More than basketball: The Sheppard family’s commitment to their Kentucky home

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 1, 2026) — March 1998. The color blue – much like it always does during this time of the year – has invaded the Alamodome in San Antonio. 

The Kentucky men’s basketball team, however, is in a familiar hole. The Cats are trailing at halftime in large part because Utah has raced out to a 24-6 advantage on the boards. 

Frustration morphs into momentum. Those blue-clad seats filled with unwavering passion begin to roar. Every dribble. Every shot. Every defensive stance. The noise presses against the ceiling and is rising with every second ticking away. 

Twenty-seven years later, another Kentucky community is on edge for entirely different reasons. They’re listening for a sound, but this time it isn’t the clock. 

Sirens scream. Trees bend. Life like London, Kentucky, knows it gets lifted from the ground and spins through the air. The storm rips through this community with relentless impetus. 

With under five minutes remaining in the national championship, Kentucky has clawed its way back into the game. Allen Edwards races up the court and finds Jeff Sheppard on the baseline. 

In London, there’s no time to take a breath. The tornado is driving forward. What was standing moments before now is scattered throughout this tight-knit community.

Sheppard raises up and fights through two defenders before getting a baseline jumper to fall – lifting UK to its first lead of the game after trailing by as many 12 points. When the clock finally reaches zero, and the “Comeback Cats” have claimed the program’s seventh national championship, people leap from their seats. Strangers embrace and a celebration ignites through the entirety of Big Blue Nation, from those in the Alamodome to those all the way back home in Lexington. 

In London, as the storm finally quiets down, people emerge from what’s left of their homes. They embrace too – because they’ve survived. Two moments separated by 27 years. Two storms. One created from hope, the other from destruction. One lifts thousands to their feet and the other to their knees. 

It’s now May 16, 2025, and the most valuable player from the title team in 1998 is standing alongside a community whose families are interwoven with his own – and the devastation is consuming. He, along with his family, is driven by their community’s cries for help in the same way basketball once fueled them. 

Jeff Sheppard was not born a Kentuckian. But a bouncing ball and a dream changed the course of the Peachtree City, Georgia, native’s life.

To understand the Sheppard family and what now motivates them, you must start at the beginning. 

“When I was in sixth grade, I wrote my dream down on a piece of paper that I wanted to play basketball in the NBA, but I also wanted to play in the Final Four for the University of Kentucky,” Jeff Sheppard explained on an August evening recently in Lexington. “I loved the style of play … I was just drawn to Kentucky with the history and the fan base.”

On Nov.11, 1992, Sheppard – the 1992 Mr. Georgia Basketball – signed a National Letter of Intent with the Wildcats and arrived to suit-up for Rick Pitino for the 1993-94 season. Sheppard would help the Wildcats to two national championships, including earning Most Outstanding Player of the 1998 Final Four. He finished with 1,091 career points and averaged 13.7 points per game during his senior campaign.

He graduated in 1998 with a degree in education and an emphasis in mathematics. Jeff now serves as a financial advisor for the Family Wealth Group servicing Lexington, Georgetown, London, Harrodsburg and Hurricane, Kentucky. 

Already on campus, thriving on the women’s court, was Stacey Reed, a native of London, Kentucky. 

“Watching Derrick Hord, Roger Harden, Sam Bowie, Melvin Turpin, Kenny ‘Sky’ Walker, I grew up idolizing them.” Stacey Reed Sheppard said in August. “Kentucky was the only thing that I knew and I loved it. So, when I had the opportunity to come and play at Kentucky, it was a no-brainer for me.”

Known for her tenacious defense and playmaking ability, Stacey led Laurel County High School in London, Kentucky, to two state championships – in 1987 as an eighth grader and again in 1991 as a senior. 

She then donned the Blue and White from 1991-95, scoring more than 1,400 career points, dishing out more than 500 assists and earning All-Southeastern Conference status three times. Stacey paced the Cats in scoring in both her junior and senior seasons and set the program career record for steals with 309. Stacey graduated in 1995 with a degree in therapeutic recreation.

“Obviously, the Lord had that planned a long time,” Stacey said. “That’s where Jeff and I met, and that’s where our story began.”

