Rolando Greene was named the head coach of the Purdue men's and women's track & field and cross country teams on July 3, 2012. Greene came to Purdue from the University of Arkansas where he worked with the women's program for 16 seasons. Most recently, he was the associate head coach in charge of sprints, hurdles, horizontal jumps and multi events. He was named the USTFCCCA South Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year in 2011 and 2012.
At Purdue, Greene has led 36 Boilermakers to 76 All-America Honors, with 37 first teamers, 28 second teamers, and 11 honorable mention honorees. By year, Greene in 2015-16 had 14 first teamers, 18 second teamers and seven honorable mentions, in 2014-15 had 14 first teamers, a second teamer and two honorable mentions, in 2013-14 he had had four first teamers and four second teamers, and in 2012-13 he had five first teamers, five second teamers and two honorable mention honorees. For his career, Greene has coached 60 different individuals to 169 All-America honors.
In 2014, Greene was named the Purdue Coach of the Year, after his men's and women's teams were named the teams of the year at the annual department-wide Golden Pete Award event. Three of his athletes, Raheem Mostert, Dani Bunch and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, earned awards for Breakout Player of the Year, Best Individual Performance, and Best Season Performance by an individual, respectively.
Greene led the Boilermakers to an incredible nine school records and five No. 2 marks in program history during the 2014 indoor season. He helped coach two individuals to three Big Ten Championships, with Raheem Mostert winning the 60- and 200-meter conference titles and Dani Bunch claiming the weight throw crown. Mostert is the first Big Ten athlete to win the 60 and 200 in the same year since 2009, the first Purdue male to win a Big Ten Championship since 2010, first Purdue male to win the 200 since 2008, and the first Purdue male to ever win an indoor conference championship in two events for his career, let alone the same season. Mostert was named the Big Ten Male Athlete of the Championships, while Bunch won the Big Ten Women's Athlete of the Year. Greene led the men's and women's teams to fifth place finishes at the conference championships, a jump of five and four spots, respectively, from 2013.
Four Boilermakers qualified for the 2014 NCAA Indoor Championships in seven events under Greene. Mostert qualified in the 60- and 200-meter dashes, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi qualified in the men's shot put and weight throw, Dani Bunch qualified in the women's shot put and weight throw, and Cierra Brown qualified in the triple jump. The women finished t-19th with 10 points, as Bunch was First Team All-America in both events. The finish was the fifth-best in Purdue history and the best since 2000. The 10 points tie for the second-most in program history at the NCAA Championships. The men finished t-32nd with six points, as Enekwechi was First Team All-America in the weight throw. The men's finish was the program's second-best since 2005. Brown earned second team All-America honors, while Mostert was second team All-America in both events.
During the 2013 cross country season, Greene led the men's team to a sixth-place finish at the Big Ten Championships, and the women's team to an eighth-place finish. Both teams' finishes were three spots better than 2012. The men's finish was the best since 1991, while the women's was the best since 2007.
Greene coached sophomore Matthew McClintock to a runner-up finish at the Big Ten Championships, and he was named First Team All-Big Ten. McClintock automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships after a runner-up finish at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional. McClintock finished 37th and became Purdue's first cross country All-American since 1987.
In his first year with the Boilermaker track and field and cross country programs, the Boilermakers saw improvement across the board. Under Greene's direction, the men's cross country team qualified two freshmen as individuals for the NCAA Championships. It is the first time that any program has had two freshmen qualify as individuals in the same year since the early 1970s. Matthew McClintock was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and was first team all-conference as a rookie. McClintock was also named the Big Ten Runner of the Week two times in 2012.
The 2012-13 track season was one of the most improved in the conference. Greene helped lead five individuals to USTFCCCA All-America honors, including three on the first team. His athletes posted 19 individual top-five marks in program history for the indoor season, including school records in four different events. Greene worked with freshman Vanessa McLeod and guided her to Purdue's first women's 800m Big Ten Champion since 2002 and just the third in program history. McLeod broke the school record in the event with a time of 2:05.21, shattering the previous mark by nearly three seconds. In his first Big Ten season, Greene led the women to a ninth place finish and the men to 10th. The men finished 18that the NCAA Indoor Championships in Greene's first season, led by freshman Chukwuebuka Enekwechi who won the bronze medal in the weight throw. Geoff Davis also scored, as he took fifth in the high jump, in the best season of his career.
During the outdoor season, Greene helped the team to nearly unprecedented improvement. In his first year, he helped 18 individuals and a relay team qualify for the NCAA East Regionals, and had six individuals with top 25 marks in the country. The qualifying individual total was a 50% increase from the year prior. Six of the 18 individuals qualified for the NCAA Championships in six total events, including Enekwechi and Coy Blair as the only freshmen throws tandem in the nation to make the NCAAs. Geoff Davis also qualified and podiumed for the first time in his career as he finished third in the nation in the high jump. Greene helped individuals to three outdoor school records in his first year, including the women's 800m, women's shot put, and men's 400m hurdles. The hurdles record had stood since 1985.
At the 2013 outdoor Big Ten Championships, Greene led the Purdue men to the largest point increase of any team from the previous season. The men improved their score by 40.5 points, 18 points more than any other team in the league. At the championships, Dani Bunch won the women's shot put title, while Geoff Davis was runner-up in the high jump.
Greene did more than just coach. The men's and women's teams were named USTFCCCA Academic All-America in his first year. The head coach also put together one of the best recruiting classes in recent Purdue history as he brought in the top two female sprinters from the Caribbean region with Devynne Charlton and Carmiesha Cox.
While with the Razorbacks, Greene coached four student-athletes to five NCAA event titles, 29 athletes who earned 96 All-America honors, 16 Southeast Conference champions, two SEC Runners of the Year, an SEC co-Freshman Runner of the Year and two U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association South Central Region Runners of the Year.
Arkansas finished in the top 25 at both the NCAA Women's Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships in five of the last six seasons with the help of Greene's direction. The Razorbacks finished fourth in 2011 and tied for fifth in 2012 at the indoor meet, while posting three top-15 finishes outdoors.
In more than 20 years of coaching at collegiate level, Greene has mentored eight Olympians, including two from the 2012 London Games, and three student-athletes who have competed at the World Championships. Additionally, his student-athletes have competed at the World Junior Championships, World University Games, Pan Am Games, NACAC U-23 Championships and Central American Championships. He has served on the coaching staff for the NACAC U-23 Championships and was selected (but did not serve) as an aide for the Central American Championships.
Greene was promoted to associate head coach in 2000 and put together back-to-back unprecedented seasons in 2004 and 2005, when two of his student-athletes swept the 200-meter national championships at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor meets the first year, then followed it with an Aneita Denton sweep of the 800-meter titles in 2005. The 2004 200-meter duo, Veronica Campbell-Brown and La'Shaunte'a Moore, were participants at the Athens Olympics.
Greene was recognized by his peers with the 2004 U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association National Assistant Coach of the Year award. He also was named the USTFCCCA's Mideast Region Sprint Coach of the Year in 2007.
Prior to his stint at Arkansas, Greene was an assistant coach with the University of Minnesota women's program in 1995-96. He was a men's and women's assistant at what is now Missouri State University from 1991 to 1995.
A native of Nassau, Bahamas, Greene earned his B.S. from Murray State University in 1989. He is married to former Razorback LaTayna Stewart. The couple has a daughter, Charisse; three sons, Cameron, Isaiah and Jacob; and two grandchildren, Tylan and Caleb.