1 Ocean City family, 2 decades, 80 seasons of running

Seven Greene siblings and their father/coach reflect on legacy

Editor’s note: The Sentinel covered all seven Greene siblings during their cross country and track and field careers at Ocean ity High School. Here are their perspectives of the family history of running and their father as coach. Photos and story by David Nahan.

Danielle Greene Nappen OCHS ‘03

No more talking about running at the dinner table

Danielle (Greene) Nappen, the oldest of the seven Greene siblings, had to juggle her sports with her love for performing which “was more my thing,” including choir and school plays. 

She has pride in the family legacy, but a light-hearted take on her own athletic career.

She also testifies to the length of the family legacy given that one year while she was competing her mother was giving birth to another sibling. 

In spite of her balancing act, as a senior she missed a lot of practices due to rehearsals and often had to finish them on her own, but was there when it counted.

“I never missed a meet except for the Penn Relays that year which was a bummer; I had been to Penn Relays every year since eighth grade (when my dad was also my coach but couldn’t be there because he was at the hospital with my mom, who had just given birth to my brother a day or two  before … my teammates and I visited her there on our way home from winning silver medals in the 4×100).”

Cross country wasn’t her favorite; she only competed for three of those seasons because after her freshman year “I was just too terrible at it and it was too hard.” (And her dad wasn’t the coach.) She stayed away her sophomore year but returned for junior year, but not for a love of the competition.

“The only thing that made me return to the sport as a junior was the fact that the team was going to Disney World to race at the Wide World of Sports complex,” she said. She didn’t want to miss that so it encouraged to her run in her junior year and she “decided to stick it out for her senior year” because the team was going back to Disney.

Danielle said she didn’t particularly want to run, but wanted to be physically active on a team and running “was the only thing I could sort of do.” 

She also figured because her dad was the coach, “I figured it wouldn’t be so bad if I slacked off sometimes.” That, she quickly realized, was not true. “I couldn’t get away with that and not hear about it endlessly at the dinner table every night … which is another story.”

Family tradition was “100 percent” the reason she decided to run.

“We weren’t a soccer family or a basketball family or a tennis family … we were a running family. For a bunch of years growing up, our weekends consisted of driving all over South Jersey to watch our dad race in various 5Ks … and win a lot. It was really fun standing out on the course and cheering for him as he flew by. So when my dad started coaching, I knew if I did a sport one day that that would be it.”

She also liked that much of running was a solo endeavor, and although her success would help the team, she didn’t have to fear missing a catch and harming her team’s chances. She could be a team player, but depend mostly on herself in a competition.

In her life, running was about being in shape, but when she looks back on her days at OCHS, she has all those good memories – “the camaraderie of being on the bus with the team or at a pasta dinner, the feeling of accomplishment after a hard practice or race, gaining the ability to cope with failure after a poor performance and pick myself up and brush myself off again, the travel and different types of courses and tracks we would get to run on.”

“It was more about friendships and experiences for me than it was about pushing myself to be the best (because we all know I wasn’t anywhere near the best),” she said.  

She also discovered the value in having her dad as a coach.

“I always knew he was in my corner and he saw potential in me that I couldn’t see,” she said. She also knew he would know she truly wasn’t feeling well or wasn’t faking an injury. “He saw me at home and paid for me to go to the doctor if I was under the weather, so at least I never had to wonder if my coach thought I was a liar for missing practice.”

“It was also secretly kind of fun to hear the other girls complain if he was challenging us extra hard during a practice,” she added.

One thing she did not love was back at the dinner table.

“There was no escaping ‘track-talk’ even after practice was done for the day and I just wanted to forget about it at home,” Danielle said, noting at meals everyone wanted to talk about track “for the most part because they all had much more success as runners than I had.” She said she hated it so much and wanted a change in topic so bad she slammed her hand down on the table and said, ““Can we PLEASE not talk about track at the dinner table?!” 

That became a long-running joke in the family: “Danielle will flip out if you talk about track during dinner.”

As she has watched the rest of her siblings run track and cross country, she feels good about being part of the Greene family legacy at OCHS, even though she doesn’t feel she had a “major impact” except that she was the first one of the kids to get the legacy going.

There is that one school record she held in the triple jump back in 2002 or 2003, although it does come with a humorous disclaimer.

