Wayne Greenbeck has many conference titles from coaching over the years.

He has won four boys basketball conference titles and one girls basketball conference title. He also won one boys basketball regional title. 

His best season was during 1976-77 when they won both the conference and regional, finishing the season 23-6. He has more boys basketball victories than any coach in Minooka history.

For his career as a coach, Greenbeck is being inducted into the MCHS Athletic Hall of Fame this year. 

Greenbeck graduated from Minooka High School in 1963. The sports he was known for were basketball, baseball, and track as an athlete. He was part of the baseball team that first qualified for the IHSA State Finals tournament in 1962. His senior year, the basketball team was 25-3. He later went to Northern Illinois University (NIU) for college where he played basketball for his years there.

Greenbeck returned to Minooka and became head boys basketball coach in 1971.  He would hold that position for 15 seasons.  

His favorite parts of coaching were “watching players develop not only in basketball skills, but also as young men. And watching a team improve beginning of season until the end.”

The 1976-77 boys team was arguably his best. He said then he was “hoping that we wouldn’t have injuries, because I knew this was a special group.”

The hardest game he coached in his career was the 1976-77 sectional championship basketball game. 

 “We had a rough first half,” Greenbeck said. “Couldn’t make a basket. Shot like 20%! Behind 30 to 15! Second half, kids played hard, came back and we had the last shot to win the game. Tough loss, but kids worked their butts off to get into that position to win. Very proud of the team.”

Greenbeck later became the head varsity girls basketball coach, winning a conference title in his first year.  His was especially happy about “the time I got to spend with my daughters while coaching the girls. Leah was a very good player, and Karyn was a team manager.”  

Greenbeck also became an athletic director and many sports were added in the 1990s.

“MCHS had an athletic minded administration and Board of Education,” Greenbeck said. “We were growing in attendance. So it was their leadership that added those sports.”

In his final years at MCHS, he continued coaching boys basketball as an assistant. 

Greenbeck will be recognized before the varsity football game on Sept. 27. Other Hall of Fame inductees who will be recognized then include Tom Clennon (athlete), Cyndi Kiper (athlete), Jenna Hall (athlete), Russ Weil (athlete), Ron Lehman (special merit), and the 1962 baseball team.