Shane Shewmake, known by most as Coach Shew, is the new athletics director at Brookhaven. He got his start playing baseball at Eastfield, where he eventually coached baseball for five years. After four years at McMurry University, he returned to North Texas to work at the University of Texas at Dallas where he stayed for 24 years. “It has definitely come full circle,” said Shew in an interview.
At UTD, he started the baseball program, and according to their athletics website, “[He] never had a losing record in the 24-year history of the program.”
The photo editor for the Courier, Marcos Velez, interviewed Coach Shewmake:
Tell me about yourself.
“I’ve been at the job a month. I previously was the head baseball coach at the University of Texas at Dallas for 24 years. Actually, started the baseball program. Until last month, I was the only coach they had ever had … I’ve been coaching college baseball for over 30 years, and at this point, I was ready for a new challenge in my career. This opportunity came up, and I was fortunate enough to get the job and looking forward to it.”
What is your experience in athletics?
“I’ve been a baseball coach for my whole career, and just running the program and coaching, taking care of the players and dealing with the assistant coaches and things like that over the years, the scheduling, the budgeting, you name it. Drove a few vans along the way and all that fun stuff. So, you name it, I’ve probably done it.”
Is there anything in particular that you want to accomplish here?
“Our ultimate goal for all our programs is to go compete for national championships, conference championships, and we’ve had sports that have won national championships, and we want to continue to do that. So again, I’m just here to help the coaches where I can. Hopefully we can upgrade some facilities … so that all these players have the best experience while they’re here and hopefully move on to play at a four-year school and continue to play their sport, of course.”