“The only reason I ever set a school record for the triple jump is because I was the first person to ever compete in the triple jump for OCHS up to that point,” she said. “My record was promptly broken the moment someone else competed in the event the following season, but for one brief, shining moment I was a school record holder in something … and I totally have my dad to thank for that because he surely saw that there was a gap in our school’s track history and chose me to be the one to fill it over anyone else.”

“I could have literally tiptoed an inch over that marker and set the record, which is basically what I did … maybe more of a stumble than a tiptoe.”

She now has kids and will encourage them to run even if they choose a different sport.

“Running will teach them the basics of endurance and strength, and listening to your own body and trusting it to get you where you need to go,” Danielle said. She has another practical reason: “I already encourage them to go outside in the back yard and run any chance they get … mainly so they can wear themselves out and won’t tear my house apart with their unbridled little boy energy, but also because they always feel better and happier afterwards than they did before.”

That, she said, was also true for her growing up.

“However begrudgingly I completed a workout or a long run, however much I dreaded lacing up my shoes and doing it, I always was happy that I had when it was all over. I don’t think I’ve ever finished a run and said to myself, ‘Ugh, I really regret doing that.’

“Even looking back at the embarrassments of my running career (and there were many), I don’t cringe with regret about the fact that I chose running as my sport. I always remember it fondly as a bright spot on the timeline of my life, and my dad had so much to do with that.”

Caitlin Greene OCHS ‘05

Dad as coach a perfect balance

As one of the oldest Greene siblings, Caitlin’s decision to run track and cross country was because of her personal passion for the sport, but she acknowledges her dad did influence her by introducing her to running. She said she had a “natural interest and inclination towards running for fun and competitively.”

She played soccer and basketball briefly in grade school, but steered herself toward running. She began with 5K races with her dad when she was 9 or 10 and did track and cross country in grade school so it was “natural” for her to continue that in high school. Caitlin had “no regrets” about her choice of sport. “I was all in on track and cross country.”

She ran cross country all four fall seasons, but only three winter track seasons, missing one for surgery for compartment syndrome her junior year. She also ran all four spring track seasons, but says her junior year it was more like half a season as she recovered from surgery. That temporarily changed her focus.

“In order to still be a part of the team I made a valiant, yet some might say laughable, effort at throwing the javelin,” she said. On the track she would do anything from the 800 meters to 3200 meters, “the occasional steeplechase,” the 400 meter hurdles, high jump and long jump.

Caitlin loved having her father as a coach.

“For me it was the perfect balance of having someone who loves you enough to help encourage and push you to reach your full potential, but also still love you whether or not you reach that potential every time,” she said.

That support did not end when she graduated from OCHS.

“When I was in college and struggling at times with the stress of being a full-time athlete and student, my dad would write me letters or emails with encouragement and helpful tips on how to improve my running technique or reminders that it would all be OK if I needed to pause running for a little to focus on school work and my overall health.”

She is proud to be part of a big family with seven kids in the same sports and a dad who was influential in the many successes of track and cross country teams at OCHS.

Running has always been a “huge” part of her life and she wants that to continue. She plans to get back to it after healing from multiple shoulder surgeries and other health obstacles.

What role has running played – or continued to play – in your life?

“I’ve always lived competing but I also just have a true love of running for fun and for health and the feeling it gives me,” she said. Although she is on a break now, she notes “running is the kind of sport I know I’ll be able to pick up again when the time is right.”

“Running and competing have taught me so much about dedication, dealing with adversity, managing my personal health and wellness and has also helped connect me closer to my faith,” Caitlin said.

She joked about what she’ll tell her future children.

“I definitely intend to encourage them to try running and introduce all the things I love about it to them. If they prefer another sport and want to try that instead, well then tough luck! Just kidding. They can do whatever they want … but I hope to share my love of running with my kids someday.” 

Kelsey Greene OCHS ‘08

Following in her father’s footsteps

Kelsey Greene, who started running in kindergarten, remembers going to high school meets when still in grade school and wanting to be part of the teams her dad was coaching.

Although she also was a basketball player through eighth grade, “there was no question” she would choose winter track over basketball as soon as she had the chance. “Winter track might have even been my favorite,” she added.

Kelsey said family tradition played a “pretty big role” in her decision to run because all the family members were surrounded by it from a young age. 

