Curtis Turley’s close friends call him the “Larry Brown of high school coaching,” he said.

Like Brown, a Hall of Fame basketball coach notorious for short stints with college and pro teams, Turley has an extensive resume that includes stops at 12 Kentucky high schools as a boys’ basketball coach.

But Turley anticipates his new position as a Lady Topper basketball assistant being the last stop in his career.

“Bowling Green is special,” said Turley, a WKU alumnus. “We keep coming back and coming back, and this is where we want to remain.”

WKU announced Turley’s promotion from director of operations to assistant coach on Wednesday.

His hiring completes first-year head coach Michelle Clark-Heard’s first coaching staff.

Clark-Heard hired Weber State assistant Margaret Richards and Arkansas assistant Greg Collins earlier in the month.

Turley is the lone member of former head coach Mary Taylor Cowles’ staff to be retained by Clark-Heard.

He made an impression on Clark-Heard before she ever got to meet him, she said.

“The first day I got here, Coach Turley was actually not here,” she said. “And everywhere I went, I continued to hear Coach Turley’s name brought up… The first day I met him, I understood what people were saying.”

She said Turley’s experience in the game and knowledge of the team’s returning players made him a logical choice for her third assistant’s opening.

“I went back and forth on the decisions I thought I was going to make in that position,” Clark-Heard said. “…When I saw him teaching and doing the things with the young ladies, that was one of the things that really sparked my attention.”

Turley’s promotion leaves a vacancy in the director of operations position, which Clark-Heard said she’d like to fill with a young, up-and-coming coach.