Now in his sixth season, Shawn Forrest is living his dream. In addition to his coaching duties, Forrest is also involved in recruiting and is in charge of the Indians’ academics. Since joining ASU’s coaching staff, Forrest has helped the Indians to top 100 recruiting classes. The recruiting classes have produced two 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.
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 2003-04 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 Indians 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. In 2004, Woods 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.