She started running in kindergarten and took part in the summer Tuesday Night Fun Runs on the track at Carey Stadium when she was small because her dad was always involved either helping or coaching.

She ran her first 5K race (“The Sister Blister”) with her dad when she was 7 years old.  Most of the girls she knew on the track and cross country teams in high school – and in college – didn’t start running until eighth grade because many parents didn’t know about the sport unless they had been part of the sport. 

Kelsey said her dad was only accomplished runner in his family, but two of her mother’s brothers and two sisters were great track athletes, showing the running genes come from both sides of the family.

Her one uncle won one of the first Broad Street Runs in Philadelphia, the other owns a running shoe store, her aunt ran track for Penn State and her aunt’s daughter (Kelsey’s cousin) was an All-American high jumper at Penn State. 

“I guess you could say track/running is in our blood,” she said. 

Looking back, Kelsey said she sometimes wishes she gave basketball a try in high school and that her father encouraged her to play field hockey, but track drew her to it.

Not only did Kelsey run, she also did the high jump and triple jump. Running still plays a major role in her life.

“I would even go so far as to say I chose a career in education so that I could coach high school track and cross country,” something she is doing at OCHS now.

She has a true competitive spirit that has not diminished.

“I did a fifth year in college, which was not cheap, just so I could use up my last seasons of NCAA eligibility.” (She red-shirted as a junior.) Since graduating college she has run “countless” 5K races, almost 10 half-marathons and, in October, her first “and possibly last” full marathon.

“I like running but I LOVE racing and I also love coaching,” she said. “I foresee track playing a major role in my life for a very long time.”

She is unique among her siblings in that aside from being coached by her father, she also coached track and cross country with him.

Kelsey said she couldn’t have asked for a better mentor.

Kevin coached his daughter since kindergarten at St. Augustine’s Regional School and let her race that young with much older girls, which piqued her interest in the sport even more.

“He’s the kind of coach who clearly loves the sport and knows so much about it. You don’t always find that with grade school and high school coaches; a lot tend to do it for the extra money and/or because no one else wants the job,” she said.

Kevin, an architect, would leave his job every day at 2 p.m. so he could coach, and then he would go back to work “so he could provide for our large family … for 20 plus years. You don’t do that if you don’t love the sport, and that rubbed off on all of the athletes he coached.”

“I’m the only Greene kid who has gotten to coach alongside my dad for an extended time (so far). I continued to learn from him through those 5 years and I credit him so much with making me the coach I am,” Kelsey said. “I can only hope my coaching legacy is even half of his.”

Like her siblings, she is “extremely proud” to be part of the Greene family running legacy at the high school.

“As a coach and an older sister, I was so sad to see it end this past year when Tyler graduated, but we had a really great run, in all senses of the word,” she said. 

Kelsey added up the numbers: Seven kids with a combined 78 seasons of running (and approximately as many varsity letters), a handful of CAL All-Star awards, some state qualifiers (and state champions), a million OCXC/OCTF T-shirts and sweatshirts, and at least a year each of NCAA track and field after high school.

“That is a pretty stacked resume for one family,” she said. “A few of us are on the school record boards (Kelsey, Mackenzie, Korey and Tyler) but I think we’ll all be remembered for our dedication to the sport long after those records are broken.”

Kelsey said she will “absolutely” encourage her own children to run even as they try whichever sports they want.

“I’ll make sure they realize the importance of running to all sports and how much fun track and cross country are.”

Shannon Greene OCHS ‘10

Running a no-brainer; dad as coach a bonus

“Running was engrained in me since grade school when I was old enough to be on the track and cross country teams,” Shannon said. It was so prominent in the family, but it wasn’t forced upon them, she notes. “With that I can definitely say, ‘yes—I did want to run!’ It was a no brainer choice I made heading into high school and I’m so glad I was part of such an amazing program.”

Shannon knew fellowing in the family footsteps could be hard, but she loved that they all shared a common liking for the same sport.

She had tried other sports growing up” just for fun” but none of them appealed enough to shift her focus away from running.

Shannon said while many high schoolers would not agree with her, she “truly loved having my dad as my coach and seeing him at the end of each school day for the start of practice.”

