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Head Coach Todd Sheppard
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Coach Todd Sheppard returns to ABAC for his fifth season leading the ABAC Men’s Basketball Program. Last season saw the Stallions break records in the modern era winning 27 games and losing only 5 finishing the year with the highest final national ranking in the history of ABAC at #11. The Stallions were ranked as high as #9 and spent 8 consecutive weeks in the national poll. Both of these are ABAC records. The team produced 3 all conference players and one All American, Leon Buchanan. This is ABAC’s first All American Men’s Basketball Player in over 25 years. These team accomplishments garnered Sheppard several honors. He was named the Georgia Junior College Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year and was selected as the Head Coach of the East Team in the National Junior College All Star game held at the NCAA Final Four in Atlanta. This brings his overall record at ABAC to 76-50. 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. Attendance is the highest it has been in several decades producing huge crowds at home with tailgating outside the doors of Gressette Gym at nearly every home contest. These improvements have helped Coach Sheppard to establish ABAC Men’s Basketball among the nation’s elite junior college programs. The Stallions have accomplished this while recruiting Georgia players. South Georgia has always been a “hot bed” of basketball talent and the ABAC Men’s Basketball Team has been very active locally in recruiting the best players possible to represent ABAC. “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. Building a winning program and showing young men what it takes to succeed on and off the court has always been my focus. If you do that everyone benefits.” In just four seasons the Stallions have had 23 players move on to play at a four year college following their career at ABAC and nearly all have continued to pursue their education at a four year school. Three players from last year’s squad are currently playing at an NCAA Division I school. The team is also extremely active in the community of Tifton, reading at elementary schools, serving at the soup kitchen, visiting retirement centers, gathering food for less fortunate and many other activities to affect the community of Tifton in a positive way. For this focus, Coach Sheppard was named to Georgia Trend Magazine’s 40 Under 40, “which recognizes Georgia’s Best and Brightest – rising stars in business, politics, the arts, nonprofits and education”.
Coach Sheppard understands winning. He has been a part of several championship seasons at both the collegiate and high school levels. 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 achieved success in basketball and Coach Sheppard helped to mold these young men.
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. 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 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, five year old Max and four year old Lucy.