Eric Taylor named San Jacinto College women’s basketball coach

Rob Vanya - 9/9/2008 Eric Taylor

After 12 seasons as the women’s basketball head coach at San Jacinto College, Shawn Silman is stepping down. He’ll be replaced by Eric Taylor, a standout high school and college basketball player who also played professionally in two independent basketball leagues.

Prior to being named head coach, Taylor served as a physical education instructor and director of intramural sports and activities at the North campus. He has also provided consulting for the women’s basketball team and assisted during practices last season.

Silman will remain on the San Jacinto College staff as the North campus athletic director and physical education department chair. “Given the expanded duties of department chairs, it was becoming more and more difficult to balance the requirements of serving as head coach, department chair, athletic director, instructor, etc., and to devote the proper amount of attention and time to each,” he commented. He will also continue to teach PE classes while working on earning a doctorate degree and expanding the College’s PE course offerings to hybrid and online models.

Shawn Silman

Under Silman’s guidance, the women’s basketball team’s overall record was 128-221, and the program made positive strides during that span.

“The best highlight was perhaps in 2000 when the team qualified for the post-season playoffs for the first time in 17 years,” he noted. The team also qualified as regional quarterfinalists in 2002, 2003 and in 2007. Under Silman’s tutelage, two players were named Kodak All-Americans. During the 2006-07 season, Taujhnae Travis was named to the first team, while Danica King was named honorable mention in 2005. Many of Silman’s players also went on to earn all-Conference honors.

Silman says the future looks bright for the College’s women’s basketball program. “They have a good core of returning players and a host of very talented newcomers,” he noted. “Eric Taylor is highly motivated and excited about building on what the program has already accomplished. He has a great plan for success and I know he will lead the program in a positive direction.”

Taylor is a native of Shreveport, Louisiana, where he attended Captain Shreve High School. He lettered three years on the basketball team and graduated with a 3.2 GPA. Taylor went on to play at Holmes Community College in Goodman, Mississippi, where he averaged 11.7 points and six rebounds per game for the Bulldogs. He transferred to the University of Southwestern Louisiana where he averaged 16 points and eight rebounds per game. He later played for Wiley College in Marshall, Texas.

Taylor’s coaching career includes a stint as an assistant coach at Southern University in Shreveport, where he also earned associate degrees in computer science and mathematics. He earned a bachelor of science in health and physical secondary education at Louisiana State University at Shreveport.

Taylor played professionally in the Southwestern Basketball League in Dallas, and on the Pro-Am Circuit in the Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma region. Taylor and his wife Kimberly have two children, Xavier (17), and Kayla (10).

The new head coach says the 2008-09 season looks promising. “We have four returning players and we have signed two very good transfer players,” Taylor commented. “We also have some very promising newcomers. We have high expectations for these student-athletes to make an immediate impact and we will feature an exciting style of play that will have fans on their feet at every game.”

San Jacinto College opens the 2008-09 season on the road October 31 and November 1 at the LSUE Classic in Eunice, Louisiana. San Jac will open the home season November 7-8 with the San Jac Classic. All women’s basketball games are played at Nichols Gymnasium located on the San Jacinto College North campus at 5800 Uvalde Road in Houston.

For more information, please visit http://www.sanjacsports.com/.