McCook hires Taylor Shaffer to lead men’s basketball program

McCook Community College chose Taylor Shaffer to steer its men’s basketball program, betting on a coach whose resume is built in the same Region IX lanes his new team must navigate. The hire, announced June 17, 2026, paired championship experience with a deep junior-college footprint that runs from Otero to Chanute to McCook.

Shaffer arrived after four seasons at Neosho County Community College, where he took over in June 2022 and helped move the Panthers forward. Neosho said his first team finished 11-18, then followed with a 16-14 season in Year 2, which the program called its first winning record in nearly a decade. In its farewell note, Neosho credited Shaffer with helping elevate the men’s program during his time in Kansas and said he was taking the next step in his coaching career when he accepted the McCook job on June 10.

The fit is obvious in the details McCook highlighted. Shaffer is a former Region IX championship men’s basketball player and a former Region IX Women’s Coach of the Year, a combination that speaks to both competitive credibility and regional familiarity. His bio says he spent two seasons coaching women’s basketball at Otero Junior College, where he earned the 2017 Region IX South Coach of the Year award and coached four players to all-region honors. He also played two seasons at Otero and was part of the 2012 Region IX championship team, which a Colorado Mesa bio says went on to finish eighth at the NJCAA national tournament.

For McCook, the timing matters as much as the résumé. The Indians’ season ended March 12 with an 88-79 loss to Laramie County Community College in the Region IX quarterfinals, leaving the program to reset before the 2026-27 run. By moving quickly and posting the hire on its athletics news page, McCook made clear it wanted Shaffer in place before roster decisions and recruiting traffic start to intensify across the region.

The staff structure around him is already in motion. McCook’s men’s basketball coaches page lists Lance Shipley and Logan Moyer as volunteer assistant coaches under Shaffer, giving the new head coach a first-year support staff before summer work fully ramps up. That matters in junior college basketball, where a coach’s network can decide how quickly a roster turns over and how well a program plugs gaps left by graduation, transfers and late additions.

Shaffer’s background points toward a program built on Region IX relationships, player development and familiarity with the route from Otero to McCook. That is a practical identity for a school trying to climb back into the mix in one of the NJCAA’s toughest regions.