Forest hires Seven Rivers’ Greene to lead Wildcats

For the second time in as many seasons, Rayburn Greene stepped down from Seven Rivers Christian (Lecanto) to take a head coaching position elsewhere.

This second time around, however, seems to be the final answer he told the Citrus County Chronicle back in mid-January.

That first time around came back in April of last year when Greene briefly held the Victory Christian (Lakeland) head coaching job for a week before returning to Seven Rivers Christian to coach them to their first playoff berth in school history.

And on Tuesday afternoon, Forest (Ocala) announced they had hired Greene to replace Skip Austin who stepped down a few weeks ago after leading the team for the past five seasons.

https://twitter.com/FHS_WildcatLife/status/958451846632431622

When Greene stepped down from Seven Rivers Christian, he told the Chronicle that he was needing a change and to do something different.

“Let someone else come in that might be a better fit,” Greene said to the Chronicle

As such, with Greene being hired by Forest indicates that he is indeed ready to move on.

According to the Ocala Star-Banner, Greene was the guy for the job because of his proven record of building programs from scratch and winning, per Forest athletic director Wayne Farrow.

“He has the proven record and when we spoke he spoke with passion, with clarity and was organized. He knows what he wants out of a program and how he intends to get there,” Farrow told the Star-Banner.

Greene has been successful wherever he has been at as a head coach.

He started the Seven Rivers Christian program back in 2009, coaching the team for one season before moving over to nearby Citrus (Inverness) for four years, leading the Hurricanes to the playoffs in 2013 and compiled a 24-19 record.

In his second stint with Seven Rivers Christian, he compiled a 33-11 record over the last four seasons including the playoff berth this season with a 9-3 overall record.

Greene told the Star-Banner that he plans on changing the culture at Forest with finding guys that want to get better every day, wanting a “tough football team.”

Students, parents and the community will get to meet Greene on Thursday evening in the school’s cafeteria.