“It also meant he never missed cheering me and my siblings on at meets and that is something that made me really grateful to have him as a coach.”

She pointed out her father was “an amazing runner” in high school and beyond, had a passion for the sport and used his expertise to coach “in a positive and meaningful way.”

Shannon said running, like any sport, gave her structure and discipline, but also was fun doing it with her family and her teammates.

“It’s not easy being a student athlete but you have to prioritize it,” she said. “I have such fun memories of running track and cross country and it’s so important to do what makes you happy in all aspects of life.”

She thinks it is “pretty cool” to be part of the Greene legacy at OCHS. “Over a span of about 18 years (that’s a lot of races) we’ve all been there to cheer each other on and that includes my mom, too. It was definitely bittersweet when the last of us graduated.” She said she was “so lucky” to be a part of it.

Shannon would love if her children ran and it would be even better if they get to attend OCHS.

Mackenzie Greene OCHS ‘15

Following in her sisters’ footsteps

Before she got to high school, Mackenzie’s dad would bring her to his high school practices. “I loved getting to run and practice with the high school girls,” she said. She also “wanted to follow in my sisters’ footsteps and get the opportunity to be coached by my dad.”

The family tradition played a role in her decision to run. Her four older sisters loved being on the team and she wanted the same thing, to have cross country and track be part of her high school experience.

She joked that as the shortest child in the Greene family, she might have been pretty good at field hockey “or something where having short legs was an advantage … but I’m glad I ran instead.”

Mackenzie said her father did not play favorites when coaching his own children, but that didn’t matter because she got to be with her dad.

“If we weren’t one of the fastest in that event, he didn’t put us in the race. There were meets when I just rode the bus and watched because I wasn’t competing that day and that was fine,” she said. “I got to spend a lot of quality time with my dad in those years and I’ll be forever grateful for that.”

Because of the age gap between her and Shannon, she was the only Greene girl on the team during her entire high school career.

“I never had to compete against one of my sisters so it was just purely for fun and I got to learn a lot about the sport from my dad.”

Mackenzie said her own running career wasn’t “much to applaud,” but she is proud of her entire family’s contribution to the sport over the years.

“My dad really led us all through it and my mom, of course, was there for us every step of the way cheering us on. It’s something special we all share,” she said.

While she may not have been the fastest Greene, she learned a lot from her time running at OCHS.

“Playing a sport has taught me time management, prioritization and teamwork. As a nurse I am so thankful I have that experience because I’m better for it now,” she said. Laughing, she added, “I get asked by my patients frequently if I’m a runner because I’m always running around the unit trying to get things done.”

One special trait she learned through running is patience.

“I’m admittedly the least competitive Greene child. One thing I didn’t gain from track was the competitive spirit the rest of my family has.”

Mackenzie said she would encourage her own children to run, including for one quite pragmatic reason. “It was a great sport to compete in and all I’d have to buy is a pair of good running shoes for them to participate, so that’s a plus!” 

Korey Greene OCHS ‘18

Dad cared for all of his athletes

Korey got the distance running bug in fifth grade when he ran in the New Year’s Day 5K. Before that his interests were soccer, hockey and baseball. Distance running? Not so much.

On that first day of the new year, he surprised himself by running so fast that it made him decide to go out for cross country at Ocean City Intermediate School in sixth grade.

“It was only when I found love for cross country that the family tradition pushed me to want to keep running,” he said. Tyler was training with the high school team during the summers while in middle school and was still considering baseball for a spring sport in high school, “but my desire to be a strong cross country runner made me switch to track.”

Korey was the last sibling to have his father, Kevin, as a coach. That experience, he said, was “awesome.”

It was easy to ask for advice and his father had “no problem telling me how to improve and push me to be a team leader.”

Korey said he was treated the same as the rest of the athletes on the team and some of his teammates didn’t even know that he was Kevin’s son or Mackenzie’s brother “because my dad cared for all his athletes and never treated anyone differently regardless of talent or family relations.”

Running has been a “constant anchor” in Korey’s life for 10 years and he expects that will continue. He now runs at Rowan University with his younger brother, Tyler.

He explained that running differs from most other sports.

“Distance running takes consistent year-round training. It has taught me to stay focused and the importance of commitment when pursuing goals,” he said. “Running at times is very hard and other times it’s the best feeling there is.”

