STARKVILLE — It seems hard to believe all these years later, but there was a time in her career where Michell Clark-Heard never wanted to be a women’s basketball head coach.
That was before she left University of Cincinnati as an assistant to become the head coach at Kentucky State, a Division II HBCU, where her team had to sometimes bus 14 hours just to make a road game.
That was before returning to her alma mater Western Kentucky after an assistant coaching stint at Louisville, where she took the Hilltoppers to three NCAA Tournaments and two NITs over six years.
That was before a five-year return to Cincinnati, which ended in disappointment, and ultimately, her dismissal following last season.
This summer was the first where Clark-Heard, 54, was uncertain about her basketball future since beginning her coaching career as an assistant in 1998 at University of Nebraska. There, Clark-Heard fell in love with being around the game of basketball — something she didn’t want to lose.
“Once the situation at Cincinnati (happened) and I moved on, I had to look at what was going to be the best situation for myself,” Clark-Heard told The Dispatch in a recent interview. “ I think you have to be with the right people, so I could be very beneficial wherever I went. That was the most important thing I looked at.”
Clark–Heard landing on Sam Purcelll’s staff as an assistant coach and new athletic director for women’s basketball didn’t happen by chance. She turned down other head-coaching opportunities to come to Starkville because it was the “right fit.”
“I saw myself being in a position where I could help and help him (Purcell), but also be a part of the best conference in the country in women’s basketball,” she said. “It took some convincing, but not a lot.”
Two months into her new job, Clark-Heard has fully settled in. She’s explored Starkville a bit. Moved into her new office in the Mize Pavilion. Even went on some recruiting trips while fellow assistant Murriel Page helped coach Team Canada in The FIBA Women’s AmeriCup.
After 11 seasons rebuilding basketball programs, Clark-Heard has gotten comfortable with being behind the scenes again.
“When you love the game, what you do and want to empower young people and give back to the game,” she said. “It doesn’t always have to be about a title.”
In Clark-Heard’s new role, she will be able to mentor not just Mississippi State’s players as an assistant coach, but its young staff, too with Purcell entering just his second season as a head coach.
Until her latest stint at Cincinnati, basketball success has followed Clark-Heard. She was part of four NCAA Tournament teams as a player at WKU, where she scored 790 career points in 118 career games and won back-to-back Sun Belt championships in 1988-89.
In her first head-coaching stint, Clark-Heard turned Kentucky State from a one-win program in 2004 to a 19-win program in 2007 before moving to an assistant role under Jeff Walz at Louisville, where she was part of the program’s first Final Four appearance.
In six years at WKU, Clark-Heard won the conference championship twice, the conference tournament two other times and 108 of her 135 games.
Her tenure at UC ended after five seasons with a 74-74 record.
“You don’t realize that after every year you are trying to figure out how you are going to get to the next championship,” Clark-Heard said. “I learned that I wish sometimes now I would have stayed in the moment a little longer. Looking back, those are things I really cherish.”
Clark-Heard and Purcell never crossed paths at Louisville. The former had already departed for WKU months before Purcell took an assistant coaching position under Waltz. Through that connection, however, the two remained in contact over the years.
Purcell wanted a seasoned coaching perspective and experience to add to his staff this offseason. It’s one of reasons Clark-Heard knew the two would easily gel.
Clark-Heard admits she fell in love with being the decision-maker; the one to whom players always looked for the next answer. In some cases she will still be that person. In others, she will have to fall in line like everyone else.
It’s a new experience that she said not every former coach could be able to handle. But it’s something Clark-Heard is embracing.
“To not be the one that has to make all the decisions, but be able to be to help Sam to make those decisions if he needs help in certain situations,” Clark-Heard said. “I have embraced it. I think the biggest thing for me is that I’m a relationship person.
“Getting to know the players here, building relationships and being in that position where they know I am not the one who is taking them in or out of a game. I’m enjoying that aspect of it.”
She’s also still finding ways to learn about herself as a coach in the SEC, in case that opportunity ever comes again.
“The most important part is being at the highest level here and learning how this level works,” Clark-Heard said. “I have been fortunate being at Louisville as an assistant, but as a head coach there is an understanding of knowing also the ins-and-outs and how different the landscape is these days. You have the NIL stuff, the other things that are so different from where I came from (WKU, UC). Just learning those things and I think the biggest thing is really trying to help Sam in situations that will arise.”
Clark-Heard made it clear she wants to be a head coach again down the road.
“Definitely not something I am going to rule out,” she said. “All about the right time and right situations.”
That’s why she is now here in Starkville, in a different role, but with more left to give to the game.
“It takes some selflessness and not thinking of your career and how you can help others,” Clark-Heard said. “…It’s about people, where you are at, where you are at in your life, so even though I am seasoned in my career, I still am very humble.”
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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