Clarence Moore has a passion for excellence. It carried him through a state championship in high school, an NCAA championship game against the University of Connecticut when he was at Georgia Tech University and it has fueled his coaching careers at the high school and university level.
Now it has won him the head men’s basketball coaching job at Kentucky State University. Moore, who served one year as an assistant coach and one year as the interim head coach of the Thorobreds, said he is ready to restore the program to its winning tradition. But he knows winning is not everything.
The Norco, La., native wants to build a solid team that has a strong work ethic on and off the court. He emphasizes academics for his student-athletes because he said it will benefit them after they graduate, but it also shows him how much they are willing to work in practice.
“If you are a good student in class, you are a good student on the floor,” Moore said. “The mind is a muscle, and you have to exercise it. By Jan. 15, we shouldn’t still be working on the same things we were working on Oct. 15. The players should be able to focus and pick up what you are teaching them.”
It was his dedication to training and academics that stood out for Dr. Denisha Hendricks, KSU’s director of athletics. Though she looked at other candidates for the head men’s basketball coach position, she said Moore distinguished himself as an interim coach during the 2009-2010 year.
Student-athletes need to believe in themselves in order to be winners, Moore said. When he played for Georgia Tech, his team was not highly ranked or expected to advance in the NCAA tournament. When the team got a berth, it used its determination, passion and belief in itself to show all of the naysayers what a strong team it was.
Moore wants to do the same thing with the Thorobreds. He and his assistant coach, Antwain Banks, are working with the students to build their trust, confidence and skills so they can be one of the stronger teams next year. They are trying to get to know their players on a more personal level so the student-athletes feel more relaxed around each other and the coaches, which will in turn translate into a more cohesive playing style.
Since he has been on campus for two years, Moore’s appointment will provide consistency and stability to the men’s program, Hendricks said.
His pre-KSU experience includes coaching stints at Paideia School in Atlanta, Ga., and Wagner Traditional School in Louisville, Ky., and he benefits from good advisers, such as Paul Hewitt at Georgia Tech and Cliff Warren at Jacksonville University, who help him with his coaching. Plus, he still has his competitive streak.
“I’m a winner,” Moore said. “I have won on every level that I have had the opportunity to play. I know that KSU has a rich tradition of winning, and I want to get back there.”
“He emerged as the best candidate for us because of the way he brought the team together,” Hendricks said. “We were also impressed with the way he handled the team, the amount of teaching that occurred during practice, the care he provided the team on and off the court and the importance he placed on academics.”