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| Former Bison baseball coach B.J. Greene is pictured with his wife Amanda and children Banks, Amanda and Cole. Greene was recently hired as the new principal at Carlisle High School. (Photo courtesy of the Greene family) |
By Mark Buffalo
Staff Writer
After leaving Carlisle six years ago as head baseball and assistant football coach, B.J. Green is coming home.
Greene, 36, was recently hired as the Carlisle High School principal and athletic director, replacing Brad Horn, who was hired earlier this year to be the new superintendent for the Carlisle School District.
Greene is currently head baseball coach and assistant principal at Smackover High School in south Arkansas.
“I’m very excited,” Greene said in a telephone interview Friday night. “I’m excited for my family. I’m excited that we all get to be in one district. I’m excited to come back to a place where I always felt like was home.
“It’s like I said at the last sports banquet, I’ll always bleed black and gold.”
Greene and his wife of five years, Amanda, have three children. Daughter Maggie, 12, is currently in the sixth grade at El Dorado; son Cole, 4, is in preschool at El Dorado and their youngest son Banks is 2.
Greene left Carlisle in 2012 after five years. He coached the Bison baseball team to 29 wins and a state runner-up finish in 2012. He was an assistant for former football coach Scott Waymire and the Bison finished as state runner-up in 2011.
Greene coached three years at Heber Springs High School before going to Smackover, where he is in the middle of his third year. He earned his master’s degree to become a certified school administrator from Arkansas State University in 2016.
Being an administrator has it’s different challenges than coaching presents, according to Greene.
“The big thing for me, now that I’ve been in an administration for two years at Smackover, in coaching, I just got to deal with a certain few of the athletes,” he said. “As a principal, you get to deal with every student in the building. You get to have a relationship with them. And you get to have a relationship with the teachers, which is something the last two years that I’ve had to learn how to deal with that. It’s not the same as handling kids. You’ve got to handle your staff members completely different.”
Being an athletic director and principal is something that Greene has wanted to do since he started working on his master’s degree.
“Getting to do both of them as the same time is sort of a dream come true, especially in a town like Carlisle, that means so much to me,” Greene said. “I’m excited because I have been a coach for 15 years. I don’t know if that will ever get out of my blood and being able to be AD as well, which I’m blessed that Mr. Horn is going to allow that to happen, I’ll get to work with all the sports.”
Horn said he was glad that Greene accepted the position.
“B.J. is going to be a disciplinarian,” Horn said. “He’s going to deal well with the community and the teachers and students. He things a balance that we need at the high school on the academic side.”
Horn said Greene will work well with assistant principal Rachel Horn, who splits time between the high school and elementary school, working with principal Jason Stewart.
“On the academic side, I want some balance,” Brad Horn said. “I feel strongly that a principal and an assistant principal should compliment each other. Mrs. Horn has been a good addition. She brings some things to the table that I didn’t have or Mr. Stewart has at the elementary school.”
Mr. Horn said that Greene, on the athletic side of things, has “street credibility.”
“He’s gone some knowledge, working under Coach Scott Waymire,” Horn said “I think the things he learned under Coach Waymire are going to help him a great deal.”
Greene is appreciative of Horn offering him the job.
“I’m excited to come back to the community,” he said.
Greene plans to have an athletic handbook for the district.
“I’ve already had a meeting with the teachers,” he said. “At some point in time, I’m going to have a meeting for the coaching staff and create a handbook. But I’m also going to have a meeting as athletic director with the parents and athletes to explain to them that their kids are going to be held to a higher standard.”
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| Former Bison baseball coach B.J. Greene talks to his 2012 squad prior to the Class 2A state-championship game at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville. Greene will be the new Carlisle High School principal this fall. (Photo by Mark Buffalo) |
