Coleman leaving Island Coast for Lehigh
After six seasons as head basketball coach at Island Coast, Greg Coleman is leaving to take over at Lehigh next season.
“Most people don’t know that I started my teaching career at Lehigh,” said Coleman. “I was the JV basketball coach, but I was wanting to build my own program and the job at Ida Baker opened up, then on to Island Coast.”
In his nine seasons as a head coach Coleman has a record of 124-118, including 47-36 at Baker. The Gators were the No. 3 seed in their district this past season and finished 12-14.
“I’m looking forward to the change, but it was a bittersweet decision to leave Island Coast,” Coleman said. “As a coach you always want to leave a program better than you found it and I believe I did that. We accomplished a lot there.”
Coleman takes over a Lightning program that was denied a third straight trip to the regional finals with a quarterfinal loss to Golden Gate in February. Nine of the players that helped the Lightning go 19-8 return next season along with an invitation to play in the next City of Palms Classic.
“We’ve wanted to move back to Fort Myers for awhile,” said Coleman. “We sold our house and buying one in Buckingham. I always liked it out there. It’s a change for the family without being a big change. Kind of like getting out of town without really going out of town.”
Coleman said the Turkey Shootout tournament he started at Island Coast will follow him to Lehigh as well as a summer program he developed.
“What I am leaving behind is football,” Coleman said. “I’m done with coaching football.”
While at Island Coast, Coleman filled in as interim head football coach and interim athletic director until replacements were hired for those positions.
Island Coast is just beginning its search to find a new basketball coach to continue the program that is in good shape talentwise going forward.