Shepherd likely to take West Delaware job

MANCHESTER -- Pending approval from the school's board of directors, veteran girls' basketball coach Harold Shepherd will take the reins at West Delaware High School next season.

Bob Murphy, the school's athletics director, said neither he nor Shepherd could comment on the position until the board votes next Monday.

Shepherd has 43 years of head-coaching experience, most of them at Vinton and Vinton-Shellsburg, where he won state titles in 1984 (six-player) and 1995 (Class 3A). He resigned at Vinton-Shellsburg in 2005, then coached two seasons at Jesup.

He has a career record of 722-275 and ranks fifth all-time in victories among girls' basketball coaches in Iowa.

Shepherd 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.

He said last winter that he would like to be a head coach again, if the right opportunity presents itself.

"If it's a job I want, and they want me, I'd consider it," he said.

West Delaware was 8-14 last season under Corey Coates. The Hawks finished seventh in the Wamac Conference East Division.