By Thomas Sellers Jr.
For 15 years, The Millington Star has rewarded the best male athlete from Millington Central High School, Brighton High School, Tipton-Rosemark Academy and Munford High School.
The history of the award goes back to the inaugural winner Buck Wakefield of Munford in 2006. Since then Tommy Clifton has paid attention to the honorees like Alan Cross, Tausean Holmes, Kip Fleming and Antonio Webber from his alma mater Millington.
When it came time for Clifton to enter high school, he paid closer attention to all the competition around him as he took on the role of quarterback and infielder for the Trojan Football and Baseball teams respectively.
“All four years of high school, I’ve been looking at the guys ahead of me winning it,” Clifton said. “All of them are great athletes and great people. My goal was to get that same award they got.”
The previous three winners from 2017-19 were Tyler Denson of Millington, Carter Weakley of TRA and Corey Smith, Millington.
In 2020 The Millington Star adds Tommy Clifton to the list of winners of the Male Athlete of the Year. Since school ended in mid-March because of the coronavirus, Clifton has been recognized with various awards and scholarships like the National Football Foundation Scholar Athlete Award, Cassy Memorial Scholarship, Coach Ronnie Osborne Scholarship and now The Millington Star Athlete of the Year.
“It feels great to be recognized,” Clifton said. “You going along and then coronavirus comes in and you think everything is going to be forgotten. Then you realize how important and how big your impact really is to the community. It just feels great for me personally.”
Clifton dedicated his award to teammates, coaches, faculty, administration, family, friends and the community. It was all those groups that witnessed one of Clifton’s greatest moments on the gridiron back on Sept. 27, 2019 against the FACS Crusaders.
The senior signal caller had a night for the ages in helping lead the Trojans to a 41-34 victory. Millington entered that game knowing they had to limit FACS stud quarterback Cole Putnam. The Crusader defense found out quickly they were going to have a long night trying to shutdown the Millington standout Clifton.
“Just go out there and have fun,” was Clifton’s mindset that night. “I knew I had to either match or have a better performance than Cole Putnam on the other side of the ball. I was very aware of the matchup. There was a lot of hype leading up to it. Coming off the Munford game earlier in the season, Coach (Darren) Garcia and me still had that chip on our shoulders. We looked at this as our comeback game.”
Clifton announced his greatness to the Shelby-Metro area with 6 touchdowns rushing and 299 yards on the ground. He threw for another 100 yards in the win. Leaving Mooney Boswell Field that night, Clifton wasn’t fully aware of his historic performance.
“I did once Mark Healy text me my stats,” he recalled. “But the whole time during the game I was just worried about doing what I could do to help my team win. It was neck and neck the whole game. Every drive was go out there and score — do what I can do for the team.”
The Trojans won a lot in 2019 going 8-2 and earning their second straight Region 8-4A championship. Millington even picked up a playoff win over the Dyersburg Trojans.
“There is no greater feeling than succeeding with your guys, your brothers,” Clifton said. “And a coaching staff that supports and loves like no other, it was good going back to back. It was great for the Millington Trojans.
“My first two years were losing seasons and to come back to win back to back district championships was good for the community, the school and the team,” he continued. “The best part was winning with my brothers.”
Clifton finished the 2019 season with 1,672 rushing yards and 25 touchdowns on the ground. He added 13 touchdowns through the air throwing for 1,238 yards.
In the spring, Clifton took his talents and skills to the diamond as the member of the baseball team.
“Baseball is more goofy and more playing around,” Clifton acknowledged. “During football season it’s more serious and more business like. After coming off of that, I can go over to baseball and sit back and relax having a good time with those guys. Those guys are crazy. It’s good for me mentally and physically. I can go out there and have fun.”
Although Clifton was an official member of Trojan Baseball from 2017-20, a majority of senior campaign was cancelled after the global pandemic of COVID-19. Gone was Clifton’s chance to play for new Head Coach Colter Millican, have fun in the dugout, take the field with his cousin Matthew Johnson and try to capture that Regional birth.
“It hurts, it took me a minute to let it hurt,” he said. “At first I was like, ‘Oh no baseball, I still have four years of football at Harding. I’ll be fine.’ A week or two later it finally hit me. ‘Like no more baseball, ever.’ I was really starting to bond with those guys on the baseball field.”
Now Clifton is looking forward to the opportunity to create bonds and relationships with new teammates over in Searcy, Ark., with Harding University Football.
“The goal for sure is to be on the field somewhere,” Clifton said. “It doesn’t have to be quarterback — play defense, receiver, play anywhere. The goal is to work myself somewhere into the mix to be on the field.”
His time on the field at Millington was memorable. Many around the halls and campus of Millington Central High School will miss Tommy Clifton as an athlete, student and young man.
“I was never one to be a part of any circles or groups,” he noted. “There were different groups and some people didn’t like others. But I was never the type to just not like others. I was everybody’s friend. My goal all fours years was to show that example. You can be friends with anybody. It doesn’t matter their background.”
Clifton is now a part of The Star’s Athlete of the Year circle. And he will always be a part of the MCHS fabric.
“Like Cameron from the Special Ed classes, that’s my guy,” Clifton concluded. “He stood next to me when I signed. Then there’s Markees, Bam, Reggie, it doesn’t matter your ethnicity. It doesn’t matter how weird you could be. Geoffrey Warberg our valedictorian. Some people might say he’s weird. That guy is as cool as heck. I took AP Physics with Luis Carrillo, Dalton Fitzgerald and Conor O’Brien, ‘the nerds,’ and fit right in with them. I just wish people could fit right in with everybody else.”
PAST WINNERS
2006 Buck Wakefield Munford
2007 Joe Glass Brighton
2008 Mario Justice Millington
2009 Tausean Holmes Millington
2010 Demetre Jones Millington
2011 Alan Cross Millington
2012 Ricky Foster Brighton
2013 Antonio Webber Millington
2014 Connor Alexander TRA
2015 Logan Stewart TRA
2016 Kip Fleming Millington
2017 Tyler Denson Millington
2018 Carter Weakley TRA
2019 Corey Smith Millington
