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Head Coach Todd Sheppard
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Coach Todd Sheppard returns to ABAC for his third season leading the men’s basketball program. Last season saw the Stallions win 17 games while losing 14. This brings his overall record at ABAC to 31-31. There have been many improvements made to the men’s basketball program under Coach Sheppard’s watch including a new team room, new court design as well as improvements in the overall atmosphere of the program. These improvements will help Coach Sheppard to establish ABAC Men’s Basketball among the state’s elite junior college programs. Another improvement is his recruitment of local players. This past season Coach Sheppard brought in talent from the local ranks. South Georgia has always been a “hot bed” of basketball talent and the ABAC Men’s Basketball Team should reflect that ability. In all 14 of the Stallions 17 players are from South Georgia and all the players are in state residents. This statistics is encouraging to Coach Sheppard and should excite local fans. “We have a responsibility to our college and community to represent them in a first class manner. I believe in recruiting quality people that understand the type of character we want in our program. Georgia has always been home to some of the best talent in the country, and I will do everything in my power to see that ABAC recruits and signs the best student athletes possible.”
Coach Sheppard understands winning. He has been a part of several championship seasons at both the collegiate and high school level. He coached on staffs that won a junior college conference championship, an NCAA conference championship, and a high school state championship.
Several of his former players are now playing professionally at several levels including the NBA, overseas in Europe, and in the minor leagues in the United States. These players have gone on to achieve success in basketball and Coach Sheppard helped to mold these fine athletes.
Coach Sheppard arrived to Tifton in August of 2003 with a resume that includes coaching stints at the high school level as a head coach and several different assignments as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the college level both at the junior college and NCAA levels. Most recently, Sheppard was the lead assistant and recruiting coordinator for Coach Jim Yarbrough at nearby Valdosta State University. In three years at Valdosta, he was instrumental in the recruiting and coaching efforts that led to an overall record of 54 wins and 29 losses including Valdosta State University’s only appearance in the NCAA Tournament’s “Sweet Sixteen” in 2002. Prior to that assignment Sheppard was employed at Hiwassee College in Madisonville, Tennessee. That team received a top 25 ranking for most of the season and finished 7th in the country in scoring. His collegiate coaching career began in Milledgeville, Georgia at Georgia College & State University. Teaming with Terry Sellers the program posted an overall record of 36 wins and 19 losses during his two seasons. The following season the program would win 26 games and make its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Sheppard is a native of Conyers, Georgia where he attended Heritage High School. He then attended and graduated from Georgia Southern University in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in psychology. He earned a Master’s of Physical Education from Georgia College in 1996.
Coach Sheppard is married to the former Rachel Brown of Milledgeville, Georgia. They have two children, three year old Max and two year old Lucy.