Stacey has often divulged the story of telling one of her teammates, “I’m going to marry him (Jeff) one day,” after seeing him on the court at Memorial Coliseum – the shared practice space at the time for both the men’s and women’s programs. She made attempts to get to know Jeff through study hall and even wrote a note asking to take him fishing. Jeff initially did not reciprocate, but eventually the two had their first date at the Ichthus Christian music festival in Wilmore and their love story officially began. 

Jeff proposed in the summer of 1997 at Stacey’s family pond, and the couple married in 1998 following his playing career at Kentucky. 

Following one season with the Atlanta Hawks and three in Italy, the Sheppards made London, Kentucky, home.

“The state of Kentucky’s all I’ve ever known,” Stacey said. “I’ve lived here my whole life in the same county. And I’ve visited a lot of places and had the opportunity through the game of basketball to see a lot of things, to do a lot of things. But there’s no place like the state of Kentucky.”

The Sheppards raised their family in London. They have a daughter, Madison, and a son, Reed. 

“Kentucky feels like home to me, because it is home,” Jeff said. 

As the Sheppards made a life in Stacey’s hometown, their love for the Wildcats grew through the eyes of their children. 

“Even though we played here, we’re now parents of children who were born in Kentucky,” Jeff said. “Our earliest memories with Madison and Reed are going to SEC Tournaments and going to those pep rallies and seeing those great SEC Championship games, celebrating with the fans and our family and just being a part of the fan base.”

“We watched every game, football, basketball,” Madison Sheppard Wigginton added. “Anytime Kentucky was playing on TV, we watched it … So, we knew that Kentucky was the way and we are still very proud of that.”

Madison and Reed were involved in sports growing up, playing basketball as well. Eventually, Madison would have a four-year career at Campbellsville University from 2018 to 2022. She graduated with a degree in chemistry. 

Reed became a highly touted recruit and played for Kentucky in 2024. He earned National Freshman of the Year honors before being selected No. 3 overall in the 2024 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets. 

“Whatever it was, baseball, basketball, football, anything, it was always on TV,” Reed said. “We were always watching as a family, going to the events and stuff. So, I was definitely always a Kentucky fan and will always be a Kentucky fan.

“It was my dream to play at Kentucky, so when I got the call from Coach Cal (John Calipari), it was a super easy decision for me,” Reed said.

Their passion for Kentucky originates through sports and being members of the rabid fanbase, but being a part of the state and university also shaped each of them beyond the court. Giving back to others through actions and relationships was transformed during their time as college students. 

Stacey worked at the VA Hospital in the long-term care unit and the Alzheimer’s unit. In addition to her work there, Stacey learned a lot about herself through moments on the court.

“It was learning a lot about myself and being from a small town,” Stacey said. “I learned really quick that not everybody thought like I did.

“When you become a team and you work and you’re crying and you’re hurting and you’re winning and you’re celebrating and you’re losing together, all those differences that you have, they really don’t mean a whole lot because you’re fighting for the same goal.”

Madison was powered by the balance of being a student and an athlete. 

“Those were four very difficult years of studying and playing basketball at the same time,” she said. “I’m really thankful that I pushed through and got that degree because what it taught me was a lot of disciple and time management.”

Jeff cultivated relationships in a variety of ways and that has continued to inspire him all these years later. 

“The first word that comes to my mind (when asked about how UK shaped him) are relationships,” Jeff said. “I have key relationships with coaches, with teammates, with other student-athletes. 

“Four men come to mind outside of my coaches. Max Apple, Keith Madison, Doug Flynn and Mike Brady. Those four men poured into a group of us young men through a weekly Bible study … and they were just consistently there for us, supported us, poured into us.”

Reed’s coach, John Calipari, often cited “having a kind heart” as one of the pillars of his program. That was already a staple of Reed’s life prior to his time in the Blue and White, having teamed up with his family to assist those impacted by the Eastern Kentucky flooding that occurred in 2022. Reed hosted a youth basketball camp in Pikeville and presented a $10,000 check to SOAR (Shaping Our Appalachian Region) for flood-relief efforts.  

