Harold Shepherd hired as West Delaware's girls basketball coach

MANCHESTER - It's official: Harold Shepherd is back on the bench.

Back in the Wamac Conference.

The West Delaware school board voted 5-0 Monday night to approve Shepherd's hiring as the school's varsity girls' basketball coach.

“It's good to be back,” said the 68-year-old Shepherd, who ranks fifth all-time in victories among girls' basketball coaches at 722-275 in 43 years.

“I'm excited about this. I enjoyed my three years as an assistant. I learned a lot of new things. I'm excited to be a head coach again.”

Shepherd's first conversation with West Delaware Athletics Director Bob Murphy came in April, when Shepherd presented Murphy the Iowa Girls Coaches Association AD of the Year award.

“It was kind of ironic,” Murphy said. “I was very familiar with Shep. His teams are always competitive. Whenever you played his teams, you knew you were always going to have a battle on your hands.”

Most of Shepherd's career - and success - came at Wamac rival Vinton and Vinton-Shellsburg. He won state titles in 1984 (six-player) and 1995 (Class 3A).

Shepherd resigned at Vinton-Shellsburg in 2005, then coached two seasons at Jesup.

He served as an assistant for two years at William Jewell College in Missouri, then returned to Iowa to assist Tony Pappas as Waterloo West last season.

Shepherd already has met with his new team, which was 8-14 last season under Corey Coates.

Allison Pasker is the top returning scorer; she averaged 7.1 points per game last year as a junior.

Shepherd's assistant will be Craig Hutton, whose father Tom was Shepherd's assistant when he began coaching in the mid-1960s at Elk Horn-Kimballton.

“We're not going to be very tall,” he said. “But the kids are eager to play. They're very athletic kids. They've responded well to the things I have to say. No matter how much or how little size we have, we're going to be playing defense. We're going to try to run with some discipline.”

“The thing about West Delaware, the folks up there are competitive and like to win. I think it's going to be a really good fit.”

Manchester is a 50-minute drive from Shepherd's home in Vinton. He doesn't see that, or his age, as an issue.

“It's been quite a while since a basketball season tired me out,” Shepherd said. “It invigorates me rather than wears me down. So I plan to coach awhile.”

West Delaware and Vinton-Shellsburg are on opposite sides of the conference and are not scheduled to play this season.