Published: July 17, 2008 05:18 pm            

Heading off to college

Area athletes preparing to make jump to next level

With the summer winding down and fall classes about to begin, several recent Johnson County high school graduates prepare to begin the long journey towards earning a college degree and perhaps becoming collegiate stars on the field.

Ashley Clifton was a star on the softball field for the Joshua Lady Owls. Clifton was a four-time all-county selection and hit cleanup for a team that made it to the Region I finals last season.

Scotty Walden was starting quarterback for the Cleburne Yellow Jackets for three seasons and made the all-county team his senior season.

Clifton will take her talents to Shawnee, Okla., to play for the Oklahoma Baptist Lady Bison, while Walden heads north to Iowa to attend Dordt College.

Clifton already has experience playing against collegiate players, having faced off against several college players on her select softball team, an experience she says will help ease her transition from high school to the college game.

“I’m not really nervous about it because my select ball team started playing against players who play in college, so that’s a really good experience to get you ready and I know what to expect and have mentally prepared myself for that,” Clifton said.

“The college game makes me nervous,” Walden said. “The playbook is thicker, the game is faster, the guys are bigger.”

Beginning her collegiate career will represent the completion of a goal Clifton set for herself a long time ago.

“Who doesn’t want to say that they played a sport [in college] and it has been my dream forever so I’m really excited about that,” Clifton said.

Playing sports on the collegiate level was also a goal for Walden, who will challenge for the starting spot in the fall at Dordt, located in Sioux Center.

Walden is equal parts excited and nervous about moving to an entirely different part of the country where the familiar faces of friends and family will be far away.

“I’m sad about leaving friends and family, but I’m excited about getting to play quarterback again,” Walden said. “I have a lot of mixed emotions, but once [school] gets going it’ll be a lot of fun. I’m definitely going to buy some warmer clothes for the winter, that’s for sure.”

Making new friends from different parts of the world is certainly part of the appeal of attending college.

The opportunity to meet people from different cultures than the culture Walden grew up with in Texas is a chance the CHS grad is very grateful for and excited about having.

“There’s representatives of a lot of states, I forget the number,” Walden said. “But I think it’ll be a big learning experience, being on my own, not having my mom or anything to help me out, be fending for myself.

“I’ll get through the day by myself and I’m going to meet a ton of great people and it’s going to be a great experience to see all those people and see where they came from and their culture and it’ll be a great learning experience.”

To succeed at the next level Clifton and Walden will have to improve their skill sets, and both are excited and nervous by the challenge in front of them.

“They sent me a workout book and it’s all the same as far as lifts you have to do, there’s just more of it,” Walden said. “You have to go Monday through Friday and do four sets of everything, then agility and then run on the track.”

Walden says that it’s harder to stay motivated without a coach constantly in his ear, but he’s found a motivational tool to help him finish those last reps in the weight room or last laps on the track.

“I get motivated and get up and say ‘I have to do this if I want to be a starting quarterback,’” Walden said. “There are guys in Kansas and all around who are working, trying to get this job and I have to outwork them. I think I’ve done a good job so far.”

Clifton’s summer softball team helps her stay in peak condition in preparation for the upcoming season and the three afterwards.

“I’m pretty much working out all the time, and the other time I’m running, so I just try to keep in shape,” Clifton said. “I run around my whole neighborhood every day and every day in practice we have to run up a huge hill, probably two miles up and back.”

Down the road, Clifton and Walden hope to become high school coaches in their respective sports. Clifton’s old coach has already offered her a landing spot to begin her career.

“Coach [Traci] Brooks told me I have an assistant’s job waiting for me,” Clifton said. “That would be fun, but I’d also like to start at a small school and build something great and build something up.”

While Walden is still figuring out what to major in (its between history and physical education at the moment) his entry into the world of coaching may be delayed by a semi-pro football career if things go well over the next four years at Dordt.

“If I have a chance to play semi-pro ball, some kind of arena league, not the AFL, but smaller leagues I will,” Walden said. “But that depends on how things go [in college].”

        

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