“I enjoy doing things to help my community and serve the people in Kentucky,” Reed said during an interview with AG News where he discussed his motivation for serving his home state. 

And from that fervor – their strong faith, a love for their Wildcats and the people of this state – the Sheppard Family Foundation was born. 

“The Sheppard Family Foundation started in 2024, toward the end of the year,” Madison, who serves as the executive director of the foundation, said. “We knew as a family that we would always really strive to serve people and love people well, but we knew that there was a step more that we could take by establishing a foundation and knew that there were some pretty special things that we could do once we had that set.”

The mission of the foundation mirrors their own family values. The organization aspires to love, serve, strengthen and equip families by helping them develop as leaders, reduce physical needs, engage with educational programs, access sport and wellness opportunities, and mature in their Christian faith. 

“We’re a family and we’re not immune to the challenges that families go through,” Jeff added. “There’s mental pressure that individuals and families face together. There’s financial pressure that they face together.”

And then there’s life-altering moments like a natural disaster that can shape a family. The deadly tornadoes that ripped through London and Somerset on the evening of May 16, 2025, not only changed the trajectory of those communities, but it also drove the mission of the Sheppard Family Foundation and where it goes from here.

“We never set out at the beginning to do disaster relief, but we learned quickly that we needed to do that and our community needed support,” Madison said.

The Sheppards’ hometown was ravaged with damage, and 17 people lost their lives. They were friends, little-league teammates and fellow churchgoers.

“We’re helping people that we know personally and that we’ve seen at church, at the grocery store, in the school system that Reed and Madison grew up with,” Jeff said. “They are dealing with this head on, and so that helps us to be able to not only help them once, that’s what a lot of people do.

“What we have learned is that the need continues and eventually they get back on their feet, but it just doesn't happen with a case of water and a broom,” Jeff added. “It takes a long time to help a family recover. But when you know them and you've known them for years, it makes it that much more special.”

The Sheppards pooled together their resources and leaned on valuable relationships to forge strategic partnerships with national nonprofits and local businesses to assist in providing on-going assistance to their friends, neighbors and community members which continues today. 

“Our local church and churches were being able to come together and directly impact families, not in a one-time setting,” Jeff explained. “We were able to set up a series of events over the last 15 months or so to just kind of consistently follow up and be able to listen to their needs.”

“It’s just giving a family a little bit of hope,” Stacey said. “It could be just a day-to-day setting that they kind of feel hopeless and are not sure where to turn to. And just from different resources that our foundation has, just help them out with some groceries, whatever it may be, but be there to listen and just be available and let them know that somebody does care, that somebody is listening and there is someone willing to take action to help them.”

Sometimes their resources can lead to splashy feel-good-events like when the Kentucky men’s basketball team traveled to London for a youth camp at North Laurel High School and visited a local church to meet with more than 200 of the London residents impacted by the tornado.

Other times it’s just a quiet one-on-one conversation. 

“Our foundation’s mission is to love, serve, strengthen and equip families,” Madison said. “That’s really what we do. It can look like disaster relief, or it can look like a one-on-one conversation, but we just want to be there for people.”

Madison serves as the executive director, while Jeff and Stacey are both on the board. Reed assists when his schedule allows. 

Their assistance with the London residents impacted continues today, but the foundation has expanded with an annual “Back-to-School Bash” and a “Dream Shapers Summit.”

The bash serves local families and helps students start the school year. Families enjoy a hot meal, receive groceries, tennis shoes, school supplies and enjoy a family-friendly event. They hope to expand the event to several Kentuckian communities in the years to come.

The Dream Shapers Summit brings together leaders from a variety of industries for two days of learning, collaboration and inspiration. Through keynote speakers and meaningful networking experiences, attendees are equipped with practical tools and an aim to lead with greater purpose, integrity and influence. 

“I think if our foundation grows to be a really big thing, or if it stays exactly the same as it is in this moment, that’s not what’s important to us,” Madison said. “I’m just thankful that we have the opportunity to do it together, because what it does is it brings us back to just being together. And that’s what we want people to be able to do at the end of the day, is to sit down, be led by one another and enjoy their family.”