the best teams in the state of Florida with some of the best athletes around. The other accomplishment has to be me coming from nothing growing up and becoming a college athlete because not a lot of people get to experience being an athlete in college. I like to stay humble with the whole thing.”
What is the biggest challenge of being a student athlete?
“Time management is the thing that is challenging because we [have] 6 a.m. practices, going to class, schoolwork and preparing for competitions. These are some of the challenges we sign up for as college athletes and we know it is going to make us better in our future endeavors.”
What would you like to tell people who think track and field is only about running?
“In high school a lot of kids who ran track would see a lot of us… throwing and jumping and they would joke around and say it looked easy. Some of my teammates would try it for the first time and say it is a lot harder then it looks. I love throwing and there is much that goes into throwing that people don’t understand because you have to be aware of yourself in space, and a lot of hand-eye coordination goes into it.”
Is there any athlete you look up to?
“There are a lot great throwers I look up to and base my technique off of, but my favorite has to be the Harding brothers from Germany. [They] are some of the best discus throwers in the world.”
What do you plan on doing after your time is up at NSU?
“I plan on enlisting in the Marine Corps because it has always been a goal for me [since] I was younger.”
Credited by Darren Hendricks
Caption: Glesge was named Peach Belt Conference Field Freshman of the Year in 2016.
