Terrence Greene

By CHRIS LARICK

 

Pymatuning Valley 1984 graduate Terrence Greene has always enjoyed working for Cleveland’s professional sports teams.

As a youngster Greene, one of this year’s inductees into the Ashtabula County Basketball Foundation’s Hall of Fame, sold peanuts for the Indians. Nowadays, he moonlights on Sundays doing security at the Cleveland Browns’ home contests.

"Live sports and the human spirit behind it has always interested my mind,”Green said.

“I was there and saw the Mason Rudolph game (when Browns defensive end Miles Garrett ‘removed' Rudolph’s helmet, then hit him on the head with it),” Greene said. “I loved going down to those Indians games.”

Greene’s days as a peanut vendor ended when his dad, Charles, a real estate appraiser, moved the Greene family to Andover when Terrence was in the seventh grade. He played both basketball and football (as quarterback) in the seventh grade and basketball in the eighth grade.

After taking a hiatus from sports as a freshman, Greene returned to the court to play hoops for Coach Bob Hitchcock his sophomore year, becoming the only sophomore on the Lakers’ varsity team.

That was a very good Pymatuning Valley team, led by Maurice McDonald, along with Jack Thompson, Greg Douglas, David Miller and Greene, a starter as a sophomore. The Lakers went on to win the league championship with a different cast of characters when Greene was a junior, a group that included Maurice McDonald’s brother, Alan (like Greene, a first-team All-GRC selection), Mike Baker, Brad Burt, Jim Malz and Joel Gordon. Greene was named league MVP and Hitchcock Coach of the Year as the Lakers went 8-2 in the GRC, 11-9 overall. Greene was also selected to the first-team Star Beacon All-Ashtabula County choices and honorable mention All-Ohio list, averaging 17.3 points and nine rebounds per game.

“This was before the three-point shot,” Greene said. “We played good, solid defense. There were some low-scoring games."

The title was the fourth straight for Hitchcock in years he coached. It was his second year back after seven seasons away from coaching.

“He had a calm demeanor, but was very intense in the huddle,” Greene said of Hitchcock. “He was a good coach who allowed me to shoot and play my game. He was very defense-oriented and very good with the X’s and O’s. He taught me a lot about basketball and more about life, to not give up on anything."

The Lakers also won the GRC championship in Greene’s senior year, though they had to defeat Ledgemont in the final league game to take that crown. Grand Valley and Jefferson also gave PV tough battles.

Joe McClusky transferred from Jefferson to Pymatuning Valley in Greene’s senior year. The addition of the 6-foot-7 senior was important because most of the rest of the team, except for Greene and McDonald, graduated

“We were the only holdovers from that team,” Greene said. We went 13-7 or 14-7.”

Greene gave up football after his freshman year, but continued to participate in track. He was a member fo the 1600-meter relay team that set the school record, along with McDonald and Jim and Steve Hunt. The Lakers finished  second in the league behind Perry and the 1600-meter relay squad went to the regional finals and nearly to state.

After his senior year, Greene moved on to college at Mount Union, which he played for in 1984 and 1985. He then left school for a couple of years, but returned to play for Lake Erie College in 1988 and 1989, graduating in 1991 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology.

“I played small forward,” Greene said of his college years. “We had some pretty good teams at Mount Union.

“Lake Erie had just begun its program as a NAIA school. It had been an all-girls school. It was an interesting experience."

After graduating from college, Greene moved back to Cleveland and took a job as a social worker. 

“I had learned a lot from books, but life experience was a little different,” he said. “I’m an insurance estimator now. My dad, Charles Greene, is a real estate appraiser. He taught me that insurance was essentially the same thing. He’s been a real estate appraiser for 30 years.”

Greene, who sometimes goes by the first name “Tee” to form an interesting golf combination of Tee Greene, got back into working part-time in Cleveland professional sports when he worked security with the Cavaliers in 2014, one of the years they lost to the Golden State Warriors. He now does security work for the Browns.

He remains unmarried but has a long-time girl friend. He has two children, Terrence, 26, and Kameron, 23.