Five-star guard Skyy Clark talks his recruitment, leadership off the court
One year ago, Skyy Clark emerged as one of the West Coast’s top-rated guards in the entire country. Now, the 6-foot-3 guard has transitioned into a new role at a new school. He will now attend Brentwood Academy in Tennessee, former high school of Cleveland Cavalier lottery pick, Darius Garland.
The two have already worked out together since Clark arrived at his new home in early-June. Since arriving in Tennessee he has already become a well-known figure around his new area, hosting a city clean-up and leading several Black Lives Matter protests. He’s made it evident that he wants to use his platform and lead by example and ‘one school will get an amazing kid on and off the floor’ – one coach said.
He does lead one of the more interesting recruitments as he could easily pick any school he’d like to attend.
On midnight of June 15th, he heard from over 30+ programs, the list included: Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Florida State, Oregon, Arkansas, Stanford, BYU, Penn, Minnesota, Ohio State, DePaul, Gonzaga, Duke, Arizona, Michigan, Indiana, Rutgers, Oregon State, UCLA, Tennessee State, Holy Cross, amongst many others.
Clark has been in touch with coaches almost ‘everyday’ – his father told Stockrisers.com. But the main goal right now for him is to stay in touch and build major relationships with these staffs. With that, he’s completed several zoom calls, including: Stanford, Kentucky, Duke, and some others.
Most recently, he got on the phone with North Carolina’s Roy Williams who would end up offering him a scholarship. The Tar Heels are heavily pursuing him now and have been pitching that he could be UNC’s next lottery pick guard.
Across the road from UNC is their cross-town rival, the Duke Blue Devils. Jon Scheyer is the lead man here for this recruitment. They instantly made it a priority to reach out to him at midnight and then immediately scheduled a zoom call with Clark and all of the assistants on the staff. They haven’t offered but if they do I woudn’t be shocked.
Then you’ve got Kentucky. Since Clark emerged last year, the Wildcats have had a close eye on him and even hosted him for a visit this season when UK defeated Auburn. John Calipari has made it evident that Clark is his guy and he really wants him. The entire staff zoomed with him last week to let him know that he is a major want and need in the program.
Despite just turning 17 this July, Clark has fancied the idea of possibly reclassifying into the 2021 class but won’t have any idea on it until school starts back up and all that happens with the COVID-19 pandemic which has slowed down his planned visits.
“I have recently thought about a reclass because I feel like physically and mentally I could handle that challenge, plus, I’m mature enough but we are very early in that process. There are a few variables regarding that whole reclass process so who knows, but it is 100% an option,” Clark said.
To cap it off, Clark and I discussed the many events that he hosted in Nashville since he arrived. He hosted a ‘heal our nation’ prayer vigil, in which he expected 30-40 people to come but little did he know, it might be a few more then that. “The response was great, actually 700 people showed up.
He credited Joshua Graves who is a local paster and he also mentioned Houston Rockets forward Robert Covington who attended Clark’s city clean-up as well.