NETHER PROVIDENCE — There would be hospital visits and follow-ups, x-rays and more x-rays, hope, recommendations and warnings. All AJ Glavicic knew was that at some point, there would be only one way to know if he still had a high school football career.
He would listen to his heart.
Glavicic is a Strath Haven defensive back, and while he wasn’t the only reason the Panthers were able to outlast visiting Springfield, 14-12, in the District 1 Class 5A semifinals Friday, his two interceptions rammed him into the top three. That wasn’t the way he envisioned contributing, though, when the Panthers played Springfield the first time, back on Labor Day weekend. A high-level 400-meter runner with track interest from, among others, Penn State, Army and Villanova, the 6-1, 165-pound senior was also listed as a wide receiver.
Then?
“It was actually called a ‘hitch,’” Glavicic was saying of what could have been a career-changing play. “Then we checked it for a ‘go’ route, and I caught it for like a 40-yard bomb. Then I hit the floor.”
He knew at that point his season was about to change, for as he landed, half of his right collarbone would go one way, the other half in the opposite direction. The next day, as he recalls, he was off to the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, where doctors were necessarily frank. Basically, they told him to wait for track season.
“All the doctors told me my football season was done,” Glavicic said. “I thought my season was done.”
For 10 games in what continues to be another in a decades-long string of satisfying Strath Haven seasons, it was done. But Glavicic kept working, kept feeling stronger and kept posing for more x-rays, just to see if there was progress. One day, an image showed enough healing to offer encouragement.
“It was the best news of my life,” he said. “I had gone for a checkup, and they said my collarbone looked good. And they said I could play.”
That was the basic report, though it did come with an asterisk. Football is known to trend physical from time to time, so Glavicic was counseled that any additional damage to the healed collarbone could complicate – if not puncture – his spring track season. And as dangerous a football player as he can be, the 48-second quarter-miler knew his fastest lane to college athletics was on the track. Risk-reward. All that.
“That’s right,” Panthers coach Kevin Clancy said. “But he wanted to be with his teammates. When I talked to his dad during the season, it was like, ‘Nah, it’s not going to happen. We’re going to get healthy for track.’ But they saw us getting ready for the playoffs, they saw the thing was progressing, and the doctors gave them encouraging news. So he went ahead and did it.”
The Panthers by then humming on offense, Glavicic settled for returning to the secondary to help spice a postseason run. Friday, his first interception late in the second quarter helped the Panthers take a 14-6 lead into halftime, and his second – in traffic – stopped a Springfield drive at the Strath Haven 3-yard line with 9:21 left.
“It’s just great to have him back, because he’s got legitimate speed,” Clancy said. “In high school 48 seconds for a 400 is pretty fast. So he’s got quarter-mile speed, and then he made two big interceptions.
“He was super tonight. He covered their best receiver all night and did a super job with it.”
The triumph sent the Panthers into the district championship game and – perhaps – beyond, but at whatever danger to his collarbone and track season, Glavicic is determined to run hard to the finish line.
“I had a very good year in the 400 meters last year, and I got fifth at states,” he said. “So that’s what kind of made it like, ‘Oh, do I really want to do this and risk my track season?’ I really want to run college track, so I was risking that, too.
“I thought about things. But there is nothing like ‘Friday Night Lights’ with the boys. And with a team like this, I had to come back. I had to do it. It’s what my heart was telling me.”
For much of the night Friday, the Cougars were making all Strath Haven hearts uneasy.
“Teams have a target on our backs because of our past successful years,” Glavicic said. “So every team is coming ready to play against us. But we’re ready, too.”
If there is a secret hidden in the Panthers’ 12-1 season, it is that determination to play for the team, at whatever possible individual peril.
“A.J. is one example of a whole group of kids who want to play for each other,” Clancy said. “We have to scrap and battle for everything we get, but the kids are so unselfish. They just play for each other, and that makes it a lot of fun to be around.”
The difference-making defensive back in the latest Strath Haven victory would not have had it any other way.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@delcotimes.com
