Marine Coaches Youth Wrestlers
(April 23, 2011) |
|
|
| CAMP H. M. SMITH, Hawaii (MCN - 4/19/2011) — When people
look at Master Sgt. Timothy D. Greenleaf, they see a
six-foot, bulky, tattooed Marine. What isn't so obvious is
he's enjoyed working with children for more than 18 years. |
Master Sgt. Timothy D. Greenleaf, war reserve chief, G-4, U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, gathers the Marine Corps Base Hawaii's Marine Corps Community Services youth wrestling team in a huddle after a two-hour practice in preparation for their upcoming meet
on April 11, 2011 at the Division Schools Martial Arts Center here. Greenleaf has spent the past 18 years coaching numerous youth sports teams and is currently the head coach for Marine Corps Base Hawaii's Marine Corps Community Services youth wrestling team.
|
|
Greenleaf, war reserve chief, G-4, U.S. Marine Corps
Forces, Pacific, devotes a large amount of his off
time to being the head wrestling coach for Marine
Corps Base Hawaii's Marine Corps Community Services
youth wrestling team.
Although his coaching
ambitions are centered on nurturing the athletic
talents of his three children, coaching gives him
the opportunity to be there for the children of his
fellow service members.
“A lot of these kids
have parents who are either deployed or getting
ready to deploy,” the father of |
|
three said. “If I can, I'd like to fill the gap and
provide them with a strong male mentor figure. My
children have gone through the same thing so this is
my way of catching up.” |
|
Greenleaf began his coaching career in 1993 while stationed
at Blount Island Command, Jacksonville, Fla., when he became
head coach for his oldest son's Little League Baseball team.
“The main reason I started coaching was because my
[oldest] son was deaf and I had to be at every practice and
game to translate for him,” Greenleaf said. “So I figured if
I'm going to be there anyway, why not coach?”
In
addition to coaching children, Greenleaf, who's always had a
passion for physical fitness, began to coach his unit's
tackle football team.
“I just knew how to organize a
practice,” Greenleaf said. “I took a lot of the
methodologies we use in the Marine Corps and applied it to
my coaching style – warm-ups, drilling, practicing
situation-based strategies, and I really enjoyed it.”
As a father, Greenleaf could relate to the concerns of
his young athletes' parents, a trait that has allowed him to
teach the necessary discipline for sports and also maintain
a good relationship with the parents.
“A parent
wants a child to be cared for in a certain way and I always
keep that in mind when I'm coaching,” he said. “But when
you're teaching someone discipline, it sometimes takes a
little tough love, which is fine as long as I let the
parents know what's going on.”
In 1998, he
transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he continued his
coaching career as the base's flag football coach and
dabbled as an MCCS sports referee.
“For me, it's
been another form of mentoring,” Greenleaf said. “The more
that I defined myself as a coach, the better I got at
refining my coaching style. It's about getting down to the
basics; working on quickness, agility, strength and
conditioning.”
In 1999, Greenleaf returned to
Jacksonville, Fla., where he focused on his eldest son's
participation in football and wrestling.
“My son
attended a deaf school and his coaches were also deaf,”
Greenleaf said. “They had interpreters at their local games
but when the team travelled, my wife and I came along to
help out as interpreters. We supported all kinds of programs
that way.”
In 2003, Greenleaf was stationed at MCBH,
Kaneohe Bay, where his daughter began to show interest in
athletics.
“She walked up to me one day when I was
getting ready to go on a run and asked, ‘Daddy, can I come
with you?'” Greenleaf said. “I told her, ‘Be careful what
you ask for, daughter.' From that point on, she was my
running partner for three years.”
Although he wasn't
coaching any teams then, he began training his daughter, who
was 10 years old at the time, to run five and 10 kilometer
races until she asked to join a Little League Baseball team.
“My dad's great,” his daughter said. “He used to go
outside with me for two or three hours just helping me work
on my pitching or my catching. That's just how he is. If you
want to be a baseball player or a football player or a
wrestler, he just wants you to succeed, and if you're
willing to put in the work, he'll help you.”
With his
oldest and youngest children heavily engaged in sports,
Greenleaf began working with his second son, who is also
deaf, by taking him to the gym and eventually convinced him
to join a youth wrestling program.
The Greenleafs were
stationed at Marine Barracks 8th and I in 2007, where he
claims the coaching got out of control.
“I was
coaching youth baseball and then my daughter switched to
softball,” Greenleaf said. “I was also coaching the Marine
Corps Institute flag football, basketball and softball
teams.”
Earlier this year, Greenleaf returned to Hawaii
where he assumed his current duties and began coaching youth
wrestling.
Although most of his children are adults
now, the Greenleafs continue to make sports a family event.
His daughter and second son practice Judo and are involved
in the Youth Wrestling Program. His second son took 4th
place in the 215 lb. weight class at the 2011 Hawaii High
School Athletic Association's Wrestling Championships while
wrestling for Pearl City High School.
“My oldest son
is married with a baby now and he‘s a coach on the [youth
wrestling] team,” he said. “[My second son is also] a coach,
my daughter is on my team and my wife sits on the bleachers
and is in general support. When you involve your family and
invest your time in your kids, it makes it all worthwhile.”
With a team of more than 30 wrestlers from ages five
through 17, Greenleaf has his hands full, but continues to
do more than he has to by offering additional one-on-one
coaching time with his wrestlers and continuing to train his
older wrestlers during the off-season.
“I want them
to learn mental and physical discipline,” Greenleaf said.
“Wrestling helps to build their self-esteem. Not only are
they doing grueling two-hour workouts, but they have to get
out there and perform in front of people. I feel that the
more you put them in those kinds of positions, other things
in life won't feel so daunting.” |
Article and photo by USMC Cpl. Juan D. Alfonso
Marine Forces Pacific
Copyright 2011 | |
Reprinted from
Marine Corps News
Comment on this article |
|
