A-C Valley’s Clover ends impressive hoop career
FOXBURG — Jess Quinn heard rumblings about how good Jay Clover was on the basketball court.
"I had never seen him play before," said Quinn, who recently wrapped up his first season as A-C Valley's boys basketball coach. "But Leo Marron (assistant coach) and Dave Sherman (athletic director) kept telling me that he was pretty good."
Clover, who averaged 17.3 points per game as a junior center/forward in 2022-23, was still nursing a high ankle sprain last fall as varsity practices were about to begin.
"I wanted to take things slow with him, didn't allow him to do much and he started to get frustrated," Quinn said. "It was the second week of practice, right before the season started, when I saw him go full speed for the first time. After that, he gave me everything he had."
Clover's effort this season included a double-double of 16.3 points and 12 rebounds per game, stats that earned him first team All-KSAC honors. In a game Feb. 5 at Cambridge Springs, Clover reached the 1,000 career-point milestone.
"Jay knew that he was getting close, but he didn't want to talk about it," said Quinn. "It was the elephant in the room. The folks at Cambridge Springs were great. They stopped the game and let Jay have his moment."
Clover's high school career ended a week later at 1,092 points.
"It means a lot to me," Clover said of the achievement. "I know a lot of the guys on that board (at A-C Valley), played with a lot of them in pickup and alumni games."
Clover began playing for Rising Stars, an AAU team based in Clarion, when he was in the seventh grade.
"I was always a bigger kid, bigger than the players I was going up against," said Clover. "But playing for Rising Stars, it showed me that facing players my size, I would have to work very hard to keep up.
"My AAU coach, Rogers Laugand, said: 'You're a big guy who can handle the ball and shoot. Let it rip!'"
As a freshman at A-C Valley, Clover averaged five points per game.
"That team had some great players, including Levi Orton (A-C Valley's all-time leading scorer)," Clover said. "I spent most of that season on the varsity team and was just happy about that."
Clover paced the Falcons his sophomore season with 13.3 points per game and added 8.9 rebounds. As a senior, he was hoping to help his team earn a District 9 Class A playoff berth. A-C Valley was 8-5 in mid-January, but fell in its final nine games and missed the postseason.
"After Christmas, our schedule was brutal," Quinn said. "We faced a lot of teams that are still playing in the state playoffs."
"I kept thinking: 'Just live to play another day,'" Clover said of his mind-set during the losing streak. "I figured we had to start winning again at some point, but never did. It was tough."
Clover considered playing in college, but has decided to enroll at Global Powerline Academy in Hollidaysburg.
Though he coached him for just one season, Clover made quite an impression with Quinn.
"Jay was not a very vocal player, but he led by example in everything he did," Quinn said. "He told me he wanted me to push him harder because he wanted to be the best he could be. He's a great young man and was an absolute pleasure to coach."
