Lamar School coach Josh Sherer watches intently during a Lady Raiders game earlier this season. 

Accepting both the boys and girls head coaching positions might deter some due to the sheer responsibility involved, it did the opposite for Lamar School’s newest basketball addition.

Josh Sherer understood the commitment that awaited him when he agreed to coach both the boys’ and girls’ Lamar School basketball teams earlier this year.

Commitment, after all, isn’t new to him.  

Capt. Sherer joined the Army National Guard in 2010, and in 2015-16, he was deployed as a chaplain with the 1-204th Air Defense Artillery to Joint Base Andrews, which is situated just outside of Washington, D.C., and is home to Air Force One.

“Our small-town Mississippi boys were protecting the Capitol for a year — 24/7,” Sherer, 39, said. “We were the air defenders for the entire D.C. (area) — so, the White House, the vice president’s residence, the different areas of D.C.”

While Sherer’s chaplain’s duties in the nation’s capital ensured busy days, he concurrently served as head basketball coach at his alma mater, Central Hinds Academy.

“I was doing a ton of coaching from about 14, 16, whatever it is, hours away,” Sherer said. “I did all of our breakdown stuff, and I had a guy fill in for me while I was gone, which was very difficult.”

Central Hinds’ boys team went 25-4 that season.

Sherer brings to the Raiders a wealth of experience that includes a five-year head coaching stop at Wesley College, where he was hired when he was just 25 years old. 

While at the now-defunct Wesley College, a school with an enrollment of just 150, including online students, Sherer coached his teams to wins against Mississippi College, Millsaps College, Belhaven University and Mississippi Valley State University.

“I tell people all the time — I’ve been put in a position often to build programs, and I don’t shy away from the fact that it is my faith in the Lord, and the things that He’s blessed us with, that has helped me move and do the things that we’ve done,” Sherer said. “It’s what we do at the school; it’s what I do in the Guard. Ministry is who we are as a family, it’s just we have different avenues of doing it.”

Sherer commits one weekend a month and two weekends a year to his Army National Guard duties. He said there are numerous parallels between the ministry and coaching. 

“I’m a pastor to these soldiers,” he said. “And what is a pastor? A shepherd. I am here to move them and help them go where they want to go or be better at what they want to be better at. Honestly, it’s really no different than what I’m doing in basketball. It just happens to be with soldiers.” 

Sherer’s faith and beliefs don’t mean he’s timid or uncompetitive. In fact, it’s his faith that drives his demand to see his players reach what he believes to be their full potential. 

“I’m hard on my kids; I’m very intense and I demand a lot, and my expectations are very high,” Sherer said. “My intensity sometimes on the court gets skewed with my faith. You know, people are like, ‘Hey, how do you yell at a kid and call yourself a Christian?’ And I say, ‘I yell at them because I do believe.’ No. 1, there’s a great balance for me on and off the court, and they know that. I spend a lot of time with my kids — my family spends a lot of time with these kids off the court, and so, they know who Coach Sherer is.”

Sherer expects that same drive for perfection from his employer, which he said made Lamar appealing. His wife, Leah, teaches English at the school, and his four children, including his two oldest — Isabella and Addyson — are members of Lamar’s basketball teams. 

“Lamar absolutely feels like home, and one of the attractions…was the leadership here,” Sherer said. “Our head of school, Leigh Ann Ballou, and our (athletic director) Shane Adams, it was the leadership here of support, and what they wanted me to do outside of basketball that really, really attracted me and my family. It was a family attraction — not just a Josh Sherer attraction. It was an environment of excellence that this place does, that I’ve not seen in my 15 years of coaching and in education.”

Sherer said Lamar’s commitment to excellence isn’t limited to just athletics.

“You’re talking about a top three to five academic institution in the state,” Sherer said. “And it is that mentality in academics that I know they’re wanting to move in every aspect of the institution. Whether that’s the arts side or the athletic side. That intrigued us. We want to be a part of people who are pursuing excellence all the time.”