Barry Greener’s wrestling journey started in December 1965 when he decided to try the sport of wrestling as a junior at Weymouth High School. He loved the sport from the beginning and had some success finishing fourth and second in the Massachusetts State Tournament in 1966 and 1967. The 1967 Weymouth team was very solid, sharing a league title and finishing fifth at the state tournament.

In the Spring of 1967, Barry became a football recruit at the University of Maine where the football staff encouraged him to continue wrestling. Maine had a club team his first two seasons but Maine wrestling became a varsity sport in 1969. They had moderate success those early years but the program became stronger in the next few seasons before it was eliminated in 1984. Barry was elected captain his senior year which was very satisfying.

In the spring of 1971, Barry accepted a graduate assistantship at his college alma mater to be the assistant offensive line coach and the assistant wrestling coach. This was a great experience because of Walt Abbott and his outstanding football staff and Ewen Mackinnon who coached freshman football and varsity wrestling.

In August 1972, Barry started his 50 year career at Walpole High School as a history teacher, assistant football coach, and head wrestling coach. He coached wrestling for 27 years from 1972 to 2002 minus three years when he accepted a head football position at another high school. Overall, during that period Walpole’s wrestling team had modest results. In dual meets the program was six wins over .500 in a good league with a solid non-league schedule. In the twelve team Bay State Conference, Walpole won one conference title and three Herget Division Championships during that period. At the individual level, Walpole wrestling had 16 sectional champions, one state champion, and three New England place winners, of which two were finalists. Barry’s contributions to the development of his athletes were legendary and they credited him as being an exceptionally positive influence in their life. A 2012 article from the Searchlight, Walpole High School’s student newspaper, stated that Coach Greener was a “man who for the past four decades has molded the minds and characters of countless students with undying commitment.”

Finally, Barry noted, “I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge my late longtime assistant coach, Rob Fluckenger, who was Walpole’s first state champion in 1969 and a great wrestling coach. Also, I would like to recognize Bill Wassel who was the wrestling coach at Walpole before I took over in 1972. He built a solid program.”