Canyon del Oro graduate and former Arizona basketball player Linda Glisky-Martindale was a subject of an NBC News feature on Wednesday that reported she and her son Nolan are the first known mother-son combination to take part in the Massachusetts state basketball tournament.
That happened last season when Glisky-Martindale’s team at Lincoln-Sudbury High School lost in the first round.
Glisky-Martindale, at Arizona from 1990-92 after first playing at Alaska-Anchorage, is in her fifth season as head coach at the Boston suburb high school.
The Warriors are again headed toward the postseason with a 15-4 overall record.
“I know that being a woman and coaching boys is unique,” Glisky-Martindale told the Boston Globe in December. “When I used to walk into the gym, people would sometimes think I was the scorekeeper.
“Now the players don’t even blink. We trust each other because they’ve been playing together for a long time. For these guys, when you say we need to be 1 percent better, they get it. They know that 1 percent could be the difference.”
Glisky-Martindale has coached Nolan and the senior class at Lincoln-Sudbury since they were in the third grade playing in the Sudbury Youth Basketball League.
Before becoming the Lincoln-Sudbury boys coach, she was the girls head coach at Newton (Mass.) North (2011-2016) and Weston (Mass.) (2008-2011).
She walked on at Arizona in 1990 when the Wildcats were coached by June Olkowski. In the interview with NBC News, Glisky-Martindale is wearing an Arizona Wildcats lanyard.
Glisky-Martindale’s husband, Jim, grew up ski racing in Sudbury. Their daughter, Brianna, raced at Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont and played beach volleyball at San Diego Christian College. Their son, Calvin, played soccer at Nichols College before transferring to Bridgewater State, where he will play tennis. Another son, Judson, is playing basketball at Cal State Northridge after stops at Holy Cross and Pacific. Nolan will play lacrosse at Merrimack College.
“Right away, there was no question that I wanted to play for her,” Nolan told the Boston Globe about his background playing for his mom. “I’ve always known she was a great coach, but it all clicked for me when I got to varsity as a sophomore. It became clear when I was filling a big role at a young age, that I’d have to take criticism from her like I would from any other coach.”
In addition to coaching, Glisky-Martindale is a motivational speaker, mental fitness coach with more than 30 college athletes as clients and serves on the board for Transition House, which focuses on domestic-violence issues. She also hosts the Game Changers podcast.
Former Arizona teammate Mary Klemm-Plousha posted on social media her admiration of Glisky-Martindale.
“So incredibly proud of your amazing achievement,” Klemm-Plousha stated. “Watching you on NBC tonight was truly inspiring — representing one of the rarest accomplishments in sports: coaching a high school boys’ team and breaking barriers along the way.”
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