Hey Coach Clifford, are you enjoying your “retirement” away from basketball?
I am. I really am.
What did you do Sunday?
Went by the school and watched the seventh grade practice and got involved a little bit.
How about over the weekend?
Friday, I went to watch Justin’s game out in Cadiz and Saturday I caught Ryan’s at home.
Tell me about retirement “away” from basketball again?
Kim Clifford resigned his post as the St. Clairsville head boys’ basketball coach in April 2018 following 27 successful seasons at the Red Devils’ helm.
That followed stints as head coach at Cadiz and assistant coach at his alma mater, Bellaire.
Apparently, after 43 years of coaching, handing in your whistle is far easier than staying away from the game entirely.
“My youngest son (Kurt) coaches the 8th grade, and I went over to the practice to hang around,” Kim said. “I go to all the junior high games. It’s something to do, and I’d rather watch that than TV.”
Coach Kim finished with 461 wins for his career, 371 of which came at St. Clairsville as he took a struggling program and turned it into an Eastern Ohio and OVAC power.
He left it in good hands as his eldest son Ryan followed in his father’s footsteps and accepted the position shortly thereafter.
After first playing for his dad in the mid-1990s and then assisting him for 17 seasons, calling it a dream job for the younger Clifford might be underselling it.
“When I was younger, I looked at other places a bit, but I knew it would have to be the perfect situation to get me to leave,” Ryan said. “This is my home and my alma mater. This is where I wanted to be.”
Justin Clifford, the middle of the three Clifford boys, served as an assistant under his dad after playing both at St. Clairsville and at Muskingum University.
He assisted as long as he could, but when a position at nearby Harrison Central opened, along with a coveted teaching job to go with it, Justin had to jump at the opportunity.
“I needed a job. I’m sure Mom and Dad got tired of paying for everything,” Justin said with a laugh, noting that he had been substitute teaching for around five years before heading up Ohio Route 9 to Cadiz.
Justin served as an assistant before briefly taking the top job for the girls’ team. The boys’ coach left soon after, and Clifford opted to run the boys’ team while Nick Yourkovich took over the girls. He’s in his 11th season coaching the Huskies.
Basketball is Family; Family is Basketball
Not that Coach Kim needed any additional reasons to find his way back inside a gymnasium, but the chance to watch your sons continue the family coaching legacy certainly helped.
Nor is he ever the only Clifford in the room.
Clifford hit the wife lottery when he married Penny. She attended every game he coached, from freshman level at Bellaire until his final game in 2018. Being a devoted wife and mother is one thing, but that’s A LOT of basketball.
“Everyone says they retire to spend more time with family, but I don’t think my wife missed a game since 1976,” he said. “She went to every one.
“I got to coach my sons, and now I can watch them, and with grandkids coming along, we get to watch them too.”
Admittedly he spends more time at St. Clairsville games than Harrison. To be fair, Kim is still a teacher at the high school.
“He’s in a tough spot. He has our kids in his class, so he has that connection more so than with (Harrison’s),” Ryan said. “But don’t let him fool you. His closet has plenty of Husky gear. He still has a lot of friends out there.”
Passing the Torch
After nearly 30 years, Coach Kim felt it was time to move on. He still loved basketball, the camaraderie with his players, but hours and hours of daily dedication required to operate at a high level finally became too much.
“I just didn’t think it was fair to everyone to keep going without the energy level that you need,” Kim said. “I still love basketball, but I couldn’t do it with the same vigor, the daily grind, as I used to.
“Plus, Ryan was waiting patiently, Justin had gotten a job, and it was just a good time and situation for everyone.”
Both sons have taken what they learned both as players and assistants under their father and incorporated it into their own programs. Naturally, they’ve also worked to put their own stamp on things as well.
“You try to put your own little spin on things, and you adapt to your players and personnel,” Justin said. “But the biggest thing I took from him was how to run the program, (and) the importance of the relationships you build with the kids.”
“It’s been a good transition,” Ryan added. “Maybe our philosophy on offense is a little different at times, but when you work with someone for as long as we did, you inevitably pick things up.”
Justin admitted that even after 11 years, he and his father still talk shop after every game, discussing about what went right and suggestions on what to work on.
But what about 500?
When Coach Kim retired, he was 39 games away from the coveted 500-win mark. Given his string of success, that’s likely 2-3 seasons tops if he were to return to the bench.
Justin admitted that he’s even hinted on occasion of getting his dad to come be his assistant, but both he and Ryan know that Kim returning to be a head coach is not likely to happen.
“I’ve been hinting at it now and again, but he obviously retired for a reason,” Justin said. “That stuff doesn’t matter to him. One of the biggest things I learned from him are more wins than losses are nice, but you do it for the relationships and for the right reasons.
“He never brought up (his record) or talked about it.”
Ryan was in agreement, also noting that, “honestly he could have gotten those wins a long time ago, but he always tried to schedule big games and play really good teams.”
Enjoying Retirement
No, the win total will stay at 471, and the whistle will stay hung up.
Kim is enjoying his retirement from coaching, spending time with this grandkids, helping his sons when asked and overall enjoying the game, but on his terms.
Soon after his retirement, Ryan, Justin, and Kurt all banded together to get their father a proper sendoff befitting his years of dedication.
The trio surprised their parents with an all-expenses paid trip to the 2019 Rose Bowl to watch Ohio State defeat Washington, 28-23.
Kim and his wife flew into Las Vegas, rented a Ford Mustang convertible and drove from Vegas, through the desert and into Pasadena. It was quite the memory.
“They got us the airplane tickets, the hotel, the whole nine yards,” Kim said. “We couldn’t have done that when I was coaching, and it was pretty special of them to do it. They don’t have that money to spend, but they did it anyway.”
They did so because they too came to learn the value family, perhaps the most important lesson of all.
It proved they, in fact, were listening. As a parent, what more could you ask for?
