Lexington names Shelby Bowman as new girls basketball coach

Michael Odom
Jackson Sun

Shelby Bowman has spent the early part of her coaching career learning from two of the top minds in West Tennessee. She was an assistant coach under Mark Campbell at Union University and Jonathan West at Dresden.

Now Bowman will have her first chance to be the one calling the shots as she was named the new girls basketball coach at Lexington on Thursday.

"I have wanted to be a head coach since I was 7 years old," Bowman said. "I have been in two really great programs at Dresden and Union University. I felt led that it was time for me to step out and build my own team. The Lexington job came open, and I feel like the Lord's hand has been in all of it."

Shelby Bowman, seated to the right of Dresden coach Jonathan West, has been named the new girls basketball coach at Lexington.

Bowman replaces Bianca Hensley, who resigned to take the head coaching job at Stewarts Creek in Murfreesboro. Hensley was 115-59 over six seasons.

Bowman is excited to get her first chance to be a head coach, and she gets to do it at a school that is a perennial contender for the District 14-AA title.

"It is nothing short of a dream come true," Bowman said. "I have worked hard learning from Coach West and Coach Campbell. I now get to take some of their concepts and my own concepts and apply those to a new program."

And if asked whether she is more like Campbell or West, her answer is somewhere in between.

"The most important thing is that I make these girls great in their future careers and great as future co-workers and wives and mothers," Bowman said. "Ultimately, if you focus on work ethic and overcoming adversity, winning comes along with that. Championships and good wins are always the result of hard work and sacrifice by the team."

Lexington finished the 2018-19 season 19-12 with an appearance in the Region 7-AA semifinals before losing to Westview 52-50.

Bowman comes in before team camps kick off in June, and she is ready to get to work with her new squad.

"I hope this summer these girls get a great understanding of what I value, but I hope we also accomplish togetherness," Bowman said. "That is something that I love about the summer is there is no pressure to win. If you get a team that has bought in to each other and willing to fight for each other and for their coach and school, you can do a lot of good things with that for the rest of the year."

Reach Michael Odom at michodom@jacksonsun.com or 731-425-9754. Follow him on Twitter @JSWriterMichael.

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