Green to lead CC athletics

Clarendon College has a new face overseeing Bulldog and Lady Bulldog sports this week as John Green takes the reins as the college’s athletic director.

Green comes to Clarendon from Frank Phillips College in Borger where he spent 25 years as the AD and golf coach, and he was named the NJCAA Athletic Director of the Year in 2009, but he says sports will not be his sole focus.

“I’m a strong advocate of academics,” Green said. “We want to set kids up for success in life. Our games will be good entertainment, and I expect our kids to be role models.”

Green says he’s excited about the opportunities at CC, and says he looks forward to partnering with the community and local businesses. He anticipates having college students involved in the community and wants to hold tailgate parties before college games.

“We’re going to have fun,” he said. “I am so thrilled and excited about people I’ve met, and I have no doubt we’re going to have success.”

Green will establish a golf team at Clarendon College and says he’s already guaranteed President Phil Shirley the team will be nationally ranked and in the national tournament.

“We will have a largely international team with at least three from England,” he said, noting that he would recruit locally also. “I had ten British players at Frank Phillips, and we were ranked in the top 20 nationally every year.”

Shirley says Green is coming to Clarendon with unique credentials and the ability to start new programs and calls the new athletic director a “recruiter par excellence.”

Green said he hopes to use athletics as a way to promote academic and workforce programs at Clarendon because people can’t go visit a classroom but they can attend a ballgame.

“There are many great programs here, and we will work to expand them,” Green said. “We will support our nursing, ag, and other programs.”