Chris Clarke, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Virginia Beach (VA) Cape Henry Collegiate School, has three more official visits planned beginning with a trip to Creighton this weekend and is narrowing his focus.
After that he will trip to Virginia Tech (Sept. 26) and Tennessee (Oct. 3). He has already visited reigning NCAA champion UConn.
“Unless something changes, those schools are the ones he would like to make a decision [from],” Curt Clarke, the player’s father, told SNY.tv Wednesday.
“They all came out to the school and visited us as a family and spent some time with Chris at the school.”
Curt added: “Iowa State was the other school that he was considering also. I have to follow up with Chris and see what happened with them.”
Clarke initially cut his list to those five schools plus Florida and Minnesota.
Curt said his son hopes to decide in the fall.
“Our intent is to hopefully have that decision before the early signing period,” he said. “Make that decision, be able to move forward with that program and at the same time be able to focus on finishing up high school.”
As for the UConn visit the weekend of Sept. 5-7, Curt said, “It was a great visit. Definitely we tried to go there with an open mind, not just looking at it as, ‘Well, they’re the national champs and it’s a done deal,’ but to try to peal things back and ask what makes this a great program.
“We were very impressed in regards to the culture that’s there for both programs, as far as the male and the female, and just the overall environemnt and the support structure and how the kids get along with each other and the coaching staff.
“Me personally, I was very impressed with the knowledge of their trainers and just the emphasis that’s put into having the athletes working out the proper way, proper nutrition, things of that nature. The education piece, too, is great.”
Clarke averaged 12.5 points this summer with Boo Williams on the Nike EYBL circuit, and 14.7 points at the Peach Jam. He made the ZAGSBLOG All-Peach Jam 2nd Team after leading Boo to the semifinals.
