Director of Campus Recreation and Fitness Winfred Green says fellow AU employees and student workers are his family
Winfred Green is all about family.
He and people on the Anderson University campus have been friends for a half century. Green went to high school with Director of Health Services Deb Taylor and Director of Postal Operations Scott Taylor. Scott Taylor “took him under his wing” when Green joined the basketball team at T.L. Hannah High School, Green said. He also fondly remembers Scott Taylor’s mom.
“You couldn’t come to Mama Taylor’s house without her feeding you,” Green said.
Now, Green is proud of the family that he, the Taylors, faculty and staff and students form at AU.
“We are a family here,” he said.
Green, a lifelong Anderson, South Carolina, resident, is the director of campus recreation and fitness at Anderson University. In fact, he developed the program from its beginnings as only an intramural sports program of two sports: basketball and powder puff football. Today, it has two dozen intramural sports and about a dozen fitness classes that range from pilates to Latin dance.
This semester, to adhere to Journey Ahead protocols, Green said the recreation and fitness program is offering non-contact, outdoor sports only and allowing up to eight students in each of its group fitness classes.
Frisbee, golf, spikeball (roundnet), kickball, sand volleyball, table tennis and billiard tournaments are the intramurals offered this semester, Green said.
“For group fitness classes, we are limited to eight students per class, but we (are offering) more classes to offset the limited numbers of students per class,” he said.
But while Green orchestrates the intramural sports and fitness classes, he says it’s the family of about 40 student workers that power AU’s offering of intramural sports and fitness classes. In fact, students teach AU’s fitness classes in addition to monitoring the fitness center, Green said.
“They’re the backbone of our organization,” he said.
Before coming to Anderson, Green, who turned 65 this year, worked for the Anderson Recreation Center, and there he ran the youth sports programs and served as the gym and field supervisor. He began working for AU in 1991 because the institution needed someone to run the sports clock for athletic events; Green also joined the landscape team.
Green has also served as the housekeeping supervisor and as a resident director for three years. He became the college’s intramurals director in 1998. Green attributes much of his career growth at Anderson to the encouragement of then-Dean of Student Services Dr. Bob Hanley.
“Sometimes people see things in us that we don’t see in ourselves,” Green said about Dr. Hanley.
He is grateful for his ability to work here.
“I’ve been blessed,” said Green, who marked his 30th work anniversary at AU in January. “If you love what you’re doing, you never work a day in your life.”
Green says his favorite part of his job is working with and training the student workers. And after they graduate and return during homecoming, he is excited to hear the news on grad schools and meeting their significant others.
While Green doesn’t have biological children, in his job at AU, he said he has 1,500 children. Last semester, when students returned home to help stem the spread of COVID-19, Green said he checked in with his students and told them he missed them.
“We are all here because of the students,” he said.