Greene Makes Profound Impact on Those Around Him

A decade ago, Josh Greene was in the process of preparing for his bar mitzvah when a simple project sparked a love and desire to help others.

In many ways, it has shaped the man he is today.

"You have a mitzvah project, which is pretty much just doing a good deed," said Greene. "It doesn't have to be very sizable or profound, but every kid in my temple completed a project."

Naturally, Greene's mind went to sports, as he played a number of sports growing up and never had to worry about getting the newest equipment.

"But playing travel sports, I saw that wasn't the case for every kid," he said. "I thought it'd be cool to set up a couple of cardboard boxes at our local opening day for my rec baseball league and send out a notice to collect gently used sporting equipment."

The local Boys & Girls Club down the road had just been robbed, with a lot of equipment taken.

"It's almost like my mitzvah project was an 'excuse' for me to do something good and I'm so glad that's what ended up happening because from there, we did the first donation to the Boys & Girls Club," said Greene. "That was an amazing experience getting to see how happy those kids were, who weren't much younger than I was. But the way they looked at me with such gratitude, that's an emotion that kids I grew up with didn't always express because they were so fortunate.

"Seeing kids who were able to receive something they're not used to, some love and some good fortune, was really neat."

Greene's foundation, Off the Bench, was formed — something that is still making a difference in lives today.

Keep in mind that when the idea first came up, Greene was 11 years old.

"I've done it now for half my life," he said. "It's something I'm passionate about, and something I love."
Josh Greene

At the core of the foundation is soliciting donations. Greene quickly found that people are looking to help.

"At the beginning stages of my collections, it was just big cardboard boxes and we put the logo of my foundation on them," he said. "We put them at a bunch of different spots. There were eight fields at our local rec league park; we had one box at each entrance, and they would be filled during opening day. We'd have to rent trucks to move all this stuff, then I'd get emails from people saying they missed that donation, but have so much they want to give."

There's never a bad time to give.

"It doesn't have to just be a donation time for us to collect," said Greene. "There's never a set date on when you can help others. It's all the time."

Greene couldn't have done everything with his organization without the help from family and friends.

"In the early stages, my parents were definitely very supportive," he said. "I obviously couldn't drive at the time when I was 11. As I got older, I got some of my friends to help me out, which was really cool. Towards the end of my senior year, we did a second donation to the first Boys & Girls Club that I donated to way back in 2012."

In 2012, Greene was still a kid, but the second time around, he was a high school football player headed to play Division I college football at Dartmouth in the not-too-distant future.

Off the Bench's impact can take many forms. Greene's sister has taken a bigger role in helping over the last few years, especially over COVID.

"We had some personal trainer friends of ours who made some free workout videos that we were able to send out to the community over COVID," said Greene. "At that time, not many people had at-home gyms. During such a tough time, if you got to enjoy working out for 30 minutes during the day, then that's a positive."

Moving into his time at Dartmouth, Greene's love of giving back has continued. This year, Greene was one of 22 football student-athletes nation-wide named to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, one of just three from the FCS and the first-ever Dartmouth student-athlete named to the team, which will be recognized at the Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

First ever Dartmouth selection ✅
1 of 3 FCS players on this year's team ✅
Founded the Off the Bench Foundation ✅

Congratulations to our own Josh Greene for his selection to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team‼️

🔗: https://t.co/sxLvRsB6dX #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/7igpYmeVOo
— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) September 12, 2023

How did Greene make his way to Hanover, New Hampshire from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and become a midseason All-American long snapper?

The answer to those questions is interconnected.

"Believe it or not, I was one of the bigger kids back in Pop Warner, so I played center," said Greene. "And just because I played center, I long snapped.

"When I was in eighth grade, my dad and I went to the Harvard — Yale game because College Gameday was there," Green continued. "I remember seeing the long snappers and thought maybe this was something I could do."

When thinking about college football, Greene first thought about Harvard, but quickly learned about Dartmouth, which as he said, was "where I really wanted to be."

Greene excelled at offensive and defensive line in high school, but he's self-aware enough to know he was undersized for those positions in college.

"If I'd get to have this Division I football Ivy League experience at Dartmouth and have to long snap, then great," he said. "I applied to the school early decision and got deferred, so I was a little bit disgruntled and bitter for a while, but I still knew I really wanted to come here. I was very close to going to a couple other schools, some smaller schools to play defensive line, but when I got into Dartmouth, I talked to Coach T (Teevens) and Coach Mac (McCorkle) and they said that they'd love for me to come snap."

Now that he's at Dartmouth, Greene's impact has been profound. He has garnered a huge amount of respect from those around him, due in large part to seeing himself as a football player and not just a long snapper.

"When Josh runs sprints, he's running with everybody else," said Robert L. Blackman Head Football Coach Sammy McCorkle. "When we do tackle circuit, he's jumping into tackle circuit with the defense. He's part of the football team. He doesn't isolate himself. He doesn't think, 'I'm just a specialist so I don't have to do this or I don't want to do that.'

"Josh works just as hard as everybody else, and that's where I believe he gains the respect."

As clear from his impact with Off the Bench, Greene cares about people.

That has translated to Josh Greene the teammate.
Josh Greene football action versus UNH

"Josh is an individual who values and cares about everybody," said McCorkle. "Everybody is important to him. That's something we stress as a program, but he lives it and he practices it all the time."

Sports are such an important part of Greene's life that his appreciation for the opportunities he's had, including getting to play at Dartmouth, has made him want to help give those opportunities to others (through donating athletics equipment to youth).

"From a young age, sports helped me bond with my dad," said Greene. "He was a coach for a lot of my childhood, coaching me, which was awesome. But then, the camaraderie of sports is the best part. My teammates are some of the best friends that I'll ever have."

Greene also loves working towards a goal, such as a championship.

"Being a champion, I've been lucky enough to have that taste here twice (Dartmouth won Ivy League championships in 2019 and 2021)," he said. "Hopefully we'll figure out a way to get that one more time. But just having that purpose drives you."

Greene, who is also a two-time Academic All-District honoree, is driven to continue with his foundation beyond graduation.

"I'm never going to close the door on Off the Bench, whether it's as it currently looks, or maybe it evolves into something different," he said.

"I don't see a reason why I would stop giving back."

What drives Greene to continually give back?

"It makes me happy to see other people happy and to help other people," he said. "Football makes me happy because I love to play and I love seeing my teammates succeed and my team succeed. That's in a similar vein why I've continued to be involved in philanthropic organizations, because I know I'm making a difference and that makes me feel good."

It's only fitting that Greene has also made a difference in the Upper Valley community, serving underserved youths with the organization DREAM (Directing through Recreation, Adventure and Mentoring).
Josh Greene and Mentee

Greene has been involved with DREAM since returning to campus in 2021 after being away due to COVID.

"I've had my mentee and we hang out for a couple hours every Friday," said Greene. "During the season, I don't get to go on Fridays because we have practice, but I believe my mentee has come to every home game but one this year. For me, it's a no-brainer to use that time to do something good and make someone's day brighter."

Greene saw an email one day about the opportunity, was interested and the rest is history.

"It's really cool to have this impact on this kid's life who I've only known for a brief time, but I think our relationship will last beyond my time here," he said.

Greene has impacted so many people, including his Big Green teammates.

"We did a thing last spring where I asked everybody to write down the one person you would want to pack your parachute," said McCorkle. "I would say 80 percent of the team said Josh Greene. That's the effect he has on the team. People trust him, they listen to him and they believe in him.

"To have your team talk about you like that and respect you that way, you can't ask for anything better."