Torren Greene has waited patiently for his opportunity.
Now in his senior year, the Paul VI High School guard has burst into the starting lineup on the boys basketball team. And he’s starting to feel more comfortable in his new role, despite some opening weekend jitters.
“It’s been good, but I’ve been a little nervous,” Greene said. “But I’m starting to get used to it.”
Greene spent his freshman year at Hudson Catholic Regional School, Jersey City, before moving with his family to South Jersey and transferring to Paul VI at the start of his sophomore year. Greene made his varsity debut last season as a junior, coming off the bench and contributing more than five points a game. Toward the end of the season, there were flashes of what the point guard could do, producing five double-figure games during the second half of the schedule. A career-high 22 points against Gloucester Catholic High School in late January served up a small sample size of Greene’s abilities.
“He’s been a good player for us, but he’s getting his shot as a starter now as a senior,” Paul VI coach Tony Devlin said before Paul VI took on Notre Dame on Dec. 16. “He usually plays point guard for us, but we’re able to move him to shooting guard with a few kids out with injury and illness.”
That game, Greene took advantage of the switch to shooting guard and scored a team-high 17 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Greene said he’s been working on his game in the offseason with the hopes of getting a late recruiting call to play college ball. He’s never picked easy practice partners to oppose him.
“I just practice every day, and I usually work out with people that were better than me and they helped me get to a whole new level,” Greene said.
One of those players is Auburn University commit Tahaad Pettiford, who is considered one of the best high school guards in the state. Pettiford is in his senior year at Hudson Catholic, and the two childhood friends remained close despite being geographically further away.
“He really helped me a lot,” Greene said. “I’ve played with him since I was pretty young.”
Greene also played shortstop and pitcher in baseball as a kid but quickly found out that basketball was more his speed, which is fast.
“At 8 years old, that’s when I really switched to basketball, and I’ve been loving it ever since,” he said. “It’s more active than baseball.”
Greene is part of his school’s African American Club and said he’s contemplating running track in the spring. He figures he’ll study business in college or possibly go to a prep school to sharpen his basketball skills with the hopes of getting scooped up by a college team a year later.
He hopes to pursue basketball at the next level like his uncle Dennis Goodson, who was a star point guard at Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University) and played on the first of two Jersey City State men’s basketball NCAA Final Four teams in 1986. Goodson passed away in 2002 at the age of 36 after complications from a blood clot in his leg caused heart failure. NJCU honors Goodson with an annual Memorial Basketball Award, which recognizes recipients’ qualities like team loyalty and dedication, competitive spirit and leadership.
Greene, although he never met his uncle, honors his late relative by wearing Goodson’s No. 12 at Paul VI High School.
“He was very well-known, and he was very good at basketball,” Greene said. “Even though I never knew him, he was still a role model.”
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