Greenville basketball coach leaves for new job at Rockford

Greenville coach Joel Visser chats with his team during a team camp at Hope College in 2024. Visser was head coach for four years with the Yellow Jackets. (Photo | Lenny Padilla).

ROCKFORD, Mich. - Joel Visser went from one dominant basketball team to another.

Visser, who was the head coach at Greenville High School the past four years, has taken a job at Rockford High School as an assistant coach.

“I live in Rockford and graduated from Rockford,” Visser said. “And I have three kids that go to Rockford schools. As my kids get older, it’s harder to make the drive to Greenville every day.”

Visser will be Rockford’s strength and conditioning coach and be a basketball assistant under head coach Kyle Clough.

Visser and his wife Jessica have three kids, who are in sixth grade and under.  

He led a Greenville boys basketball team that was dominant the past two season. The Yellow Jackets were 21-3 this past season and 22-2 in 2024-25. 

“I was looking at the banners recently,” Visser said. “We had back-to-back classes of quality kids that really wanted to work. That goes a long ways. And us getting out of the O-K Conference helped us. It gave us a confidence boost.” 

He said he will miss Greenville.

“Loved it,” He said. “A lot of goodbyes the past two weeks. Telling the guys was really tough. I didn’t leave because I was unhappy. They supported me. Whoever is next (as head coach) I hope we left them in a good spot.”

Visser is very familiar with Rockford. He was a star athlete as a Ram. He would go on to play football at Toledo. He also was on the 2003 boys basketball team that won the Class A state title. The current Rockford team won the Division 1 state title in March.

Clough also announced that former Coopersville player Eli Spencer will join the basketball staff.