COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Lady Topper Basketball Head Coach Michelle Clark-Heard has been named a court coach for the USA Basketball senior national team's fall training camp that runs Sept. 30-Oct. 2 in Santa Barbara, Calif., her third stint with USA Basketball. The court coaches were selected by the USA Basketball Women's National Team Steering Committee under the direction of chairwoman Carol Callan.
Clark-Heard is set to join Louisville head coach Jeff Walz, Sue Semrau of Florida State and George Washington's Jennifer Rizzotti in the role. Clark-Heard previously served as an assistant under Walz at Louisville and also with the United States U23 National Team earlier this month in the inaugural Four Nations Tournament in Japan; in that event, the United States posted a perfect 3-0 record en route to claiming the championship with an average margin of victory of 32 points.
In her first assignment with USA Basketball, Clark-Heard served as an assistant with the 2015 Pan American Games squad that claimed the silver medal, giving her a 7-1 record as an assistant coach in competitive games at the international level.
The camp will be utilized to help identify athletes for future USA National Team events, including the 2018 USA World Cup Team, and will mark the USA's first training camp under new head coach Dawn Staley. Staley was named the senior national team's head coach in March just before claiming her first national championship as the head coach at South Carolina.
Approximately 30 athletes are expected to attend the camp, and the list of participants will be announced at a later date. Athletes competing in the WNBA Finals will not be available to participate. The United States will tip-off training at Noon (CT) daily, with sessions held at Westmont College on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. On Oct. 2, the USA National Team's practice will be held at the University of California, Santa Barbara Recreation Center's Robertson Gymnasium.
"These four coaches bring a wealth of talent," said Staley, who has served as an assistant coach for a pair of USA Olympic and World Cup teams. "I've worked with Jeff with the U18s and U19s, and Jen and I worked together in Rio. I haven't really worked with Michelle or Sue, but they both have been extremely successful at their programs and nothing makes me think they're not going to be successful in helping me out in training camp."
In five seasons as the head coach at WKU, Clark-Heard has led the Lady Toppers to three conference tournament championships and NCAA appearances and a 130-39 (.769) overall record. For the first time in program history, WKU has had three consecutive 27-win seasons over the last three years, including a school-record 30 victories during the 2014-15 campaign. Since joining C-USA prior to that season, Clark-Heard and the Lady Toppers own a 47-7 (.870) overall mark in conference play and have dropped no more than three games in C-USA play in a single season.
The Lady Toppers are coming off a 27-7 season in 2016-17 that saw them sweep both the C-USA regular season and tournament championships. WKU squared off against Ohio State in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Lexington, Ky., and nearly pulled off the upset over the fifth-seeded Buckeyes, falling in a tight 70-63 decision. WKU returns two of its top three scorers (Ivy Brown and Tashia Brown) for the 2017-18 campaign as it looks to continue its strong run of success under Clark-Heard.
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