Korey said “learning to push through the bad days to get to the good days is the most important thing.”

He is happy to be part of the Greene family legacy at OCHS. 

“It feels great to have been part of such a successful running family because not only is it rare for a family to have all the kids do the same sport, but even more rare for a family of our size.”

When he has his own family, he wants to get his children involved in as many sports as possible and to “feed a competitive lifestyle. If they find love in running like I did I would encourage it, but would never push them into running.”

Tyler Greene OCHS ‘21

‘I wanted to be the fastest Greene’

Going into high school, Tyler wasn’t sure he wanted to run. He loved and did well in different sports. In eighth grade he played football, baseball, basketball and ran cross country. Coming into his freshman year, he knew cross country would be a lot more work than in middle school, but he also knew he “was always faster than everyone so I kind of had a gift not many people had.”

He also wanted to be “the fastest Greene, and most importantly, faster than my brother (Korey).”

“Family tradition played a huge role in my decision because I knew how much my siblings and parents, especially my dad, loved it so I kinda felt like I would’ve been the odd one out if I didn’t run.”

However, Tyler never felt pressured to run. “I was fast, so I ran. Simple as that,” he said.

Running continues to play a “huge role” in his life and he is now competing for Rowan University with Korey.

“Running has brought me most of my closest friends and has given me experiences that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Running gives me something to look forward to every day and builds a sense of pride that I don’t think any other sport could match,” he explained.

He is the only Greene who didn’t have his dad for a coach. Kevin retired from coaching after his eighth grade year, but he was always there with his knowledge and advice to help him excel at the sport. He said it made him a better athlete.

“I’m so proud to be a part of the Greene family running legacy at OCHS because it’s not an experience many families get to have. I don’t think any other family had seven kids who all competed at the varsity level in three different sports, some of us being 12-season varsity athletes,” he said.

“I think we all left a big imprint on the OCHS running community and I’m so glad I could bring it home for the Greene family with a state championship win in my final season,” he added.

Tyler said he will encourage his kids to run. “I think it’d be awesome to see my son or daughter surpass me one day and I’d love to coach them all just like my dad did.”

Kevin: A father and a coach who didn’t push his kids into running, loved his time with them

OCEAN CITY – Over the span of more than two decades, an Ocean City family had seven different children running track and field and cross country for the Ocean City High School Red Raiders.

From Danielle, the oldest, who started high school in 1999, to Tyler, the youngest, who graduated in 2021, the Greenes combined for some 80 varsity seasons, perhaps the only local family to have that type of legacy in an OCHS sport.

All seven siblings have their own takes on why they settled on running and what it meant to have their father as a coach. Their father, himself a runner in high school and college, said he never pushed any of his kids into the sport, but as their coach adored the time it gave him with his children.

Kevin was a good enough runner in high school to earn scholarships for the sport, but as an aspiring architect couldn’t accept the scholarships because those schools didn’t offer his major. He attended Arizona State University and then University of Maryland but the demands of his major made him realize he couldn’t do both academics and sports.

At Maryland, he didn’t compete because of injuries and the fact his team sported some impressive athletes, among them World Champion Renaldo Nehemiah. He said they were accommodating to him at Maryland, but told him, “‘You’re the first varsity athlete to be an architecture major’ and I found out pretty quickly why. It was hard spending all night on the drawing board and then get up and go to the track so I transferred to get away from it because I never would have been able to pull myself away from the track,” he said.

Kevin graduated from a small technical school in Philadelphia, the former Spring Garden College. He took about 10 years away from the sport as he began to work and later as he and wife Cathy started having children.

“After Shannon was born, I decided to see if I could make a little bit of a comeback and I did. We didn’t think we were going to have any more children.” 

At that point it was Danielle, Caitlin, Kelsey and Shannon. Seeing that three more kids came afterwards, “Everybody laughs at that (including the reporter interviewing him). I had about a five-year gap between Shannon and Mackenzie so I started running again and I did pretty well in local road races and started coaching at the high school around 1994.”

He was training by himself and asked Bill Moreland, a track and cross countryside  fixture at the high school whom he met at a race in Ventnor, if he could run with the Ocean City High School boys team. “That kind of parlayed into me helping with cross country and then spring track.” After a couple years as a volunteer, a retirement opened a spot for an assistant coach “and it’s all history after that.”

