Shawn Reed has served for the past 14 seasons at the helm of the Tabor women’s basketball program. Since taking over the Bluejay program prior to the 2011 season, Reed has led a transformation of the women’s basketball program at Tabor both on and off the court.
In addition to his coaching duties, Reed serves in an administrative role as Associate Athletic Director.
Reed’s Bluejays have won four KCAC regular season titles, six KCAC tournament championships, and advanced to the NAIA National Tournament eight times. Reed’s teams advanced to the “Elite Eight” in both 2015 & 2016, which are the two highest finishes in school history. The Bluejays also advanced to the “Sweet Sixteen” in 2017. Reed is also the winningest coach in Tabor women’s basketball history with 273 victories.
A four-time Lonnie Kruse KCAC Coach of the Year at Tabor (2015, 2016, 2019 & 2024), Reed has guided his teams to eight 20+ win seasons. During Reed’s tenure, eight different players garnered KCAC First Team All-Conference recognition, and two players named KCAC “Player of the Year” (Nikki Lewis-2014 & Janelle Rust-2013).
In Reed’s 13 previous seasons at Tabor, he has coached eight different NAIA or WBCA All-America players with two of those players earning All-America honors twice and one player (Zoe Rust) earning that distinction three times. Reed has also seen nine different players selected to the KCAC All-Freshman Team, including two KCAC “Freshman of the Year (Morgan Ediger in 2015-16 and Alyvia Owens in 2020-21).
In the classroom, Tabor has made consistent improvement during Reed’s tenure. Tabor Women’s Basketball has posted the highest overall team GPA in the KCAC six of the past nine years.
For the fifth consecutive year, the Bluejays were named to the WBCA 2023-24 Academic Top 25 Team Honor Roll. Tabor finished the 2023-24 season with the 2nd highest GPA in the NAIA. Tabor is the only team in the KCAC to be ranked in the WBCA’s Academic Team Honor Roll Top 15 for five consecutive years. The Tabor women’s basketball team has also been named a NAIA Scholar Team each of the past 11 seasons. Twice during Reed’s tenure, the Women’s Basketball team has been named KCAC Team of Character. Reed was named the KCAC Champions of Character Coach of the Year for all sports for the 2018-19 academic year.
Following the 2021-22 season, Reed was named one of the Most Impactful Women’s Basketball Coaches in the NAIA by Silver Waves Media. According to the release from Silver Waves Media, coaches who have been named to the Most Impactful list must have five or more years of head coaching experience and must average 14 or more wins per season during their career. During his career at Tabor, Reed’s teams average over 21 wins a season (67% overall winning percentage) and posted an impressive 207-67 KCAC mark (76% KCAC winning percentage).
Reed has also actively been involved in basketball leadership at both the KCAC and NAIA levels. Since 2015, Reed has served as the KCAC national rater for women’s basketball. His responsibilities have included putting together a bi-weekly KCAC ranking of women’s basketball teams throughout the season, rating teams for both the ARC (Area Ratings Committee) and NAIA national poll and serving as the KCAC representative on ARC and NAIA conference calls related to ratings. For the past four seasons (2023-24, 2022-23, 2021-22 and 2020-21), Reed has also served on the NAIA Women’s Basketball All-America Selection Committee.
Prior to coming to Tabor, Reed served as an assistant basketball coach at Sterling College for nine years where he helped coach a perennial NAIA and KCAC power under the leadership of legendary NAIA Hall of Fame coach Lonnie Kruse. During a nine-year span, Reed helped guide the Warriors to an overall record of 230-55 compiling an 81% winning percentage. Reed also helped guide the Warriors to three KCAC regular season titles, four KCAC tournament championships, and made six trips to the NAIA Division II National Tournament with two Elite Eight appearances and one Fab Four appearance.
Reed earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Sterling College in 1995. After earning his bachelor’s degree, Reed earned a Master of Education from Wichita State University
Shawn and his wife Miranda have been married 29 years and have three children: Tristan, Makenna and Maren. Tristan is currently serving as a Graduate Assistant for the men’s basketball program at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa and Makenna is a member of the Tabor women’s basketball team.
