Greene football was so bad in the late 1980s, it left the Section IV Football Conference for nine-man football in the Tri-Valley League. The Trojans were the largest school in the TVL – by far – but the football fortunes did not change. After four straight losing seasons in the TVL, Greene returned to the Section IV Conference. The results were not much different than the last time Greene played in the Section IV conference – an 0-9 record in 1993.

Times, though, were about to change.

In 1995, Lynne Simmons came on board as a co-head coach, and he assumed the full-time reins in 1996. A former assistant coach at Walton, Simmons installed the same offense as his mentor at Walton, Jim Hoover, and he preached the same type of physical, aggressive play.

During Simmons’ stint, Greene won seven games twice, reached the Section IV playoffs two times, and even garnered a top-20 end-of-season state ranking. Simmons retired at the end of the 2002 season, and handed to program to his junior varsity coach, Tim Paske.

Simmons raised the standard of Greene football, and it was Paske’s task to take the Trojans to the next level.

Paske announced his resignation from coaching last week after 10 mostly prosperous seasons. We say “mostly” because Paske’s first two seasons as head coach would not normally evince confidence in a program’s direction.