It was reported in December that Billy Gillispie had decided to hang up his whistle and retire from a coaching.
Gillispie led Ranger College to a 31-7 record in his first season as head coach but all the wins were stripped because the program used an ineligible player.
Now, Gillispie says he’s still the coach at Ranger.
Here is an excerpt from The State Journal-Register:
Gillispie, a former head coach at the University of Kentucky from 2007 until 2009, was reported to have retired in December from Ranger College.
But Gillispie was in Springfield and confirmed that he is the coach at Ranger.
“That’s the intention,” Gillespie said of coaching in the 2017-18 school year. “I had, unfortunately, I had some high blood pressure issues in December so they thought it was a lot worse than it actually ended up being. I’ve got it under control now.
“And the other thing: I’d rather die on the sideline that not be coaching, but no, that’s not going to be happening anytime soon, either, I don’t think.
“But everything is great with the health and I am definitely looking forward to coaching again.”
Gillispie, 57, was in his second season at Ranger College — where he played baseball and basketball in the late 1970s — before retiring on Dec. 7.
The Rangers were 31-7 in Gillispie’s first season before the National Junior College Athletic Association stripped Ranger College of all the wins in the 2015-16 season due to the program using a player who had declared for the 2012 NBA Draft, making that player ineligible for college basketball.
