Hays returns to ACU as school's director of athletics
Former men's basketball coach will begin new job June 1
For immediate release 22 April 2002
ABILENE -- Shanon Hays, who led the ACU men's basketball team to 58 wins
and the South Central region tournament during his three seasons, has returned
to ACU as the sixth director of athletics in school history.
The announcement was made Monday by ACU vice president, Dr. Gary McCaleb.
Hays, who will begin his new duties June 1, replaces Stan Lambert, who
resigned from his post March 7. Former director of athletics Wally Bullington
assumed the role during the interim.
"Shanon certainly has the attributes we were looking for when we
began searching for the new director of athletics," McCaleb said.
"He's got the kind of personality that will work for us in terms of
helping attract quality student-athletes and raising money for the program."
Hays, 34, compiled a 58-26 record in his three seasons as the Wildcats'
head coach (1996-99), and in his last season (1998-99) he led them to the
South Central region tournament, ACU's first post-season appearance since
1987. His first team at ACU (1996-97) finished 15-12, followed by records
of 22-6 in 1997-98 and 21-8 in 1998-99.
ACU was a combined 34-48 in the three seasons prior to Hays' arrival.
He left ACU in July 1999 to join James Dickey's coaching staff at Texas
Tech. He spent two seasons as an assistant for the Red Raiders before joining
a pharmaceutical sales company when Bobby Knight was hired as the Red Raiders'
new head coach. He's been working Pharmacia Corp. as a salesman in the
Lubbock area.
"I'm extremely excited about this opportunity and this challenge,"
Hays said. "We have a coaching staff that has been together a while,
and I feel really good about the staff that I'll get to work with. I don't
look at it as them working for me, but rather all of us working together."
Hays, who had an aggressive style on the basketball floor, hopes to bring
some of that attitude to his new role.
"As most people know, I have an aggressive nature," he said,
"and I want that to be the attitude of our entire program. I want
our coaches to be aggressive in recruiting and in letting student-athletes
know what a great place ACU is for both academics and athletics."
When Lambert resigned, McCaleb said he was appointing Bullington as director
of athletics "in the interim," not knowing how long his search
for a replacement would last. It lasted barely more than a month.
"I was prepared for this to go as long as it needed to go to find
the right person," McCaleb said of the search. "I was hoping
we would have someone in place by August, but the thing with Shanon just
fell together really quickly. I really believe we've found the right guy
for this job. He's got a lot of enthusiasm and energy, and I think those
characteristics will do a lot of great things for ACU athletics."
Hays said both his love of ACU and love a new challenge led him to his
new position.
"My wife (Tina) and I love ACU," Hays said. "I love what
it stands for, as well as the mission and the purpose of the university.
This is a great place to raise a family, and we are looking forward to
coming back.
"I'm also very intrigued by the possibility of facing a new challenge,"
he said. "I look forward to working with our coaching staff and Dr.
McCaleb to try to add to what we're already doing so that we can be as successful
as possible in every facet of our program."
Hays, who joined the ACU coaching staff April 18, 1996, came to ACU from
Frank Phillips College in Borger where he spent one season. He led the
Plainsmen -- who had finished 4-25 the season before -- to a 19-10 record
and was named WJCAC Coach of the Year.
Prior to coaching at Frank Phillips, Hays was the head basketball and
head baseball coach at Lubbock Christian High School. In two seasons as
the basketball coach he recorded 50 wins against 15 losses and reached the
private school state championship game in 1994-95. As the baseball coach
he led the team to the state tournament twice, reaching the state championship
game in 1994-95.
In 1992-93 he was the head coach at Sundown High School, going 9-15 in
his only season. In 1991-92 he was a graduate assistant at Texas Tech.
Hays, whose father Larry is the head baseball coach at Texas Tech, graduate
from Lubbock Monterey High School in 1986 after earning all-district honors
in both basketball and baseball. He was a letterman on the 1987 baseball
and basketball teams at Lubbock Christian University before transferring
to Texas Tech where he played baseball. He is a 1991 graduate of Lubbock
Christian with a bachelor's degree in history.
