Centennial alum resigns as Pats’ football coach: ‘The hardest decision I’ve had to make’
Centennial High’s Matt Greene resigned as the Patriots’ head coach Wednesday, ending a three-year run at his alma mater.
The Patriots went 3-21 (.143) under the 2008 Centennial graduate. But he said the decision to step down was his own. He said that the losses affected him too much as an alum and that he needed to find more balance in his life.
“This whole (winter) break, it was a lot of sleepless nights,” Greene said. “I talked to numerous people. I talked to (former Centennial coach Lee) Neumann. I talked to everyone I know, and it felt like it was time to step down and go my own way.
“It was probably the hardest decision I’ve had to make yet.”
Centennial’s athletic director, Gavin Watson, credited Greene for getting more players to turn out for football and for starting the rebuild of a long-struggling program. The Patriots haven’t posted a winning season or made the state playoffs since 2010. Only Boise has a longer active playoff drought in the 5A classification.
Watson said the search for the fifth football coach in the school’s 35-year history will begin immediately. The school has already posted the position on the West Ada School District website.
“He was Centennial through and through, and he really connected with kids well,” Watson said. “He genuinely cared about the high school.”
Centennial is the fifth football program in the 5A and 4A Southern Idaho Conference to make a coaching change this offseason, following Bishop Kelly, Capital, Nampa and Owyhee.
“The program has improved in a lot of aspects,” Greene said. “It’s on the verge of something special.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2023 at 7:01 PM.
