Takeshi Clifford is having a good season in his senior year on the Chapman University Basketball team. It’s a season he didn’t think he would ever get. The 5’6″ forward literally walked away from the team his junior year with the weight of his family on his shoulders. Clifford’s mom had cancer and he felt he had no choice but to quit school and help raise the family that his mother was now too weak to care for. “I wasn’t asked, but I felt like it was something I should do. I thought it was the best move for my family, Clifford said.” He got a job and became the family’s bread winner. He cared for his brother, a senior at Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach. Conor is a 7 foot basketball player who was attracting lots of recruiting attention. Conor is now playing basketball for UC Irvine on a four year athletic scholarship. His mom passed away, but her dying wish was the Takeshi return to the basketball court. . “I wasn’t sure I could do it, but she told me, even a couple of days before she passed, that I should play.” Takeshi told Rafu Shimpo.
