It was 2005, Brian Neal recalls, of the day when the young coach was in his second year heading up the Thomas More women’s basketball team. But he knew he needed some balance in his approach to the game.
The man he hired to help round him out as a coach, Tim Shields, “had a softer edge than I did then, I was pretty firm,” Neal says of Shields. “He had a smile, and that chuckle that let you know it wasn’t always the end of the world.”
In his second stint now at Thomas More, Neal says Shields, who died this week at the age of 78, there was one reason why he reached out to him: “his experience.”
That more than 50 years of experience at Conner Middle School and High School, Villa Madonna Academy and TMU, will certainly be remembered Monday at the 4-6 p.m. visitation at Florence Methodist Church followed by the funeral at 6.
Thomas More VP for Athletics Terry Connor remembers how much he enjoyed talking baseball with Shields, who coached in the summer against Terry’s dad, the legendary Jim Connor.
That was the thing about Tim Shields. He did it in multiple sports, leading Conner to its first regional baseball championship in 1979 during the years from 1977-1984 when he coached Cougar baseball.
In Shields’ 17 seasons as Conner girls’ basketball head coach, he compiled a career mark of 304-181, taking four teams to the Ninth Region finals with three winning championships and advancing to the Sweet 16, getting to the quarterfinals in 1986 and 1991.
Shields then became boys’ head basketball coach at Villa Madonna for five seasons, twice setting school records for most victories.
And in just the first decade at TMU as an assistant coach and recruiter, Shields helped the Saints rack up a 271-29 record while earning a spot in nine NCAA Division III national tournaments winning a national championship with a perfect 33-0 record in 2015.
After retiring from Conner, the West Virginia native came back to the game to help Neal first, and then Jeff Hans for a total of 15 years until 2021 as the TMU women’s basketball program added two more national championships — in the NCAA and NAIA — under Hans.
“I reached out to him,” Neal said of his recruiting Shields to help him. “He had very strong beliefs and principles but an unassuming way.”
And he left nothing but warm and wonderful memories. Like this description in Tim Shields’ memorial bio: “. . . a devoted Christian, father, brother, grandfather, uncle, coach, teacher, and friend. He was known for his kindness, his dry humor, and his unwavering generosity with his time . . . a coach, teacher, and mentor to everyone he came across, touching countless lives with patience, compassion, and fairness.”
“One of the good guys,” said Terry Connor.
Indeed.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.