Shawn Neary begins his first season as a volunteer assistant men’s basketball program in 2020-21.
Neary brings a wealth of coaching experience to the Yellowjackets’ program, after the athletics program at Gillette College was discontinued at the end of June, 2020.
Neary has been a head coach at the junior college level for 24 years overall and was hired in December of 2008 to start up the new basketball program at Gillette College. While leading the Pronghorn program, Neary’s teams won 268 games in 11 seasons for an average of 24 wins per year and a .750 winning percentage. He led the program to two Region IX championships and three NJCAA national tournament appearances. The Pronghorns’ highest finish at the national tournament was a third-place finish in 2016, which was the highest for a Region IX team since 1963.
Neary was named the Region IX and District IX Coach of the Year twice (2016 and 2017) and he guided five All-Americans (Ryan Aaron, Muhamed Ahmed, Lorenzo Bonam, Kavell Bigby-Willams, and Abdul Mohamed), in his 11 seasons at the helm. In 2019-20 the Pronghorns finished the season with a 26-6 overall record and took third place in the North sub-region. The Pronghorns advanced to the semifinals of the Region IX tournament.
In 2018-19 the Pronghorns finished 15-16 with an all-freshman team. DreShawn Allen (Detroit, MI.) signed at Western Illinois University.
In 2017-18, the Pronghorns finished the season 27-5. The Pronghorns were ranked in the top-15 in the national polls most of the season. The Pronghorns won 22 games in-a-row to start the season. In 2016-2017, the Pronghorns finished the season 32-4 and were ranked in the NJCAA national poll every week of the season. The Pronghorns won the Region IX tournament, and the North sub-region. The Pronghorns won one game and lost the second game in the Sweet 16 of the National Tournament. Neary was named Coach of the Year in Region IX and the District 9 coach of the year as well.
In 2015-16 the Pronghorns finished the season 35-2 and took third place at the NJCAA national tournament. The Pronghorns won the Region IX Tournament and the North sub-region. Neary was named Coach of the Year in Region IX and the District 9 coach of the year as well.
In 2014-15 the Pronghorns qualified for the NJCAA national tournament for the first time and finished the season with an overall record of 27-8. The Pronghorns finished second in the North sub-region in the regular season and played in the Region IX tournament championship for the second season in-a-row. The Pronghorns started the season nationally ranked at No. 9 and were nationally ranked most of the season.
The 2013-14 Pronghorns ended the season with a 29-4 record and finished the season ranked as the No. 9 team in the nation in the final NJCAA national poll. The Pronghorns were the North sub-region champions with a record of 15-1. The Pronghorns played for the Region IX title but lost in the championship game in overtime. The Pronghorns had a school-record 19 game winning streak and finished the season ranked in the top-10 nationally in a number of statistical categories.
The 2012-13 Pronghorns finished the season with an overall record of 17-13, and won a game at the Region IX tournament for the first time in the young history of the program. That season the Pronghorns also beat a number of nationally ranked teams and had an eight-game conference road win streak.
In the inaugural season of 2009-10, the Pronghorns finished with an 18-12 overall record and a second-place finish in the Region IX Central sub-region. Neary was named the Wyoming Community College Athletic Conference Co-Coach of the Year.
Neary began his college coaching career at Miles Community College in 1996-97, where he served as the head coach for 12 seasons. During his tenure as the head coach of the Pioneers, his teams won 204 games which placed him as the all-time career leader in wins at MCC. His Pioneer teams won the MonDak Conference regular season title once and tied for the Region IX sub-region regular season conference title once. Neary was also named MonDak Coach of the Year in 2000. Over his last three seasons at Miles his teams averaged 19 wins per year, and he had a 20-win season for only the second time in school history. In 2005-06 the Pioneers were ranked nationally for the first time in school history checking in as high as No. 14 in the national poll. The Pioneers were named the NJCAA Academic Team of the Year five times and had the highest team grade point average in the nation among all men’s basketball programs three times.
Coach Neary has had a number of articles published for national magazines such as Scholastic Coach, Winning Hoops, and Juco Review. In 1996, Coach Neary was nominated to serve on the national advisory board of the publication Winning Hoops.
Neary and his wife Ann have four children, Tyler (20), Jefferson (18), Abi (16), and Kaylie (14).
