Mark Snyder is putting together the first coaching staff in Shawnee State (D-II - OH) history, and that he's added a coach with three decades of tape and a résumé stacked with championship pedigree.
The upstart Bears program has hired Greg Forest as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Snyder announced. For a program that will not play its first game until the fall of 2028, getting the right experience in the building early matters, and Forest brings a long track record of developing skill players and quarterbacks at every level of the sport.
"We are excited to welcome Greg to the Bear family," Snyder shared. "He is an Ohio guy that brings three decades of leadership and championship-level expertise from all levels of football to Shawnee State."
Forest is a Columbus, Ohio, native who prepped at Grandview Heights (OH) before graduating from Ohio Northern (D-III), so the "Ohio guy" label is genuine. His coaching story, though, is really the story of a nearly 20-year run alongside one of the more accomplished offensive minds in the profession.
Forest is branch from the Brian Kelly tree through and through. He spent more than a decade coaching wide receivers at Grand Valley State (D-II - MI), where he helped build one of the most dominant Division II programs in the country under Kelly. During that stretch he coached the top receivers in Laker history, including all-time leading receiver David Kircus, who went on to the NFL. Grand Valley won back-to-back national titles in 2002 and 2003 with Forest on staff, the kind of run that still gets brought up whenever people talk about DII dynasties.
When Kelly took the Central Michigan job in 2004, Forest went with him, coaching receivers, running backs, and tight ends across three seasons in the MAC. He followed Kelly again to Cincinnati, where he wore multiple hats, serving as quarterbacks coach and tight ends coach and taking on an assistant head coach role. Coaching the quarterback room at the FBS level is a nice bit of experience to bring to a staff that is going to spend the next couple of years installing an offense from scratch.
That combination is exactly what Snyder is after as he builds Shawnee State's program from the ground up. Snyder, the former Marshall head coach who was a national championship defensive coordinator at Ohio State in 2002, knows the value of an experienced coordinator who has seen how winning programs are constructed and run.
There is a lot of work ahead in Portsmouth before the Bears take the field, but adding a coach with Forest's background gives Snyder a proven developer of quarterbacks and skill players to anchor the offensive side.
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