He coached at the high school until just a few years ago.

Kevin has always enjoyed running for the solitude and because it gives him time to think.

Although some of his children took up the sport, in part, because it seemed to be a legacy – his wife also has serious runners on her side of the family – Kevin said he never “really forced my kids or suggested that they run track. They just kind of fell into it.”

The children were around running from the time they were young and he recalls photos of some of them on the track at 1 or 2 years old. They took part in the Tuesday Night Fun Runs – children’s summer races at Carey Stadium – and he helped coach at the former St. Augustine Regional School, where he started the cross country team.

At St. Augustine he let any student run. The teams were supposed to be for third through eighth grade, but even kindergartners had the chance, including daughter Kelsey.

“I did that with Kelsey and a lot of other CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) coaches got all pissed off at me because she was smoking (the older runners) as a kindergartner. I figured if the kids want to run, let them run. They have nothing else to do.”

Never played favorites

Kevin said – and his kids attested – that he never played favorites with his own children. 

“Track and field is not like other sports where it’s a question of who plays and who doesn’t. It’s not subjective. A basketball coach has to decide if you’re a better free throw shooter, but for me it was all in the stopwatch. You either did it or you didn’t.

“If you earned it,” he said, “you got to run.”

Periodically, however, he would give some kids who weren’t the fastest in an event some chances during actual competitions to see if they could move up to a starting position. 

“I didn’t want to exclude anybody and I never ever cut anybody from the team. That sends a negative feeling to the kids that they’re not good enough,” he said.

A big benefit for Kevin was coaching his own children and other children.

“For me it was a nice break in the middle of my day and I really loved being with the kids. I loved traveling with them. We would spend all day Saturday at some of these meets. I don’t really regret one second of doing it,” he said.

Kevin said he was fortunate to have an employer who valued a dad who wanted to spend the time with his kids.

“I would come back to work afterwards or on weekends to finish my work,” he said. “I ultimately started my own business so I could spend even more time with the kids and coaching – and not just my kids. The teams too.”

His wife was regularly there to encourage the kids and cheer them on.

He laughed and added, “There were some meets she couldn’t make because there were at least four or five of the kids who were born during track season.”

Thinking about that, he noted because he coached track almost year-round, pretty much all of the kids were born during one season or another.

Daughter Kelsey followed him into coaching and has been an assistant working with the runners at OCHS. “She loves being with the kids every day like I did,” her father said.

He is disappointed that he no longer is coaching. 

“A lot of people ask me if I miss it and I do. It’s hard to talk about. I wish I was still coaching.

You can’t hang on forever. I like to think I finished at the top. I had a lot of great kids, a lot of great teams. We had a lot of success, even nationally,” Kevin said. 

“What I really learned was that these other coaches, who don’t have the talented kids that we have (in Ocean City), whose teams never do well, I give them all the credit in the world for coming back year after year to keep doing it. … I was lucky to have such great kids.”

Although he no longer coaches, he remains a big proponent of track and field and cross country, believing they are wonderful sports that focus on individual achievement.

“You have to succeed individually in order to help your team. I think that’s what helps the kids learn more about themselves and it develops more self-esteem,” he said.

He said his kids also played other sports growing up and that his two boys played baseball for years. Still, he added, the fact all of them did the same sport did add up to a legacy for the family and there are one heck of a lot of varsity letters.

“I can’t tell you where all the letters are, but they’re in this house somewhere,” he said. “We figured it out that we only missed three seasons – Caitlin missed a season because she had surgery on her leg, Danielle missed a cross country season and Tyler missed a season due to COVID” canceling it.

He said he hasn’t heard of another family around the area who can match the number of seasons, but he puts it into perspective and laughs. “My kids weren’t all superstars; we just happened to have seven kids and they all did the same sport.”

He still runs and goes to watch sons Tyler and Korey, who compete for Rowan University.

When asked to look back on all those years of his children running and what it meant to him, Kevin said, “I just wanted them to be out there doing something and trying to succeed. I never told them they had to succeed, just that they had to try.”

So far he has two grandchildren, but he’s not sure if they’ll go into running. “I don’t know. Their dad was a soccer player at Ocean City so I don’t know if they’ll get the running genes. Their mom ran, so you never know.”