2012-13 Men's Basketball

Jason Shelton enters his seventh season at the helm of the Freed-Hardeman Lions this fall as the men's head basketball coach.

In his five short years at FHU, Shelton has helped re-establish the Lions as a nationally-ranked program.  In the 2008-09 season, he led the Lions to their first-ever conference championship game and the program's first trip to the NAIA National Tournament since 1998.  Freed-Hardeman also won a school-record 13 conference games and posted a 24-10 overall record. 

The Lions followed with an overall record of 22-11 and conference mark of 12-4 in the 2009-10 season and advanced to their second straight conference tournament championship game.  In 2010-11, FHU recovered from the loss of two senior starters to advance to the conference championship game for the third straight year and qualified for the national tournament for the second time in three seasons, finishing the year with a 22-12 record and a 12-4 mark in the TranSouth. 

In his last four seasons, Shelton's teams have a record of 88-44 and have four straight 20-win seasons, the longest streak in program history.

Shelton came to Freed-Hardeman from Colorado where he was the assistant coach for the University of Colorado where his responsibilities included off-campus recruiting and scouting along with on-court responsibilities. He was also the director for the Ricardo Patton Basketball School.

During the Buffaloes' 2002-03 season, he helped lead CU to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in eight years. The Buffs were the only team to defeat two Final Four participants (Kansas and Texas), and it was the first time the Buffaloes defeated four teams ranked in both polls (Kansas, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma State) in the same year.

Before moving to Colorado, Shelton was the assistant coach at the University of Utah from 1999-2001. While there his responsibilities included off-campus recruiting and scouting along with on-court responsibilities and was the director of the Rick Majerus Basketball Camp. The 1999-2000 Utes lost to eventual national champion Michigan State in the closest game the Spartans had on the way to the title.

Shelton began his college coaching career at his alma mater, David Lipscomb University, in 1994 where he assisted coach Don Meyer in leading the Bison to a 144-36 record, four national tournament appearances and a trip to the 1996 NAIA Final Four.

While attending David Lipscomb, he was part of the 1989-90 team that was ranked No.1 in the nation, advanced to the final NAIA Final Four and set an all-time record for wins in college basketball with a 41-5 mark. During his time as a student athlete the Bisons were 139-16 and led the nation in scoring during three of those seasons by averaging 108, 111 and 110 points per game respectively.

Shelton lettered in basketball and baseball while attending Springfield High School. He earned his bachelor's degree in speech education from David Lipscomb and his master's in education in administration and supervision from Tennessee State University.

Shelton has two sons, Mac and Myles.

Birth Date: October 15, 1980

Birthplace: Linden, Tenn.

Education: Perry County High School (Tenn.); Tennessee Technological University ('03); Tennessee Technological University (MBA-'05).

Ryan Parnell enters his seventh season as assistant coach for the Freed-Hardeman Lion basketball team. Parnell, a native of Linden, Tenn., came to FHU from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville.

He is a 2003 graduate from Tennessee Tech with a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Management with a concentration in Information Systems. In May of 2005, he received his MBA from TTU.

While at Tennessee Tech, Parnell was team manager for four years, the first three under Coach Jeff Lebo, now at Auburn University and the last under Coach Mike Sutton. During that time, the TTU Golden Eagles won three Ohio Valley Conference Championships. During the 2002 season, they advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT. In 2003, he took a graduate assistant position before being promoted to the Director of Basketball Operations one year later. As Director of Basketball Operations, his responsibilities included coordinating travel accommodations, film exchange, ordering and maintaining equipment, and hiring student managers. During this time, he also held the position of Assistant Camp Director where his responsibilities included scheduling camp games, workers, and facilities.

Parnell graduated from Perry County High School in 1999 where he was a student assistant/manager for Coach Bruce Slatten. While at PCHS, the team was state runner-up and also won a state championship title.

Parnell is married to Elizabeth (Regg) of Nashville, Tenn.