By Michael Letendre
UNCASVILLE – There was nothing easy about the journey Bristol Central’s Donovan Clingan just completed at Mohegan Sun on Saturday night.
More than a couple seven-footers have been on the wrong side of boys scholastic basketball championship battles because, and sometimes the law of averages applies, you simply can’t win every game.
Or can you?
You’d figure a team is going to slip up along the way unless you play hoop for the squad at Bristol Central, going a flawless 28-0 this season and winners of 43 straight games.
Clingan has proven all the doubters wrong over the last two years as the extremely likeable 7-foot-2 two-time Connecticut Gatorade Player of the Year did everything he set out to do over one of the most memorable scholastic careers in the Nutmeg State history.
“I know my mom’s proud of me, Bristol’s proud, the school’s proud. I’m proud, the team’s proud, I don’t even know what to say,” Clingan said after the championship victory. “I’m so excited. This is the reason I stayed at Central.”
Clingan always has a smile on his face and it is obvious to everyone that he loves being a student athlete at Bristol Central.
He’s a big kid who also loves to play the game of basketball and after that title was obtained on Saturday, in Central’s 56-36 victory over No. 2 Northwest Catholic, he put himself in the same breath as every other big man who took the court and won a championship in Connecticut.
Think about comparable players to Clingan like former Hartford Public standout Marcus Camby, also a Gatorade Player of the Year in Connecticut.
Camby also went undefeated as a senior, leading the Owls to a 27-0 record in 1992-93, averaging 27 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists-per-game, and accomplished everything he could on his way to UMASS.
In his title victory, Camby posted 32 points and 14 rebounds as Public sank Danbury, 83-68, from Central Connecticut State University on March 20, 1993.
Fast forward to 2022, Clingan (30.3 points-per-game) won his championship behind a tremendous showing of 25 points and 24 rebounds – proving that you can win and be successful playing hoop at public schools in Connecticut.
“This is why I stayed here,” said Clingan. “This is every high school basketball player’s dream and every high school athlete’s dream to win a state championship. I mean, it’s great especially at a venue like this. Mohegan is a great arena and I just couldn’t be happier.”
And over his four seasons at Central, you’ve seen every kind of defense attempt to slow down the 7-foot-2 pivot man.
Does a triangle-and-two really work against a giant like that?
What about a more aggressive zone defense – packing in the middle to prevent Clingan from getting a lob from his teammates?
Or how about just mauling him just like Wilton tried to do in the semifinal round of the Division II tournament?
That showdown, won by Central in a 54-52 overtime war from New Haven, even saw a Wilton player flop down to the floor – attempting to draw an offensive foul on Clingan in one of the worst acting jobs ever recorded.
After 36 tough minutes, the center from Bristol Central somehow battled through two and three players in a game that resembled tackle football on the hardwood.
And he still achieved, snagging 30 points and 20 rebounds against aggressive Wilton, while getting tripped and pulled down more than the law should legally allow throughout the game.
“It’s very hard,” said Clingan. “I’m getting double, triple-teamed [and] I’m getting beaten up. I just had to stay strong and keep my composure because my team needs me. Without me out there, my team struggles. So they need me out there and I know that. I just have to keep my composure and do what I do.”
Central, the overwhelming favorite to win the Division II championship this year, never looked ahead of its competition over each step of the way.
And that one-game-at-a-time method kept the Rams focused on the game of the night and the task at hand.
“Since the start of the playoffs, coach has said four more, three more, two more, one more” game to go in the state tournament said Clingan. “Today [at Mohegan], he said one more. This is it.”
But way before his senior season, Clingan could have moved on and taken his talents elsewhere to a place like Northwest Catholic or a program like Brewster Academy.
But there was unfinished business due to the pandemic, and Central coach Tim Barrette was looking to put the spotlight on Clingan and his crew with one of the toughest schedules he could muster.
That included bouts against Springfield Central, Wilbur Cross, East Catholic (the Division I champs), and Windsor at some of the biggest scholastic venues around.
Clingan and the squad showed tremendous chemistry, off and on the court, and when this crew took the hardwood, the program acted as one.
When you can achieve at the highest level, personally and as a program, what more is there when you win a state championship with your family and friends?
“There’s a reason why Donovan stayed,” said Barrette. “And those games are why he stayed. That family we talk about, that we broke the huddle with before every game, every time we ended right here, that’s what this is really about. This is a family. That’s the culture I tried to build 15 years ago when I took this job.”
