BrookSpeak

There’s a new girls’ basketball coach in town and her name is Melanie Shepherd. Shepherd decided to go into her sixth year of coaching with a new team and it happens to be the Lady Falcons. She plans on keeping the traditions of the Falcons, while bringing her own to the team.

Before starting her journey at Pebblebrook, Shepherd coached at Wheeler High School under Head Boys’ Basketball Coach Doug Lipscomb for four years. Before that, she played for the University of West Georgia as a guard for the Lady Braves. She started playing basketball at 11-years-old, after witnessing the game first hand from the sidelines, as a water girl for a team one of her close neighbors played for. She idealized the game and asked her father to teach her .

“We spent the whole next summer working out and conditioning,� said Shepherd.

According to Shepherd she learned about basketball from her father and coaches over the years, now putting this acquired information to use with the Lady Falcons.
Continuing the legacy of the last Girls’ coach, Phyllis Arthur, Shepherd believes that anything is possible.

“I think it’s going to take sometime. They have a new system and new plays to learn,� said Shepherd, “Things should be looking good!�

Shepherd walked on to a team that is starting over from scratch, having lost all of it’s great starting players last year.

With a new team under her control and an ounce of hope, Shepherd is pretty optimistic about the new basketball season.

Coach Shepherd has instilled many values in the girls of the Pebblebrook Lady Falcons team.

“The coach has brought hard working individuals. Last year we did not play as a team,� said Jasmine Harvard.