Heather Morris Position: Recruiting Coordinator Experience: First Season Alma Mater: Arkansas-Little Rock, 2006

Heather Morris is in her first season on coach Larry Tidwell's staff at Lamar University. She will serve as the recruiting coordinator in addition to handling on-the-floor coaching duties.

Morris comes to Lamar after serving one year as assistant women's basketball coach at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, N.M. The 24-year-old native of Little Rock, Ark. previously coached one season at Tyler Junior College and one year at North Little Rock High School.

"I'm very excited about coming to Lamar," said Morris, who was a three-year starting point guard at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock. "I've known Coach Tidwell for a long time, and I'm looking forward to learning a lot of valuable things from him.

"I have one year of experience at the junior college level and one year of experience in Division 2 (at Western New Mexico), so I'm moving up. I've always wanted to be at the Division 1 level, so this is a great opportunity for me. Coach Tidwell is highly regarded as a recruiter, so I know I will learn so much from him."

Morris, who earned her bachelor's degree in health science with emphasis in exercise science from UALR in 2006, will continue working toward a master's degree in education while at Lamar. In four years at Poyen High School (some 20 miles from Little Rock), Morris maintained a perfect 4.00 grade point average and was valedictorian of her graduating class in 2003.

"I've known Heather for about eight years now, and I'm confident she's going to become an excellent basketball coach," said Tidwell. "At Western Mexico last year, she coached under Quinn Tedder, who played for me at TCU. At UALR, she played for Joe Foley, who I regard as one of the best basketball coaches in America -- women or men.

"Obviously, Heather has already soaked in a lot of basketball knowledge, and she's still an eager learner. She's young; she's enthusiastic; she wants to learn, and she's not afraid of hard work. She played her college basketball at the Division 1 level, so she knows what type of student-athlete we need here to be successful. She's going to be a good fit for us."

Morris is both the single-season and career record holder for assists at UALR, and she is the season leader for steals. Her 14.6 points-per-game scoring average as a senior was second on the team, and she was twice the Sun Belt Conference leader in assists and steals.

As a junior at Poyen High School, Morris led the team to the Class 2A state finals, and the team came back the next season to win the state championship. She was the Class 2A Most Valuable Player in 2003, and she also made the all-state team during her other three seasons.

Morris resides in Beaumont.