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STEVE SHIELDS BIOGRAPHY |
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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. |
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© 2005 Steve
Shields. Head Men's Basketball Coach, University of Arass-Little
Rock.
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