ABILENE – Abilene High School assistant volleyball coach Devron Shepherd has been named the Lady Eagles’ new head coach, AHS head football coach / campus athletics coordinator Mike Fullen said Tuesday.
Shepherd has been an assistant for the last three seasons under former head coach DiDi Pierce, who resigned last month after 24 seasons as the head coach. Shepherd joined Pierce’s staff in August 2017 as a varsity volleyball assistant and freshman girls’ basketball coach.
Prior to joining the AHS staff, Shepherd served as a teacher and coach in the Kingdom of Bahrain (2012-15) and Myanmar (2005-12) where she coached volleyball and served as athletics director for two different schools. Prior to going to Myanmar in 2005, she spent three seasons as the head coach at South Grand Prairie High School.
“Devron brings the experience of being a head coach and knowing how to run her own program to this new job,” Fullen said. “Her knowledge of the volleyball program and the direction it needs to move worked in her favor. She is a believer in hard work, strength training and valuing the student-athletes. She and her assistants will make it a priority to build relationships and communication with the everyone involved in the program.”
Aside from her stint as the head coach at South Grand Prairie, Shepherd also served as an assistant coach at Irving MacArthur High School from 2000-02. She graduated from Hardin-Simmons University in 2000 and is expected to earn her master’s from Lamar University in August 2020.
“I am so excited to be able to step in as the head coach for the Abilene High volleyball program.” Shepherd said. “I have developed wonderful relationships with the girls on the team and I know their passion for the game. I look forward to challenging them to see just how far they can go.”
