Shield resigns effective immediately;
new leader’s first game Friday at Freedom
ST. STEPHENS HIGH GIRLS
A look at the six head coaches for girls’ varsity basketball from the mid-1980s until now at St. Stephens High:
Coach First yr Yrs Rec
Sally Bradshaw 1984-85 3 21-54
DeAnna Huffman 1987-88 2 20-34
Lu Hauser 1989-90 12 120-176
Todd Davis 2001-02 12 155-146
Betsy Reynolds 2013-14 4 52-52
Roger Shield 2017-18 2+ 22-36
TOTALS 35+ 390-495
SOURCE: HobbsDailyReport.com research and files.
By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
HICKORY – St. Stephens High’s first conference game of the girls’ basketball season will be under a new head coach.
Head coach Roger Shield resigned on Tuesday, effective immediately, and Andy Bennett replace him while also continuing as junior varsity boys’ coach for the Indians, the school’s athletic department announced in an email.
ANDY BENNETT
The Indians (2-7) will try to snap a three-game losing streak on Friday in a Northwestern 3A-4A battle at Freedom (6-0). The girls’ varsity game will be played following a junior varsity boys’ game that begins at 3 p.m.
Shield coached St. Stephens for two seasons, with his teams going 20-29, and will the press release said he will continue to teach science at the school.
“Coach Shield has served in various roles of coaching over 40 years,” St. Stephens athletic director Billy Baker said in the press release. “We thank Coach Shield for his dedication to St. Stephens High. He has served us well as a teacher and coach …”
Bennett, 32, is a University of Dayton graduate (2009) and played two years of varsity basketball at Grosse Point (Mich.) High for a team. He was a guard on the 2005 team that reached the state’s Class A Final Four (which would be Class 4A in N.C.), and that team lost in the state semifinals by three to the eventual state champion.
He came to St. Stephens in January of 2012, has helped coach soccer there, and he’s in his eighth season guiding St. Stephens’ JV boys’ basketball team.
“I know some of the girls,” Bennett said about the varsity job he’ll take on. “They are good kids. I enjoy basketball and I know they needed some help.”
Bennett grew up in a basketball family, as his dad, Gary, is a Hall of Fame coach in Michigan who still coaches at Grosse Pointe North.
Andy Bennett becomes the seventh girls’ varsity head coach at St. Stephens since the mid-1980s, a list that includes Todd Davis, now an administrator at Bandys, and retired educator Sally (Reid) Bradshaw.