July 26, 2004

ABILENE, Texas - Shane Williford has been named as the men's and women's tennis coach at Hardin-Simmons University, replacing Jimmy Cole who resigned earlier this summer. Williford, who has been the head coach at American Southwest Conference foe Howard Payne, inherits a pair of teams that have been consistently ranked in the regional and/or national rankings. Williford has been a respected name in West Texas tennis. He served one year as the director of tennis at Tennis With a Mission in Midland. That came after he was the head tennis professional at Odessa Country Club for three year and spent five years as an assistant pro in Midland. In 1999 and 2000 he was the President of the Permian Basin Tennis Association. A 1993 graduate of Howard Payne, Williford had a distinguished career for the Yellow Jackets. He was named first-team All-Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1989, 1990 and 1992. His teams were conference champions in 1991 and 1993. In 1991, Williford was a qualifier for the NAIA national tournament. Hardin-Simmons has won three straight ASC men's and four straight ASC women's conference titles, all under Cole. The reigning ASC players of the year Rebecca Watkins and David Wu return for Hardin-Simmons.