In July 2011, Trevor Glassman’s aunt Ivy Siegle died of breast cancer.

At the time of her funeral, he was at AAU Nationals with his team Bishop Elite. When he realized he would miss out on his aunt’s ceremony, he cried before and after games but knew she would want him to play and perform well, Trevor says.

“Listen, you’re at AAU Nationals you don’t need to come to the funeral,” his father Stuart recalls telling Trevor, “because you were there when she was alive. But win a game for her with your team.”

His team won.

“He motivated everyone on that team to do that,” Stuart says. “He has a way of just making people feel like whatever happens it’s going to be okay. Some people focus on the results and…on the process. Trevor is happy to make the process the point.”

“When I gave the eulogy, I told everyone there that Trevor’s team won a game for her. That just got to everybody there. So, even though he was 1,000 miles away, what he did impacted everybody that was there on a sad day and they were a little happier because of it.”

Happy Benchwarmer

Trevor’s career on the bench started in his days at Bedford/New Hampton School. He would sometimes be checked into the last 15 seconds of any given game, having not played at all, and be able to hit a 3-pointer to tie the score.

During his senior year at Bedford, he visited Missouri to tryout for the basketball team, although there was no guarantee any would be held. He was willing to go anyway. When he arrived, there were no tryouts. He was without a team.

“Growing up he was always someone who just loved life,” Stuart says. “Loved whatever was happening. … Not fearing failure. … He might have been in the past. I don’t think he is now at all. He knows that having a shot is all you need. … He doesn’t worry about when he gets called up because he’s always ready. … He’s just a very positive person that really doesn’t get down.”

As he tried to become a walk on at Missouri, he was being recruited by former Manhattan coach Matt Wilson who he then reached out to once he couldn’t make it on at Missouri.

At the beginning of the spring 2014 college basketball season, he was picked up as a walk on at Manhattan.

For the remainder of the team’s year, Trevor only appeared in four games and averaged less than a minute per game. His playing time did increase in the 2014-2015 campaign, appearing in 11 games including two starts and averaged two minutes per game.

Both seasons Manhattan won the MAAC conference title and appeared in the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2004.

Trevor’s role at Manhattan is how great of a listener he is for his teammates. They know there’s no agenda and that he wants the best for them. They will ask for his advice and then he will communicate those concerns with ideas to coach Steve Masiello, Masiello says.

“You can’t describe him,” Masiello says, “… You cannot say, ‘Well, he does these three things or he does this thing.’ He does everything. … He has qualities you cannot account for, in the sense that they’re bigger than life sometimes. For me, you’re looking at guy who’s going to be a superstar in business, in whatever it is he decides to do after his career here because he can relate to people. He’s one of the most selfless people I know. … It’s fun to coach.”

Trevor has lost positions before. He went from being a starter to coming off the bench. And vice versa. He has always remained the same person, his AAU coach Sudi Lett says.

Lett describes Trevor as a person of perseverance and resiliency.

“In the situation that Trevor’s in, everyone knows he has a million reasons to sit on that bench…with a long face…and…to bitch,” Lett says. “He doesn’t do that. He’s never done that, as far as I’ve known him. … As a matter of fact, he does the exact opposite. … That you can’t ask for. That’s just good. I don’t know how else to put it.”

“He genuinely wants to see people do well. He doesn’t give a shit if Shane [Richards] hits the three or he hits the three, as long as they win. People say [and] preach that, but he lives that. … He has no ego.”

Real Life Energizer Bunny

In Trevor’s freshman season, he recalls Masiello telling him it’s a skill to have energy and not something a lot of people have.

He says he prides himself in that, but this year Masiello stopped practice one day because he wasn’t playing defense and recalls him yelling, “You can’t just be a cheerleader and jumping around…on the bench! You got to bring something to the program!”

He has more energy for his teammates than he does for himself. If it was the other way around, he would be a really good player, Masiello says.

“It’s not something that I intentionally do,” Trevor says. “It’s just my passion that comes out and I guess it’s contagious because other guys get hyped when I’m hyped. … Everything that comes to me is natural. I never go in and say, ‘Okay, next 2-pointer I’m going to throw three hands up.’ It just happens.”

Richards describes Trevor’s energy as infectious.

“If you look at all the pictures of him they’re just of him doing something crazy on the bench,” Richards says, “but one of those will definitely sum him. Just a picture. What is the expression? It says 1,000 words or whatever it is. It definitely does with him.

“Sometimes I don’t even catch myself doing the things that they catch me doing,” Trevor says. “So, it’s actually really funny for everybody because even I don’t know what I’m doing at some points. I’ll catch myself when we watch film…and I see my reaction after a big play. I’ll say, ‘I don’t even remember doing that.’ I was just so hyped at the moment.”