Citing health concerns, Ranger College basketball coach Billy Gillispie told The Dallas Morning News in a text message Wednesday evening that he is retiring.

Gillispie, 57, recently began his second season of coaching and serving as athletic director at Ranger College, where he played basketball and baseball in the late 1970s. Ranger is 10-2, having lost at home Tuesday night to New Mexico Junior College, 65-63, in what turned out to be Gillispie's final game.

Before taking over at Ranger last season, Gillispie had been out of college basketball for four seasons, following head-coaching stints at UT-El Paso, Texas A&M, Kentucky and Texas Tech.

Gillispie said his retirement is effective immediately.

"No one's ever enjoyed coaching more than I have, I promise, and no one's ever been luckier in the coaching profession than I have," Gillispie texted. "What a wonderful career!

"I've been very sick with blood pressure issues since the summer, but I've tried to fight it out. I got a report Monday that told me if I didn't address this blood pressure situation immediately, irreversible, bad things were very likely to happen here relatively soon and my long-term health could be compromised.

"Timing isn't great, but I've decided to do what I was told and try to return to healthy ASAP.

"I've had a wonderful career and in the last two years some of the best days I've ever experienced as a coach. I hate leaving this team because they are really coming around, but they understood me being sick. That's the worst part of it, not coaching."

Gillispie also had health issues during his final weeks at Texas Tech, in 2012. Six months after finishing the 2011-2012 season with a 9-23 record, he resigned on Sept. 20, during a period of turmoil that included six players transferring and Tech being cited for a secondary NCAA violation for exceeding practice-time limits.

During his final weeks at Tech, Gillispie was twice hospitalized, the latter occasion at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic, where he was treated for stress, high blood pressure, headaches and kidney problems.

In his Wednesday text message to The News, Gillispie expressed appreciation to Ranger president Bill Campion for hiring him and giving him the resources to be successful.

Ranger finished 31-7 last season and advanced to the semifinals of the National Junior College Athletic Association tournament, but wound up having to forfeit all of its victories when it was determined that one of its players, Joshua Simmons, had declared for the 2013 NBA draft.

Ranger believed that Simmons' former trainer, not Simmons, had submitted the original email to the NBA requesting Simmons' early draft eligibility. Although the paperwork wasn't completed and Simmons never was technically eligible for the draft, Ranger lost an appeal to the NJCAA executive committee and later an arbitration court in Colorado.