Steve Shields: Official Website

STEVE SHIELDS BIOGRAPHY

UALR head coach Steve Shields enters the 2007-08 season having fully revamped the Trojan lineup during the offseason, bringing in nine newcomers to help return the Trojans to their rightful place as one of the Sun Belt’s elite teams.

The 2004 Sun Belt Coach of the Year, Shields guided UALR to back-to-back East Division titles in each of his first two years as head coach. He went 17-12 in his first season at the helm with a 9-5 record in league play to claim the East Division title. The Trojans followed that up with an 18-10 mark in his second year, finishing with the second-best RPI ranking in school history (64).

Shields’ impact at UALR goes beyond the basketball court, as his emphasis on academics has allowed UALR to graduate 100 percent of the players who have exhausted their eligibility under his watch (14-for-14). The Trojans graduated five players in May 2007, including NCAA rebounding champion Rashad Jones-Jennings, who followed up a stellar senior season by earning a spot on the Philadelphia 76ers’ NBA summer league team. Jones-Jennings became just the second player in Sun Belt history to lead the nation in rebounding in 2006-07, finishing with a 13.1 rebounds-per-game average.

In his four-year tenure as head coach, Shields has coached five All-Sun Belt and two NABC All-District selections, as well as the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year, Male Student-Athlete of the Year and the Male Sporting Behavior recipient. Jones-Jennings garnered First Team All-Sun Belt and NABC All-District accolades this past season on his way to earning a spot in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament – a showcase for NBA scouts featuring the top seniors in the nation.

Television exposure has been on the rise under Shields, with the Trojans playing in 16 televised contests over the past three seasons. In 2006-07, UALR played in three TV games, including a nationally televised contest with Texas Tech on ESPN2. ESPN, meanwhile, has made three trips to the Jack Stephens Center in the arena’s two-year existence.

Shields, the 2004 Sun Belt Coach of the Year, enters his fifth season with a 62-54 overall record (.534 winning percentage) and a 32-28 mark in league play. Under Shields’ guidance, the Trojans have enjoyed a .732 winning percentage on their home floor (41-15), including a 25-3 mark in UALR’s final two years at Alltel Arena.

In his first season as head coach, the Trojans put together a 17-12 record and advanced to the semifinals of the Sun Belt Tournament after capturing his first East Division title.

The accomplishments of Shields and his staff were made even more impressive by the fact that the Trojans did not have any starters back from the previous year’s squad. At season’s end, Shields was named the Sun Belt Coach of the Year, making him the first coach so honored in his first year leading a Division-I program.

In 2004-05, the Trojans rallied from a 4-4 conference mark to win their final six Sun Belt games and secure their second-straight East Division title. That year’s team swept Sun Belt-opponent Western Kentucky for the first time since the 1997-98 season, and scored a significant non-conference win over Southern Illinois on Dec. 7, 2004. SIU went on to earn a No. 7 seed in the 2005 NCAA Tournament and advanced to the second round.

UALR’s success in 2004-05 translated into more television coverage, as the Trojans made a school-record eight TV appearances, including playing in the prestigious ESPN Bracket Buster event against Bowling Green.

UALR was hit hard by graduation following its second East Division title, losing seven seniors and all five starters off a team which went 10-4 in league play. Despite the team’s relative inexperience, the Trojans got off to an 11-7 record, including a 4-2 conference mark. UALR closed out the regular season with a 13-14 record, but pulled things together in the opening round of the Sun Belt Tournament to down North Texas, 72-55, before falling to eventual champion South Alabama in the next round.

The Trojans played in five televised games that year, including contests against No. 11 Illinois and No. 13 Michigan State, with the Spartans pulling out a narrow 72-67 victory. The games against the Illini and MSU marked the second-straight year the Trojans faced two Final Four teams from the previous season’s NCAA Tournament.

Without a single player on the roster with more than one year of Division I experience, the 2006-07 season was marred by inconsistency. UALR showed its potential with an 81-79 win over MAC frontrunner Akron, which went 26-7 on the year, and a 67-66 win at Minnesota, but failed to build on its momentum. The Trojans ended the season with a 13-17 record (8-10 in league play) after falling to New Orleans in the conference tournament.

Outside of the classroom, Shields keeps his players involved in the community through bi-monthly visits to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, working with the Arkansas Special Olympics, and participating in the Trojans for Education program, among other activities.

Prior to taking over as head coach of the Trojans, Shields spent three years as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator for a UALR program which won 18 games in three-consecutive seasons. Shields was one of the keys in sparking the biggest turnaround in Sun Belt Conference history, taking a UALR team that won just four games the previous year and leading it to an 18-11 record in the 2000-01 season.

The Trojans followed that with another 18-11 season, despite losing four seniors and the top three scorers from the previous year, and an 18-12 mark in the 2002-03 season.

Shields came to UALR after a four-year stint as head coach at McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas. At MCC, Shields led the Highlanders to a regional championship in 1997-98 and their first national tournament appearance in 22 years. Shields was voted the Texas Junior College Coach of the Year by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches following the 1997-98 season and received Region V Coach of the Year honors as well.

During Shields’ first year as head coach at McLennan, the Highlanders were co-champions of the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference.

Previously, Shields had been an assistant at McLennan for three seasons and helped lead the Highlanders to a combined 80-13 record. Twice, MCC was ranked in the top 10 nationally and finished the 1992-93 regular season ranked as the No. 2 team in the country.

Before making the move to collegiate athletics, Shields was the athletic director and head football and basketball coach at his alma mater, Reicher Catholic High School in Waco. His football team claimed a district title after winning just one game the previous season, and Shields led his basketball team to a 23-8 record after the squad won just two games the previous year.

Shields was also a collegiate athlete, beginning at Oklahoma City University, where he sat out his freshman year as a redshirt before transferring to McLennan and playing basketball for a year. He then transferred to Baylor University where he played golf for his father, longtime Baylor coach Gene Shields, and earned All-Southwest Conference honors in 1987. Shields, born March 9, 1965, earned his bachelor of science in education in 1988 and a master’s in education in 1992, both at Baylor.

Shields has been married for 19 years to the former Dee Dieterich, an interactive account manager for Stone Ward in Little Rock. They have one son, Hayden Dieterich Shields, born Sept. 17, 2001; and one daughter, Halle Elisabeth Shields, born Sept. 23, 2005.