Gator Country

Florida men's basketball coach Billy Donovan added Preston Greene to his coaching staff on Tuesday. / Gator Country file photo by Tim Casey

Florida Gators men’s basketball coach Billy Donovan announced the hiring of Preston Greene as the team’s new strength and conditioning coordinator on Tuesday.

“We’re excited about the addition of Preston to our staff,” Donovan said in a statement. “He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, and we’re looking forward to having him work with our team.”

Greene spent the last two seasons for the Clemson men’s basketball team as an assistant strength and conditioning coach where the Tigers posted a record of 43-23 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament both seasons.

“I came to Florida to win and to contribute to the excellence that this program has had under Coach Donovan,” Greene said in the same statement.

Greene is one of only seven internationally certified Level 5 coaches through the Poliquin International Certification Program (PICP) and is a BioSignature Modulation Practitioner.

This past season, Greene’s work in the weight room with Jerai Grant was one of the reasons the Tiger center was among the most improved players in the ACC. When Grant first enrolled at Clemson, he weighed just over 210 pounds and played only 8.3 minutes per game. In 2010-11, he played all season at 230 pounds and was the team’s second-leading scorer at 12.4 points per game.

Greene also had a positive impact in his first season at Clemson with first-team All-ACC forward Trevor Booker, who was eventually selected as the 23rd overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards.

Greene, a 1999 Clemson graduate, returned to his alma mater after multiple stops, including a one-year stint during the 2008-09 season at Stanford, Charlotte from 2003-08, and for two years at the University of Arizona, working with a number of teams at each institution.

Greene earned a bachelor’s degree in health science from Clemson in 1999, with a minor in sport management. During his time as a Tiger, Greene worked as a student and graduate assistant under Joey Batson from 1995-99.

He received a master’s degree in 2000 from the University of Minnesota in applied kinesiology and sports management. Greene holds numerous certifications and memberships, including the National Strength & Conditioning Association (NSCA). He also recently earned certification as a performance enhancement specialist by the National Association of Sports Medicine (NASM).

He is the co-founder of the Eleiko Strength Summit, first held on May 8, 2010, at the Poliquin Strength Institute in Greenwich, R.I. The Eleiko Strength Summit is an invite-only event that attracts the elite level strength & conditioning coaches in the United States.

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