Chanté Crutchfield enters her sixth season as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator with the Southeast Missouri women’s basketball program.
Crutchfield’s efforts as the recruiting coordinator has brought record-breaking talent to the program since 2016. This includes Tesia Thompson, Carrie Shephard, Taelour Pruitt and many more.
Crutchfield recruited and signed Tesia Thompson, an ESPN Top 100 in the 2017 class. In 2018, Thompson was honored as the OVC Freshman of the Year, and named to the All-OVC Second-Team and All-Newcomer Team. This accolade was the first in program history.
Thompson has been named All-OVC First-Team as a sophomore and junior and was named OVC Tournament MVP after her performance at the 2020 OVC Tournament. She became just the 10th athlete in program history to reach the 1,000-point club at Ole Miss.
Crutchfield helped sign and mentor guard Carrie Shephard from 2016 to 2020. Shephard joined the team prior to the start of the 2016-17 season but did not see time on the court until 2018-19 season.
Although, Shephard only spent two seasons on the court for the Redhawks, she set multiple records. She had 42 double-digit games with eleven 20+ games. In her two seasons, Shephard made 169 three-pointers to tie for second in program history. Shephard set the single-season three-pointers made record in back-to-back season (73, 96).
Crutchfield was reunited with Crowley graduate, Taelour Pruitt prior to the 2018-19 season. She was the head coach and helped Pruitt gain multiple honors. Pruitt was named District 8-5A Newcomer and All-Region First-Team after her freshman season.
In Pruitt’s first start for the Redhawks, she put up 15-points at Mississippi State. In her first two seasons, she has had 19 double-digit games. Pruitt landed the top spot on SportCenter Top10 Plays following her buzzer-beater game-winner over Tennessee Tech in the First Round of the OVC Tournament in 2020.
Prior to Southeast, Crutchfield was head coach at Crowley High School in 2014-15, leading her team to an overall record of 23-8 and 11-3 in district play. She guided her team to its first District Championship in seven seasons and first playoff win in 10 years.
A native of Waco, Texas, Crutchfield has seven years of head girls’ basketball coaching experience at the high school level. She also worked at other Texas prep schools, including Brenham, William B. Travis, and University. At Brenham, Crutchfield compiled an overall record of 55-15. She guided the program to its first District Championship in nine years and back-to-back District titles for the first time in 12 seasons. Those teams produced two District Most Valuable Players, one Offensive MVP, two Defensive MVPs, one Newcomer of the Year, one Most Improved Player, 14 All-District selections, nine Academic All-District honorees, four All-Brazos Valley, three All-State and three All-Region picks, and one District 18-4A Coach of the Year accolade.
Crutchfield had the pleasure of coaching center Teaira McCowan at Brenham. The highly-recruited McCowan played for the USA U18 National Team that went on to win gold. McCowan played at Mississippi State out of the Southeastern Conference, and was drafted third overall in the 2019 WNBA Draft by Indiana Fever. She was voted ESPNW National Player of the Week on January 21, 2019. In her first game for the Fever, McCowan hit a buzzer-beater layup to deliver an 81-80 victory.
McCowan finished her career at Mississippi State with 1,942 points, 1,402 rebounds and 271 blocks. She finished among MSU career leaders in scoring (1,942, 4th), field goal percentage (59.7%, 1st), field goals made (770, 4th), rebounds (1,502, 1st), blocks (271, 2nd). McCowan is the only person in MSU history to record 1,500 points, 1,500 rebounds and 250 blocks. She is also the all-time leading rebounder in NCAA Tournament history (240).
McCowan was a 13-time SEC Player of the week. At the conclusion of the 2018-19 season, she was named SEC Player of the Year, SEC & WBCA Defensive Player of the Year, WBCA All-American, ESPNW & AP First Team All-American, Wooden Award All-America Team, and First-Team All-SEC. As a junior, she was voted WBCA, ESPNW and AP All- American, Naismith Defensive Player of the Year SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year, SEC All-Defensive Team – 2017-2018 and First Team All-SEC all while returning to the National Championship game again.
Crutchfield started her head coaching career at William B. Travis High School, helping the Rebels to an overall 62-54 record, three consecutive playoff appearances and their first 20-win season in 15 years and was named Coach of the Year twice.
In 2007, Crutchfield served as the Director of Operations for the Houston Comets out of the WNBA and worked as a basketball operations coordinator from 2002-05. During this time, Crutchfield had an opportunity to go travel overseas with the USA Women’s Basketball National Team during their Pre-Olympic Tour in 2004.
Crutchfield was a graduate assistant coach for Kim Mulkey at Baylor from 2000-02. She helped to lay the foundation of the program that Baylor has become today, and was instrumental in Baylor making the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
She received her bachelor’s degree in business administration-finance from Texas-Arlington in 2000 and earned her master’s in sports management at Baylor in 2002.
