Editor’s note: This is a regular feature profiling senior athletes at Bryant High School.
Clifton Hampton
NAME: Clifton Hampton
PARENTS: Nancy Hampton and Clifton Hampton
SIBLINGS: I have two sisters, Iris Giles and Erica Hampton. They’re 22 and 18.
FAVORITE SUBJECT IN SCHOOL: Math
FAVORITE SPARE TIME ACTIVITY: I mostly play sports like football, basketball with my friends. Lately, it’s been more basketball. But if I’m not doing that I’m just at the house.
FAVORITE FOOD: Spaghetti
FAVORITE MUSIC ARTIST OR GROUP: Bruno Mars
FAVORITE MOVIE: 50 First Dates
FAVORITE TV SHOW: Spongebob
WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE TOY AS A KID? Thomas the Train
WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS AFTER HIGH SCHOOL? To go to college to be an accountant and working for my mom.
OTHER THAN YOUR PARENTS, WHO’S HAD THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR LIFE? HOW? Probably, one of my baseball coaches, Chris Tipton. I’ve known him for a while and he’s always been like that family friend, like on baseball trips and everything. He’s always helped me out with not only baseball but he’s just a good overall guy, a good role model.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT TRACK? Competing; I love competing. I love the feeling of competing, the nerves you get while you’re on the line — definitely competing.
EVENTS? My favorite one is the 800 but I do the 4×800 and the mile and the two-mile; just switch them up.
WHAT APPROACH DO YOU TAKE TO YOUR EVENTS? It’s different for every race. If you know — like if it’s windy, you want to stay kind of third so people in front of you can block the wind. You’re going to go out there and do what you can do to get the most points for my team.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE SEASON SO FAR? I think the season’s going great. The only meet that we haven’t just completely dominated was at Russellville and that’s basically conference and we were missing two of our best runners. I think we have a good chance.
WHAT’S BEEN THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE SEASON SO FAR? Either my 800 here at Bryant when I got second, had a two-flat, or when I completely dominated in the two-mile in Beebe.
WHAT’S IT GOING TO TAKE FOR THE TEAM TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT CONFERENCE AND STATE? Last week, we had a pretty rough week workout-wise. So that’s going to be a big contributor. And just the guys being still hungry for the win and not get used to winning.
TALK ABOUT YOUR EVENTS NOW; WHAT DO YOU THINK IS YOUR BIGGEST ASSET? WHAT ARE YOU MOST CONFIDENT IN YOUR ABILITY TO DO? A lot of guys come up and ask questions like ‘Hey, how do you think I should do this race?’, just leadership-wise because we have some great runners here.
WHAT DO YOU WORK HARDEST IN PRACTICE TO IMPROVE ON? My distance. I have natural speed, it’s just the distance part of it like the eight mile and stuff like that.
WHEN YOU’RE THROUGH RUNNING TRACK AT BRYANT HIGH SCHOOL, WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL LOOK BACK AND REMEMBER MOST FONDLY ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE? I think I’m just going to remember Coach (Steve) Oury. He’s great. He’s funny. He’ll get serious every now and then. He’s just a guy that I plan to stay in touch with after I get out of school.
