BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Melissa Kolbe has been named an assistant coach for the WKU Lady Topper Basketball program, it was announced Wednesday by head coach Michelle Clark-Heard. Kolbe, who has 14 years of experience at the Division I level as an assistant coach, joins the Lady Topper Basketball staff after serving last season as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Mount St. Mary's. She also has six years of experience working in Conference USA as an assistant coach.
"We are excited to have Melissa Kolbe join our staff as an assistant coach," said Clark-Heard. "She is familiar both with the state of Kentucky from her time with EKU and with the rich tradition of basketball in Conference USA through her time with East Carolina. She will be a great asset to our program as we continue to build on our recent success and aspire to sustain the great success that makes Lady Topper Basketball one of the premier places for women's basketball."
Before joining Mount St. Mary's, Kolbe previously spent time at Eastern Kentucky University, serving as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator from 2008-2014. She helped lead the Colonels to back-to-back winning seasons in 2012-13 and 2013-14 before helping the program to their first-ever trip to the Women's Basketball Invitational in 2014.
Prior to joining the staff at EKU, Kolbe worked as an assistant coach at East Carolina University for six seasons from 2002-08. In her first season with East Carolina, the Lady Pirates made the Conference USA Tournament for the first time. The most successful season for the Lady Pirates during the six-year span came in the 2006-07 campaign when ECU won its first Conference-USA tournament championship to earn its second-ever ticket to the NCAA Tournament and first in 25 years.
Kolbe spent the 2001-02 season serving as an assistant coach at Mercer University, helping the Bears to a 16-13 record. In her only season in Macon, Ga., Kolbe aided in Mercer's 10-win improvement from the previous season, which was the biggest turnaround in the NCAA in 2001-02.
Beginning her coaching career at Valdosta State University in 1999, Kolbe spent two seasons at the Division II Institution before making the jump to Division I at Mercer in 2001.
Kolbe, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, graduated from Wittenberg University in 1999 with a degree in psychology. As a player for the Tigers, she helped lead the team to three conference championships and two NCAA Tournament trips. She appeared in 105 games, starting 55, including all 28 as a junior, and 26-of-27 as a senior. She scored 753 career points, averaging a career best 9.5 points per contest as a senior.
She also grabbed 510 rebounds during her time at Wittenberg, including 168 as a junior. She shot 51.1 percent from the field during her career, ranking among the top shooters in program history.
