Green named girls basketball coach, one half of husband-wife coaching duo

Paige Green has been named the new girls basketball coach at Oak Ridge High School, making her one half of a husband-wife coaching duo. Green’s husband, Aaron Green, is the boys basketball coach.

The appointment was announced Wednesday and went into effect immediately. Green, who has an impressive résumé as a player and has coached middle school and AAU basketball, will replace David Scott, who announced his decision to resign in late May. Scott cited family reasons after a second stint as coach.

It’s not unprecedented to have a husband-wife coaching duo. Aaron Green said he knows of two other similar coaching couples, the McWilliams at Upperman High School near Cookeville and Keith and Jennifer Galloway at Hardin Valley Academy.

On Thursday, Paige Green, 38, said she went with the girls to a team camp in Crossville, where the Lady Wildcats played three games. They were scheduled to play three more on Friday.

“(I’m) just really excited, grateful, and very thankful to have the opportunity to work with a really great group of girls in a program that has a strong tradition,” Green said. She will become the fifth person to coach girls basketball at Oak Ridge, according to broadcaster David Clary.

She coached at Ocoee Middle School in Cleveland from 2009-2011, and she has also coached AAU in Cleveland and Knoxville.

Both Greens said their two children, an 11-year-old daughter and six-year-old son, have grown old enough that Paige Green can get back into coaching.

“Our lives change a little bit now,” Aaron Green said.

Aaron Green, 37, said his wife was an All-American player at Bradley Central and had a great career at Vanderbilt University, where she is still in the Top 10 for three-point shooting. He said she worked hard to make herself a great player.

“She’s been around basketball her entire life,” said Aaron Green, who just finished his fifth season in Oak Ridge. “I think it’s a great hire. I’m excited for Paige. I’m excited for the girls basketball program.”

Aaron Green said he has often bounced ideas off his wife, who attends the games and sits behind the Oak Ridge bench, and she has been like an assistant coach to him in his career.

This will be Paige Green’s first time coaching at the high school level. She said the talent level, age, maturity, playing ability, and overall stakes are higher in high school basketball than in middle school or AAU.

Oak Ridge High School Athletic Director Mike Mullins said there was a lot of local interest in the Lady Wildcats coaching job from as far away as Murfreesboro.

“I think she’ll do a fantastic job,” Mullins said of Paige Green. “I think good things are ahead for us.”

Athletic officials praised Scott for getting the Lady Wildcats program headed back in the right tradition.

“It was amazing how hard he had them working and playing,” said Paige Green, a guidance counselor at ORHS.

Aaron Green said the precedent of former Coach Jill Prudden speaks for itself. He pointed out her record, which includes more than 900 wins and three state championships.

Paige Green said she wants to continue Scott’s precedent of building the players’ work ethic, basketball knowledge, athleticism, and quickness.

There is also a third Green that helps out the ORHS basketball program. Aaron Green’s father, Danny Green, is a volunteer assistant coach with the boys team.

The Lady Wildcats have a young team. The girls team had no seniors last year, and they added three freshman this year.

Paige Green said officials are still working out the assistant coaching staff, but Tammy Dowdell will be an assistant coach.

A summary of Paige Green’s athletic highlights provided by ORHS shows a long list of accomplishments. Among them:

• Being named a TSSAA Miss Basketball Finalist in her senior year at Bradley Central, leading the team in scoring all three years and ranking as the eighth all-time leading scorer in school history, and finishing on a state runner-up team her senior year;
• Being named an AAU All-American in 1993 and playing on an AAU team that finished second in the national tournament two years in a row; and
• Being ranking number one in the pre-season in her freshman year at Vanderbilt, participating in three NCAA tournaments—including the Sweet Sixteen as a sophomore—and being named an All-Academic SEC player twice.

See the Paige Green highlights here: Paige Green Highlights.

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