It doesn’t matter how close your seats are to the floor, there is one thing that really stands out. He stands among the rest of the players and makes them look like boys, not men. With broad shoulders and a chiseled physique, he looks more like a mountain than a man. He looks as though he would just as likely tear your head off as say hello. This is not the type of man you would want to meet on a dark deserted street.

But this is just the shell that you see on the outside. What you don’t see is the inner man. The only real thing about this man that is the size of a mountain is his heart. Nate Green is the kind of man that you would want to meet on a dark deserted street, because he would make sure that you would traverse that street without a worry.

It might not have been that way. Nate’s mother, Loretta, was attending the University of Maryland when she found that she was pregnant with Nate. She was not married at the time and realized that school was to become secondary for her. It wasn’t long after Nate was born that Loretta was to meet the man that would become Nate’s real father, Michael Spence. They soon married and began the process of rearing what was to be their only child.

Loretta knew that the best way to keep her son out of the gangs and other negative influences in Washington D.C. was to keep him involved in positive activities.

Nate relates, “It was interesting growing up there. I saw a lot of things like crime and drugs. My mom did everything that she could to keep me active. I was a Boy Scout and played basketball and football. She made sure I was well rounded as a child. I was a bear cub, a Weeblo and a Boy Scout. I did it all.”

But try as she might, some things Loretta could not keep from him. Violence and death were all around Nate.

“When I was in high school there was a man shot in front of our house in a drive by shooting,” Green said. “Another time, I was in a pick-up basketball game and one of the guys there was shot over the game and died immediately. It’s tough growing up in a situation like that, but you know everyone and we were friends with everybody. Because of that, no one ever really bothered us. There were a lot of people looking out for us. I was one of the fortunate kids that had a talent, so they were always rooting for me. They made sure I wasn’t involved in the wrong things.”

Although the Boy Scouts were very important in the maturing of Green, his interest in sports could not be denied. He was always big for his age, but being 6′ 4″ and strong as an ox at 15 made Nate a wanted man by both the football and basketball coaches at his high school. He had played both sports in addition to soccer growing up, but it became obvious that basketball was going to be the sport that he might be able to ride to the education that his mother was not able to attain.

“I was a defensive end and tight end in football, but you could say that I was a momma’s boy. My first football injury was a broken finger and my mom almost had a heart attack. It was just a little too nerve-wracking on her. I wish I could have kept playing, but I really needed to pick one.”

After his freshman year, Loretta and Michael decided that it was in Nate’s best interests to change high schools to better his education both in the classroom and on the basketball court. Unlike most 15 year old students, Nate got his first taste of being recruited.

“My mom wanted to get me out of the public school system after my freshman year. We looked at a several schools and a number of coaches came to our home to talk to me. My mom really liked St. Vincent Pallotti and I liked the coach so it was an easy decision.” Nate went from an inner city public school to a private Catholic middle class school. There were adjustments to be made but certainly not beyond Nate’s reach.

Nate remembers, “There was a little bit of an adjustment in that it was predominately a white school that was very different than the public school I was attending. As time went on, it became the normal thing for me, everyone is the same. I really got to see people as they really are and it really doesn’t matter what color they are. That helped me a lot for when I came to UD since it is very similar.”

There were also differences on the basketball court. Nate went from being one of the better players on the team to just being one of the guys. Pallotti was a team that had a good deal of talent at every position. During Green’s final two years they were continually in the top 15 nationally. Every player in the starting five averaged double figures but Nate still got his fair share of interest from college coaches at some of the biggest name schools in the country.

Green received his first letter from UD when he was a freshman, but didn’t immediately put them at the top of his list. His final five were Marquette, Maryland, Rutgers, Louisville and Dayton. A lot goes into the decision making process and it often has nothing to do with the school itself as Green related.

“I came to UD for a number of reasons, but the others were eliminated for specific reasons. Marquette was too far away and too cold. Louisville was good and they had a lot of players. I wanted to go somewhere I could play right away. Maryland was too close and I really needed to get away. It came down to Rutgers and Dayton and I wanted to go to Rutgers. My mom sat down and talked to their coach and she just didn’t feel good about their situation. I decided that mom probably knew best. Fortunately, she was right. Later that year, the coach was fired because he punished some of his players by making them run around naked.”

But not all was to go well when Nate got to UD. During a recruiting visit by a prospective future Flyer, the unimaginable happened, Green was involved in a fight with a another student. Nate gives his side of the story.

