Black MIAC assistant coaches hope for opportunities

The late Don Hudson (Macalester, 1972-75) was not only the MIAC’s first Black head football coach, but also the first Black HC hired at a PWI in the modern era. Hamline’s Chip Taylor, there since 2016, now is the conference’s longest serving Black coach. 

Traditionally the pathway to becoming a head coach is being either an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator. Unfortunately, this isn’t often the case if you’re Black.  

This season 18 Black coaches are serving as football coaches, including Taylor—Augsburg has the highest (four assistants), with Hamline (one HC, two assts) and Macalester (three) tied for second most.

This week we are profiling three Black MIAC assistant coaches: KiJuan Ware, EJ Shelby and Michael Harris.

KiJuan Ware

KiJuan Ware begins his second season on the Augsburg staff as defensive backs coach and recruiting coordinator. He has over 25 years of coaching experience but only one season to his credit as interim head coach at Macalester during the 2021 season, two years after he joined the Scots staff, where he was the Scots’ offensive coordinator in 2019.

“I can be a coordinator at any level,” said Ware of his previous experience. This also includes OC and running backs coach for two seasons at Western Illinois (2011 and 2012), his time as Scots OC, and recruiting coordinator and QB coach at Shorter University in Rome, Ga. He is a 1997 graduate of Springfield (Mass.) College where he played football and earned his degree in mathematics and computer science. He later began his collegiate coaching career there as well in 2002.

“It’s just a matter of time for somebody to give me an opportunity,” predicted Ware. “We are all fighting that fight, trying to be seen, [looking for] an opportunity to be seen,” he said of the ever-present obstacle that confronts Black football coaches. “But when we do get that opportunity, we have to be ready to take advantage.”

EJ Shelby

When he told us that he is the only Black offensive coordinator this season not only in the MIAC but also in Minnesota college football, EJ Shelby stressed that he can handle being the only one. He rejoined the Hamline coaching staff this season as its OC after previously serving as the team’s wide receivers coach in 2018.

A native of Birmingham, Ala., Shelby began his coaching as a volunteer assistant at Concordia-St. Paul in 2015, and then was promoted to safeties coach the next season.  After that he held coaching positions at St. Norbert (Wis.) College, St. Olaf, then at Hamline for a year, then back to Concordia. His experience also includes wide receivers and tight ends coach and academic success coordinator at Millikin, and pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach at Kentucky Christian University. 

A U.S. Air Force veteran, Shelby played football at College of the Desert (junior college) and Taylor University, where he earned his exercise science degree. He also has a degree in health informatics from Arizona State, where he also gained coaching experience.

“My ultimate goal is to be a head coach. That’s always been my dream,” he told us. “I’ve had opportunities to interview, [but it] just wasn’t right. I know what comes with this opportunity.

“We’re more than prepared to execute and show what we can and cannot do,” stated Shelby, if that opportunity is afforded to Black football coaches.

Michael Harris

Michael Harris played both college football (UCLA) and pro ball (San Diego and Minnesota) before he got into coaching. But the second-year Hamline assistant told us that he once gave up on football altogether.

“I unfortunately suffered a brain injury a few years back,” admitted Harris, a Duante, California native. “For about two years, I hated football. I didn’t want to be around it. I envied those that were playing it because I wasn’t able to.

“But an opportunity came to coach at the high-school level,” said Harris of his time coaching the offensive line at Hopkins High School. That led to a collegiate job, coaching the offensive line for three seasons at Macalester and now coaching the O-line at Hamline.

Harris thanked Coach Taylor and school president Fayneese Miller for his current opportunity. “I feel like I’m here at the right time to help this program.”