A year later, he would become a football graduate assistant coach at Ohio Northern University, where he coached the middle linebackers and assisted with the special teams.
But he wanted something more.
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| K-State strength and conditioning coach Scott Greenawalt works with a basketball player. |
"I love being on the field coaching kids Xs and Os and all that stuff, but I just loved the other part of it, behind the scenes, getting kids stronger and faster and all that stuff," he said. "I took more of a liking to that."
So the Polar Bears coach at the time allowed Greenawalt to head up the strength program for the football team as well. He spent 10 months at Ohio Northern, and soon would find his foot in the door that was once closed.
He would get an opportunity to go the University of Cincinnati to work with the football program as an intern in the strength and conditioning department. He gladly accepted the opportunity.
"I just loved it, absolutely loved it," Greenawalt said. "I loved football and loved training it."
Greenawalt had spent a couple of months working with the football program, when a guy who was training basketball players at the university asked him if he could help him out. Greenawalt accepted the invitation, despite not ever working with basketball before. It was a decision that would help lead him to where he is today.
"I'm in there working the kids out and I turn around and there's coach (Bob) Huggins," he said. "I continued working guys out and what not. After the workout, he (Huggins) says, 'hey, come here.' He says 'I want you to train my team.' He said 'come up to my office in a half an hour and we're going to sit down and talk.'
"That's how I kind of made my switch from football to basketball. Coach Huggins is kind of the one that gave me the opportunity to get into basketball."
He would become the head assistant coach for the next seven years at Cincinnati, where he coordinated all the weight training and conditioning for the men's and women's basketball, baseball and volleyball teams, while assisting with the football program.
He eventually left Cincinnati to follow Huggins, who had accepted the men's basketball head coaching job at K-State in 2006.
But after just one year on the job, Huggins bolted for the men's basketball job at his alma mater West Virginia. There were a couple of days where Greenawalt didn't know what to do and he pondered following the man who had gotten him to where he was.
"There's no question that I thought about it and I thought very hard about it," Greenawalt said of the possibility of going to West Virginia. "It was a very, very tough decision. Not because it was West Virginia but because it was coach Huggins, and when a guy helps you out in your career as much as he's helped me out, it's hard to let a guy down.
"But this is what makes coach Huggins such a great guy is that he's always said you gotta do what you want to do. Whatever makes you happy you gotta stick with it and go. 'I want you here with me,' but K-State's a great place and if you want to stay there you need to stay if that makes you happy."
Greenawalt chose to stay, saying the hiring of Frank Martin as Huggins' replacement sealed the deal. He now enters his fourth season as the K-State strength and conditioning coach of the basketball programs. It's a decision he doesn't regret to this day.
"K-State is a great place, the people here are great, my wife loves it here and it's a great place to raise kids and all that stuff," he said. "I made a decision to stay and I'm very happy I did it."
As for his first love of training football players? Well, it turns out basketball isn't all that different.
"It's very similar to football," Greenawalt said. "We get after it, we bang weights, it's very intense. It's kind of like a football atmosphere so I don't feel too far away from football.
"It's training athletes. It's training basketball kids and I love it."
