Former Hoosier Sherron Wilkerson Hired as Logansport Basketball Coach
Former Indiana basketball player Sherron Wilkerson has a new job, getting hired Monday to be the head coach at Logansport High School just a few days before school is scheduled to start.
Wilkerson, who's now 46 years old, spent three years at Indiana, playing for Bob Knight from 1993 to 1996. He finished his college career at NAIA school Rio Grande, and playing professionally, both in the U.S. and overseas through 2005, and has been actively involved in coaching ever since.
He was most recently at Madison High School in Southern Indiana, where he went 30-22 during his two years there. They were 17-9 a year ago, losing in the sectional final to Trey Kaufman (Purdue signee) and Silver Creek.
He has also coached as an assistant at Jeffersonville, and at Rock Creek and Herron high schools, IU Southeast, Lincoln Trail College and Lamar University, where he was an assistant coach for when his former college teammate, Pat Knight, was a head coach there.
Sherron Wilkerson (20) and Pat Knight were teammates at Indiana in the 1990s. (USA TODAY Sports)
As a player, he won a state championship at Jeffersonville in 1993 and was a McDonald's All-American. He was named Indiana Mr. Basketball, but the award was taken away from him after he left the Indiana All-Star team over a dispute about playing time. It's the only time that's ever happened in the long history of the award.
Wilkerson said he is “extremely excited” to take over at Logansport.
“It’s a special place. Being a southern Indiana guy, we’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for the state of Indiana from a basketball perspective and more specifically the North Central Conference,'' Wilkerson told Beau Wicker of the Logansport Pharos Tribune. "Obviously, Logansport is rich in tradition and it’s just a wonderful place with wonderful people. I’m very blessed to have the opportunity to join the Logansport family,” he said.
Wilkerson is replacing Drew Schauss, who was recently hired at Avon High School. Logansport was 11-12 a year ago, but has a lot of young talent returning.
Logansport athletic director Brian Strong had to act fast to replace Schauss with school starting on Aug. 11, and he was thrilled to be able to bring in someone like Wilkerson, who has plenty of coaching experience and IU history on his resume.
“I think that Sherron brings a lot of experience not only in the sport of basketball but mentoring young people and that’s certainly what makes him appealing to us,” Strong said. “He was a high-level player and has coached at a variety of different levels and spent the last handful of years coaching high school basketball in southern Indiana, so he brings a lot of experience and knowledge and I think he can really hit the ground running.
“When Sherron interviewed it was pretty clear to the interview committee that he was top-notch and we were really excited when he accepted the position. When you’re this late in the process, finding somebody that can hit the ground running is a really important thing and we really feel like he can do that.”
Sherron Wilkerson (left) was an assistant coach at Lamar University when Pat Knight (right) was the head caoch. (USA Today Sports)
Wilkerson still cherishes his time playing for Knight at Indiana, even though it ended badly because of a legal issue with Wilkerson. He played two years for Knight, missing all of the 1994-94 season with a broken leg. His most notable moment, sadly, was when he was headbutted by Knight during a heated exchange on the bench. Knight said it was an accident.
“Having the opportunity to play for coach Knight was obviously one of the highlights of my career,” Wilkerson told the Pharos Tribunes. “It was something that I will always be truly grateful for. It set the stage for where I am today.
"I learned some very valuable life lessons playing for coach Knight that I still carry with me today. It definitely impacted my life from a longevity standpoint and I’m truly grateful for that. I’m still very fortunate and happy to be a part of the IU family.''
Wilkerson said he hopes to get him team to Bloomington for a practice and he's thrilled that the doors to Assembly Hall are open again for former IU players.
"I want those guys to see what Coach’s life has been about, I want those guys to know from a personal standpoint that I’m no better than those guys, I just have different responsibilities,'' he said. "Hopefully we can use some of my past successes and some of my past failures to be able to use to the benefit of our student-athletes and I truly believe that.”
For the complete story from the Logansport Pharos Tribune, CLICK HERE
UPDATE, 4:42 p.m ET: Madison always filled Wilkerson's former job. They hired former assistant coach Adam Stotts on Wednesday afternoon, according to David Campbell of the Madison Courier. Stotts was an an assistant for three years at Madison and left this past spring to go to Floyd Central.
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