It is said that if you follow your heart, happiness will follow. For one local dad, that certainly seems to be the case. I donít personally know if heís happy, but when one of your good friends and your wife come together to ask that an article be written on your behalf without your knowledge, we definitely know youíre loved.
Doug Greenberg is the subject of today’s article. We briefly mentioned Doug in our Sept/Oct issue in 2014. In that issue, we talked about the Youth Lacrosse System in Wake County. Doug is one of the directors of that program.
So why revisit Doug after two years? Certainly there are other people that we can write about in the magazine. We are circling back to talk about Doug because he has just been awarded conference ‘Coach of the Year’ for 2016. This isn’t the first time that Doug has been acknowledged for his coaching. in 2005, he was chosen as the North Carolina H.S. Lacrosse Coach of the Year.
Another milestone that Doug has just passed as the Holly Springs High School coach was winning his 100th game. For those of you that don’t follow Lacrosse, this is quite an achievement!
Doug and his wife Kim moved to NC in 1998. Kim filled us in on the start of their journey.
“We both moved here to accept our first full time teaching positions. During this first year of teaching, Doug, who had always been an athlete and had always been involved in sports, decided that he was going to start a lacrosse team at Southeast Raleigh High School where he was teaching. At the time, it was the first public school team in Wake County. There were a few private school teams within the county, but no one else was offering lacrosse in the public schools of Wake County. In starting this program, Doug encountered MANY obstacles along the way including but not limited to: student interest, funding, traveling to find teams to play, etc. As the team began to develop and more and more players wanted to play, a true collaboration between the coach, the players, the parents and the school began to form…this was one of the greatest lessons that he learned while working with this team and he has carried this collaborative spirit with him in his other coaching endeavors. There were a lot of growing pains along the way, but the development of the program was always a primary focus.”
With 8 years at Southeast, Doug got an offer to be the Science Department Chair, and teach Biology at a new high school opening in Wake County. It was Holly Springs High. In 2006, he was hired. Along with his academic responsibilities, his new job also included positions as the Head Varsity Soccer Coach and the Head Varsity Lacrosse Coach. The school opened with only Freshmen and Sophomores. The sport was still relatively new to the area at the time, so encouraging player participation was high priority. During the first season in 2007, the team played a varsity schedule and their record reflected that of a developing, youthful team at 3 wins and 14 losses. However, that very next year, the team finished 14-3, finished 10-0 in the conference (winning the conference title), and was the first team to make the state playoffs without a senior on the team.
“At about the same time that he was transitioning to Holly Springs High School, he and his then Assistant Coach at Southeast Raleigh, Nick Holota, recognized the need to introduce the sport to a youth audience so that by the time these kids were entering high school, the sport was not new to them. From this, they collaborated to create the Youth Lacrosse System, a series of camps, clinics, leagues and travel opportunities that accommodate lacrosse players at every level.” explained Kim.
Doug has just completed his 10th year as the Holly Springs High School Varsity Lacrosse coach, and continues to be one of the Directors at the Youth Lacrosse System based here in Holly Springs. Doug’s success as a coach doesn’t stop at graduation. Some of Doug’s players have gone on to play at a collegiate level, two of which joined teams that won the Division 1 MNAA National Championship after they joined the team.
Congratulations Doug. Thanks for giving so much, and bringing Lacrosse and your abilities to Holly Springs.
