DENTON, Texas North Texas head men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones has announced the hiring of Shawn Forrest to the Mean Green staff.
Forrest comes to North Texas with a decade of coaching experience at the Division I level, including the past six seasons at Arkansas State, where he finished the 2007-08 campaign as co-interim head coach.
"We are excited to have Sean as a new addition to our staff," said North Texas head coach Johnny Jones. "He brings a great deal of energy, and his knowledge of the Sun Belt Conference and the Dallas/Fort Worth area will make his transition a smooth one. He will definitely be an asset to our program."
In his six seasons with Arkansas State, Forrest was heavily involved in recruiting and academics. Forrest helped the Indians to multiple top 100 recruiting classes, which included a pair of two-time All-Sun Belt Conference players, a Sun Belt Conference Newcomer of the Year, a leading scorer in the league, second leading scorer and third-leading scorer in the conference.
"I am extremely excited to join the North Texas family," Forrest said. "I think coach Jones has turned North Texas into one of the elite programs of the Sun Belt, and I am happy to be a part of it."
In 2003 Forrest recruited J.J. Montgomery from Angelina College, who was the NJCAA leading scorer at 34 points per game. Montgomery was also the runner-up for the 2002-03 National Junior College Player of the Year.
Forrest recruited Kewain Gant in 2004 from Moberly Community College, where his team finished as the runner-up in the 2004-05 NJCAA Tournament in Hutchison, Kansas.
Most recently Forrest recruited Ryan Wedel, who was the 2005-06 Kansas Mr. Basketball and a strong candidate for the 2005-06 Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year. Wedel also received national attention from ESPN in February of 2006 when he was No. 1 on ESPN’s Top Ten Plays for his high school performance where he scored 25 points in two minutes and two seconds.
A former star at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Forrest joined the Red Wolves’ staff in August of 2002 after serving as the recruiting coordinator at Florida A&M. While at Florida A&M Forrest helped the Rattlers to a fourth-place finish in the MEAC, the highest they had finished in 10 years. Forrest also recruited Terrance Woods, who was a two-time First Team All-MEAC performer. Woods holds the third and fourth best single-season three-point field goals made in NCAA history, and in 2004, he won the NABC All-Star Three-Point Contest at the Final Four in San Antonio.
Prior to his stint in Tallahassee, Forrest was an assistant at Troy State from 1998-2001. During that time he worked with recruiting, academics, scheduled travel and worked with the guards. While at Troy State, Forrest helped land four straight top-100 recruiting classes. The recruiting classes produced five all-conference players and two players of the year in the Atlantic Sun Conference. Forrest helped Troy State to two regular-season Atlantic Sun Conference titles, one ASC Tournament championship, one NCAA Tournament appearance and one postseason NIT appearance.
Forrest received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff in 1998 and a Masters of Education from Troy in 2000.
