Bio

James Stafford was formerly introduced on Sept 9, 2023 as the head coach at Paul Quinn College.

 Coach Stafford has served as a coach on several different levels from high school to Division I college experiences. He most recently spent time at Prairie View A&M as an assistant coach for two seasons (2021-2023); where he helped lead the team to back-to- back trips to the SWAC tournaments, while recruiting one of the top classes in the conference and mentoring two first team all-conference selections (Juwaun Daniels and Will Douglass).

 He served as head coach for Ranger College most recently ('17-18 & '20-21), posting an 44-10 record. As an assistant coach, he contributed to Ranger qualifying for back-to-back appearances in the 2019 and 2020 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division 1 Championship games. The Rangers finished as the 2019 national runners-up after playing in the first-ever nationally televised NJCAA championship. The Rangers were also ranked #1 in the NJCAA polls in 12 of the 15 weeks during the 2019-2020 season. In his three plus seasons there, Coach Stafford was part of a most successful period in its long history. Since 2017, Ranger College posted an 81-16 record and won back-to-back Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference titles in 2019 and 2020 while being ranked in the top five nationally in almost every defensive category.

 Coach Stafford began a collegiate coaching career in 1988 at Siena Heights University in his home state of Michigan. Afterwards, he served as head coach at Detroit Renaissance High School and his alma mater, Redford St. Mary’s High School, where he achieved conference Coach of the Year. In 1993, he moved to the Division I level joining the Big 10 coaching staff at the University of Wisconsin.

 In 2000, he spent two seasons as assistant at Duquesne University and later coached three years at the University of Toledo, followed by a season at Florida Atlantic before joining Southern Methodist University (SMU) as an assistant.

 Coach Stafford recruited top ranked individuals in several conferences (Big 10, A-10, MAC, WAC, C-USA, A-Sun and the SWAC); while also developing several All-Conference and Frosh of Year players in multiple conferences.

 In 2007, after finishing his contract with SMU, Coach Stafford moved into the business end of basketball operations by founding several basketball-related organizations, including Basketball 4 Kids, Inc., a non-profit organization, designed to help parents become better youth-league coaches and leaders, as well as becoming the owner of the Plano Wolves Basketball Club; that had 19 teams and 155 kids; in addition to being the Director of the DI Premier Basketball, which evaluated talent and provided players to the Nike EYBL.

 Recently in summer 2021, Coach Stafford served as the head coach for the Drive Nation 16U EYBL team. The team posted a 40-5 record and was runner-up in the Nike National Peach Jam Championship game televised nationally on ESPNU. Six members were ranked on the ESPN Top 100 Class of 2023.

 Stafford earned a B.A. in Human Services from Siena Heights University where he was inducted in the Hall of Fame.