Michelle Clark-Heard knows about tradition.
As a member of the Western Kentucky women’s basketball program from 1986-90, Clark-Heard played for longtime coach Paul Sanderford, who helped build the Lady Toppers into one of the nation’s top programs.
But after back-to-back losing seasons, Clark-Heard returned to WKU to help her alma mater regain its footing. In two seasons, Clark-Heard has helped re-establish WKU as a postseason insider. In her first season, she led the Lady Toppers to 22 wins and an appearance in the Postseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Last season, she guided WKU to a 24- win season and back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in six seasons.
At 2 p.m. today (CBS Sports Network), WKU (3-0) will try to solidify its place as a postseason participant this season when it takes on Mississippi State (3-0) in the championship of the Preseason WNIT at Humphrey Coliseum.
“It was a vry humbling experience to be hired here as the head coach,” Clark-Heard said. “When I was able to get my staff together, it was something we knew was going to be a journey that was going to take hard work and giving 110 percent every day to continue to keep building. They understand and know what this program means to me. That was important when I went out to choose a staff. All of us are working toward a common goal.”
That goal is to get WKU to be a fixture in the state of Kentucky and on the national scene. Clark-Heard said her goal is to compete with Kentucky and Louisville, two programs that have emerged as national powers in the past decade, and with Bowling Green to attract the top players in the state of Kentucky and from the region.
Clark-Heard took over for Mary Taylor Cowles, who was fired by athletic director Ross Bjork in July 2013 after 10 years as coach and 21 seasons as a player, assistant coach, and coach in the program. Bjork is now the athletic director at Ole Miss. WKU went 15-17 and 9-21 in Cowles’ final two seasons. The 21 losses were a record for most in a season. The nine wins were the fewest since the 1979-80 season. It also marked the program’s first back-to-back losing seasons since 1974-75.
Cowles led WKU to two appearances in the NCAA tournament, seven trips to the postseason, and two Sun Belt Conference championships.
Enter Clark-Heard, who spent five seasons as an assistant coach to Jeff Walz at Louisville. Clark-Heard credited Cowles and her staff for assembling some of the talent that is on the roster, including forward Chastity Gooch and guard Alexis Govan. Gooch and Govan are two of the team’s three seniors.
“They are best friends and their personalities are totally different,” Clark-Heard said. “Chastity is happy go lucky. Everybody loves her and she is funny. Alexis is reserved at times and in certain ways and has this unbelievable competitive nature and funny spirt.”
Clark-Heard said she immediately tried to build relationships with her new players and to impress upon them that it was going to be a process to get the Lady Toppers back to the NCAA tournament. As a player, Clark-Heard appeared in four NCAA tournaments, so she knows what it takes to get a team there, and she feels the program is on its way back to re-establishing the place it once had under Sanderford.
“What happened early in our first year is we won some of those close ballgames,” Clark-Heard said. “Once we were able to win some of those close games, the confidence continued to rise on our team. After that, we kept evaluating and setting more goals.”
The goal for this season is to build on the 2013-14 season. Wins against Central Arkansas, at Colorado, and against Albany have put WKU in position to test MSU on its home court.
“It was unbelievable,” Clark-Heard said of her team’s effort against Colorado. “It showed me how much this team has grown up. It was an up-and-down fight and a battle that could have gone either way, but the kids never gave up and continued fighting. They are really resilient. I love that about them. It was an awesome win for them as a team. Different people stepped up at different times.”
Clark-Heard feels her team’s victory in Boulder, Colorado, in which it won in overtime thanks in part to 30 points from Gooch and 20 points from Micah Jones has prepared it for what it will face today. She hopes her team’s up-tempo approach will be able to handle the Bulldogs on their home floor.
“When I was a player, everything we was here,” Clark-Heard said. “We have the facilities, the fan support, the backing (of the administration). We have the capability to do that again.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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