“Andy Metzler and I were taking a recruit around in the ghetto. We ran into a guy that thought the recruit was on the team. He had had a little too much to drink and wanted to act tough telling the recruit that he was going to walk on and take his spot on the team. I told him to chill out and just have a good time. He just wouldn’t back off and was really in the guy’s face. Andy then got in between them and pushed the guy away. The guy then threw a drink on Andy. It wasn’t long and Andy threw a punch. I pushed Andy out of the way and started fighting with the guy.”

Shortly thereafter Green found his name in the paper for the wrong reason. Every time he turned around someone was asking him what had happened. He had more microphones shoved in his face than he could have imagined. Dayton fans love their Flyers, but was this a sign of things to come or just a big mistake? Whatever it was, it was an event that would make a difference in Nate Green’s life.

“That was an experience that really changed my life. My mom always told me to think before I react, but I didn’t listen enough. As a child, I had a problem with that. I just didn’t do it in this situation. It was a real learning experience going to court at such a young age with the media in your face the whole time. It definitely made me grow up a little faster. The negative things that have happened to me in my life have turned around and been positive. Everything happens for a reason, it’s just what you do with it.”

Green received a six month suspended sentence and two years probation. After the two years of good behavior, he was able to get the offense expunged from his record. During that time, Nate decided to do some positive things with his life. Unlike a lot of young people, Nate decided that it was time to start giving back to the community.

“For two and a half years I worked at a shelter home called Heart for the Homeless. Every weekend we would go to the Convention Center and feed the homeless. We would then go to other locations with food donated by grocery stores in Dayton and distribute food there too. When I was young, my mom put me into a lot of activities and in one of them I had to volunteer at hospitals. I really didn’t like it at first because I was young, but the longer I did it the more I liked it. I really felt that I was helping others. I got an opportunity to talk to a lot of them. Many have really sad stories, but others just need to get motivated to get a job.”

In one of the ironies that we all find in life, Green was given an extra year of eligibility when he tore his rotator cuff early in his freshman year. Had it not been for the two game suspension that he received from Oliver Purnell for his part in the fight, he would have played too many games and not been given the opportunity to play this year. He was also able to take advantage of the time off to work on some of his weak areas.

“In high school all I ever did was dunk the ball. When you get to college you find that everybody is just as good if not better, so you have to get better. That is why I started working on my jump shot. When I got hurt as a freshman, I ended up working on my jump shot a lot. I hurt my right shoulder and since I’m left handed, I was able to shoot as much as I wanted. I would just go to the gym and shoot one handed.”

That added dimension has given Green the ability to take either the power forward or center away from the basket to protect against an accurate 15′ shot. There is no telling how many Keith Waleskowski lay-ups have been caused by Nate moving outside to open up the lane for others. But that is not Green’s bread and butter. He knows he is a banger and is more than happy to battle the big guys. He chuckled when he related, “If you don’t deliver the blows, they will give them to you.”

All of this is not to say that everything has always been as Nate would have like them to be. Although he never envisioned himself as a 20 point, 15 rebound type player, he felt coming in that playing time would have been somewhat more plentiful.

“Like a lot of things in my life, my career here has been tough, but it has made me stronger. I came in as a freshman and started two games and was injured. I then started coming in off the bench. That continued my second freshman year, but my sophomore year, I didn’t play as much. My junior year things started to pick up again. Now this year it seems like I’m in the game almost all of the time. I really don’t like to start. I like to see the flow of the game before I get in there. It’s a real positive for me to come in off the bench.”

Green did not waste the extra year that the injury gave him. Having already graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice, he has his sights set on degree number two in Communication Management. He has enjoyed his time while at UD and not just on the court.

“One of the reasons I came to Dayton was because everyone was so friendly. The college experience has been great. I wouldn’t change it at all. The traveling has been great. Just hanging out with other students in your dorm is great.” In typical Nate Green fashion he has made the most of what life has given him but he is not completely satisfied. Just playing isn’t enough for Green, winning is what matters. “Not going to the tournament has been a real disappointment for me because I know we have had the talent and ability to go and just didn’t do it. This year, I definitely think we are going to get there, at least if you leave it up to me.”

Nate Green has always been the type of player that would run through a wall if that was what was required. He is more about others than himself. Strangely, it was his desire to stick up for a friend that got him into trouble as a freshman. But the Nate Green that got into trouble is not the real Nate Green. The real Nate Green gives up his time to help feed the needy. He is the man that many of his friends refer to as “Teddy Bear.” He is about team and the success that it brings. The University of Dayton can be proud to say that Nate Green is one of its own.