Fishburne Military School athletics looks to build on recent successes

Bryan Greene was busy at work, trying to find opponents for the Fishburne Military School baseball team next spring.

The key reason given to Greene, the athletics director at Fishburne, for the baseball team being left out of the 2015 state tournament was its schedule.

“We need to find more games, more good games,” said Greene, who had a busier-than-usual summer getting ready for the 2015-2016 school year.

Coaching openings in football, wrestling and baseball also had his attention as the FMS athletics program looks to build on a successful two-year run.

The football team played in the state playoffs in 2013, and the basketball team was a state qualifier in 2015. Baseball, by all rights, should have been a state tournament team in 2015, and the school had a state wrestling champion in 2015 graduate Daniel May.

The goal for 2015-2016 is to use those successes as a foundation for what could be a banner sports year.

“The cadets are on board with it, the staff is on board with it, the administration is on board with it. The consensus on campus is, we need another great year, and we’re going to work toward it,” Greene said.

Greene is also the varsity basketball coach, and with six key players from the 2015 state tournament team, the expectations will be high on the hardwood this winter.

“The experience of getting to states helps them a lot,” Greene said. “One of the things we emphasized at the start of last season was setting goals, and the state tournament was a realistic goal. So when we qualify for the state tournament, and have that week between the conference tournament and the state tournament, the message was, this doesn’t happen all the time, so make the most of it.”

That’s the general message across the sports landscape on campus at FMS this year. Athletics plays an important role in the educational mission at Fishburne, with cadets required to take part in athletics activities year-round.

“The education that we provide, the things that we do in terms of discipline, accountability, responsibility, the lessons that it is the school’s mission to teach, you don’t see the impact of those immediately. What the athletics department does is provide a sort of snapshot for our staff, for our administration, to show how our guys can come together as a team, to work through issues, to overcome adversity, to set on a mission and accomplish it,” Greene said.

– Story by Chris Graham