On the rebound

A rebuilt Greenville honored as SI Sportstown for North Carolina

By Andrew Schulman

On Sept. 15, 1999, Hurricane Floyd tore its way through eastern North Carolina. One of the many cities unlucky enough to be in its path was Greenville. Boyd Lee, who has seen many things as director of the city’s parks and recreation department for the last 37 years, says the effects of Floyd left a lasting impression.

“We were hit pretty hard. This was a sorry looking place after Floyd hit,” said Lee. “There were six or eight inches of water covering our baseball field, and that was certainly the first time I’ve ever been around 18 holes of golf in a boat.”

But as hard as the hurricane hit Greenville, the residents of Greenville "hit" back, banding together and putting the pieces back in place.

“The people of Greenville are remarkable. We’ve not only rebuilt everything but made this city better than it was before,” said Lee. “There’s a tremendous sense of family, and everyone works together to make things happen.”

And that sense of family carries over to a recreation and parks department whose staff comprises 13 members -– including Lee –- who have been with the department for more than 25 years.

During that time, both Greenville and its parks and recreation offerings have grown by leaps and bounds. In 1969 –- Lee’s first year as director -– the city had a population of 17,000 and less than 100 acres of park land. The Recreation and Parks Department (GRPD) had five full-time employees, a budget of $116,000 and ran 25 programs. Today, Greenville has about 62,000 residents and upward of 1,300 acres of parkland, while the RPD now employs 60 full-timers, has an annual budget of $4 million and runs more than 500 programs.

Among those programs are sports for youth, adults and seniors –- everything from standard fare such as baseball, soccer and basketball to more eclectic sports like cricket and in-line hockey.

"We really focus on diversity in our programming," said Lee. "We want to meet the needs and satisfy the interests of as many people as possible. If 10 people want to try something, we’ll give it a go.”

That approach has paid off, as more than 596,000 residents registered for last year’s offerings -- meaning that, on average, every man, woman and child in Greenville participated in almost 10 different programs. And participation has also led to success later in life as youth who learned the basics in programs run by the GRPD have gone on to lead Greensville-area high schools to recent state titles in baseball, football and gymnastics, all of which further unite the city around sports.

How fitting is it then, as Greenville is taking the final steps in rebuilding itself from the devastation of Hurricane Floyd, that the city has earned another state title to rally around –- that of Sports Illustrated Sportstown?