Parkway's Rayner moves into administration; Evangel provides his replacement

When Parkway boys basketball coach Brian Rayner opted to step into administration two weeks ago as a Parkway assistant principal, the school's leaders went on the hunt for a replacement.They believe theyve found their man in veteran Evangel coach Eric Shepherd.Rayner was a longtime assistant to Mike Guess running the Panthers program.

When Guess retired two seasons ago, Rayner stepped in and built a 36-26 record with his 2024-25 team finishing 19-12 and tied for second place in District 1-5A with one LHSAA playoff victory.Enter Shepherd, who built the Eagles into a consistent winner and playoff participant, which wasnt easy at the small private school playing up in Class 5A.

Although his most recent team was 13-16 in a rebuilding year, his two previous teams went 21-10 and 19-8.Im super excited to get to work, Shepherd told the USA TODAY Network.

Parkway came after me and, honestly, that felt really good.

Ive passed on multiple opportunities but I believe it was time to take a step forward.

Now its time to work.Shepherd, 36, was hired in May 2019 at Evangel after serving one season as an assistant coach at Centenary College.

The Grambling State graduate worked at Shreveport Parks and Recreation previously assisting with sports programming while coaching a 15U AAU squad for Louisiana Select Team Paul Milsap for two seasons.

The Leesville native took over an ECA program that was 3-17 before his arrival.During the 2013-14 school year, Shepherd was the Calvary Baptist middle school coach coordinating team travel and implementing drills.

He was an intern for the 2011 AdvoCare Independence Bowl, a summer league basketball coach for 9- to 10-year-olds, and volunteered for SLS Club Community Service Work.Shepherd graduated from GSU with a major in kinesiology and a minor in sports management.Jimmy Watson covers Louisiana sports for the USA TODAY Network.

Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @JimmyWatson6.This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Heres why Parkway replaced Brian Rayner with Eric Shepherd as coach.

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