By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          Within the first 30 seconds, Michelle Clark-Heard showed two things.

          She’s about energy, and she’s about emotion.

          Upon taking the podium at her introduction Friday as Mercer’s new head women’s basketball coach, she wanted a stronger “hello” reply from those on hand, and got one.

          Seconds later, taking things in, she had to take a deep inhale and exhale.

          “My husband said, ‘You better not get up here and cry,’” Clark-Heard said with a smile. ‘My journey … was a little different to get back here, but I’m very blessed and very humbled and honored to be standing here.”

          Clark-Heard brings a mid-major player background, and her coaching background covers a spectrum from a historically black college/university (Kentucky State), a mid-major (alma mater Western Kentucky), as well as current power 5 programs.

          She went 24-32 at Kentucky State, an SIAC cohort of Fort Valley State, 154-47 at Western Kentucky, and 74-74 at Cincinnati, while serving as an assistant at Nebraska, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Mississippi State.

          Clark-Heard had two assistants on hand, Michael Morgan and Blessing Freeman.

          The rest of the staff (is) kind of taking care of the things that we need to take care of so we can get some players,” she said. “Recruiting is going incredible.”

          The team has announced two signings this week, transfer Chelsy Bautista from Odessa (Texas) College and Talia Harris from Fishers, Ind.

          Clark-Heard said afterward in a media session that the staff has been able to retain three signings from Gardner’s staff as well as, so far, four players eligible to stay.

          And, she said, they were helping with the recruiting process.

          The new men’s staff was among the five dozen or so on hand for the lunchtime gathering.

          Mercer athletics chief operating officer and senior women’s administrator Sybil Blalock, celebrating her 30th year with her alma mater, saw immediately the work ethic and energy Clark-Heard would bring.

          New men’s head coach Ryan Ridder was hired a week before Clark-Heard, but they met while she was in Macon on her interview.

          “They actually met out in the hallway,” Blalock said. “I actually had to go out there and interrupt their conversation, because they immediately started talking about basketball, and they immediately started talking about all the connections they had … and how they knew each other.”

          Then Clark-Heard got the job.

          “She came in the first day, she showed up early, she sat in the parking lot because she couldn’t get in the building,” Blalock said. “She stayed late. She didn’t ask for anything, except where are the lights. She brought her own computer, she had her own phone, she sat down, and she was literally working all day long.

          “Came in second day, showed up early again, had to wait to get into the building, left late again. I’m a fast learning, because by the third day, I figured out she needs a key to the building.”

          Clark-Heard was happy for another shot at head coaching, only a few years after a fork in the career road developed, again.

          “When Cincinnati decided to go in a different direction, I had to make some decisions,” she said. “I had to decide what was that going to look like. I knew that my passion, my love for the game, I just had to stay in coaching.”

          Mississippi State head coach Sam Purcell, a Southeast Whitfield High grad in Dalton and former assistant at Georgia Tech as well as Louisville – where Clark-Heard has coached – contacted Clark-Heard, and soon enough, she was making her SEC debut.

          “SEC basketball, woo,” she said. “I saw it up close and personal.”

          After watching it on Sundays, since her teams played on Saturdays. She had a notepad, and was not to be disturbed while watching.

          “He said, ‘Even if I could get you for a year, you could really empower myself, this program, and this university,’” Clark-Heard said. “So, shoutout to him, because he allowed me to do that.”

          And he only had her for year after all. It was a long year off the court.

          “Just tell you how amazing of a husband that I have,” she said. “I had to do it without my husband, so I'm grateful to him for holding it down and being just an amazing husband and supporter. He always has been.”

Mercer staff

Margaret Richards
          The Louisville native graduated from Nebraska in 2003 will soon start her seventh season with Clark-Heard, serving as an assistant at Kentucky State and Western Kentucky, as well as a grad assistant at Louisville. The two-time captain at Nebraska has also assisted at North Texas, Weber State, and Clemson, while also being a head coach at Division II St. Augustine’s (33-24) and Division I Alabama A&M (97-125).

Michael Morgan
          The 16-year coaching veteran has covered some ground, from being a high school coach in Florida, to a college assistant in Indiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and New York. He coached with Richards at Alabama A&M, and spent the last two seasons as an assistant at Hofstra. He played at North Carolina A&T and North Carolina Wesleyan.

Blessing Freeman
          Freeman brings four years of SEC playing experience – at Mississippi State, 2002-06, with two NCAA Tournament trips – to Mercer, as well as a broad coaching background most in the south but including two seasons at Robert Morris in Pittsburgh. She was a high school head coach in Florida at two schools from 2015-22, after working at East Central Mississippi CC, Rice, and Delta State.

          Clark-Heard praised predecessor Susie Gardner for turning the Mercer job into a desirable one, nodding to the assorted banners hanging from the Hawkins rafters

          “Susie and this program, it's a staple of winning, winning culture,” Clark-heard said. “And everywhere you go around, everyone knows. That was a big reason why. A lot of people talk about winning championships. People don’t realize the hardest thing to do is get a championship. So when you have multiple championships …”

          Defense will key Clark-Heard’s plan to add to the trophy case.

          “I love defense so much,” she said, noting her bargain with players. “Everybody loves offense. I want to control the defensive end, so I’ll allow you all on the offensive end. That doesn’t mean you can shoot it every time you touch it.”

          It takes players time to buy in, but they do. Even if they don’t realize it.

          “You start changing up defenses, and the players come into the huddle,” Clark-Heard said. “ ‘Coach, they don’t know what defense we’re in.’ I say, ‘Y’all don’t either.’ We’re just trying to find a way to win.”

          Blalock said she saw Clark-Heard play at Western Kentucky, and intensity wasn’t a problem.

          “It was really quite a treat,” Blalock said. “She layed for Paul Sanderford at Western Kentucky, who’s a hall of famer. He’s a very intense coach, wasn’t he, Michelle? When you watch her coach, if you had seen him and then you watch her, she may be a little ahead of him in that category.”