At six years old, DHS senior Glenn Scurlock began playing baseball. It didn’t take long for him to realize how good he was. Now, after years of playing, Scurlock is heading to a two year Junior College (JUCO) program named Bryant & Stratton College in Solon, Ohio. It hasn’t always been easy, but Scurlock makes it look like it is. Being black can bring issues in all aspects of life unfortunately, but Scurlock maintains a positive outlook.
“I’ve gotten several amounts of recognition from playing baseball,” Scurlock said. “Nothing on a national scale yet but statewide, yes.”
With the journey that Glenn came across to land a scholarship, along with its recognition, he also went through many cases of discrimination from people during multiple games.
“I’ve faced racism multiple times in the game of baseball,” Scurlock said. “From all the times I can remember, I just smiled and let it go because I believe even though the words were said because of my skin color, that’s not what aggravated the aggressor. It was because of how good I played, so I took it as a compliment and decided to let God deal with it when the time comes.”
During practice and games, Glenn explains how the idea of race hadn’t affected the way the team bonds’ or play together.
“No, race has never affected how my teammates or coaches treated me because it’s baseball,” he said. “The way I see it, if you’re good, you’re good. If you suck, you suck. And It’s not because of your race. It’s because of how much you love the game of baseball and how much work you put into it.”
At the age of 10, Glenn’s former childhood coach had put in a good word to his parents about him continuing down the path of baseball that can land him in great places.
“I realized baseball was something I could excel at around 10 years old when my coaches would tell my parents to never put me in another sport because I had a future in this one.” Scurlock said.
One of Scurlock’s teammates, Bilal Berry, said Scurlock has done a great job with helping to build a positive culture surrounding the varsity baseball program.
“He’s been making sure we stay together through the highs and lows,” Bilal said. “ He always shows up as a leader even if he’s having an off game.”
Glenn’s coach, Coach Aaron Loconsole, speaks highly of Glenn’s attitude and what he brings to the team and his teammates.
“Glenn has stepped up to be a vocal leader for us,” Coach Lonconsole said. “Taking charge and holding his kids accountable.”
Glenn’s teammate, Julian Lansing, says Glenn has a humor that can make the team laugh and even when he tries to be nonchalant about it, if he was an underclassman, he would look at Glenn as a role model.
“He tries to be nonchalant sometimes with the leadership though, but it’s funny.” Julian said. “He’s a good role model for sure. Like I definitely, if I was a younger classmate, I would look up to him.”
Julian explains that no matter what kind of mistake Glenn makes during the game he will always pick his head up and get it the next time.
“He has that next pitch mentality, he wipes it off, he gets that bat the next one.” Lansing said.
With everything that Glenn had been through with racism during the game of baseball, Julian says that you will always see Glenn working hard to get even better at baseball and pours his heart and soul into the game while still having fun.
‘He puts his life on the field, and you never really see slacking off.” Lansing said. “You might slack off a couple times, but he’s very, very involved in the game. He hypes people up and when he’s down, you have other seniors, like me and Amen, trying to hype up the rest of the dugout.”
