Lawrence Johnson/submitted Largo High graduate Darren Clark has helped keep Bowie State University's men's basketball team in the NCAA Division II national rankings this season, averaging a team-high 16.8 points per game.

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Chances are the most renowned psychics couldn’t have predicted that Darren Clark and Jay Gavin would combine to form one of the best guard tandems in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.

Both members of Bowie State University’s backcourt overcame tragedy and traveled an indirect route to arrive at this special season. Clark and Gavin are leading the Bulldogs in scoring have propelled the team to a 16-3 record and the No. 19 spot in the National Association of Basketball Coaches NCAA Division II poll.

Even they have difficulty putting into words the sequence of events that has led them to their success this season.

“With both guys, I just think about hard-working individuals who really love playing,” said Bowie State coach Darrell Brooks. “They’re competitive guys and just good people and excellent students. They are both just the total package. I love them both.”

Darren Clark’s journey

“There was a time in my life when I thought I was never going to be able to play again,” Clark said reflecting on that fateful September afternoon in 2005 when he nearly lost his life.

Clark, then a 16-year-old junior at Charles H. Flowers High School in Springdale, was a passenger in a car accident near the Boulevard at the Capital Centre in Largo that left him clinging to his life. Both of his lungs were collapsed, and he had fractures in his ribs, clavicle, pelvis and right leg, along with other internal injuries.

With a long recovery that included five surgeries, the last coming in the spring of 2006, Clark’s dream of playing basketball, which started at age 5, appeared to be over.

“Honestly, it’s just a blessing to be able to play again and play in front of my family,” said Clark, who is fourth in the CIAA in scoring (16.5 points per game), second in assists (4.6) and ninth in field goal percentage (51.7 percent). “The biggest thing was that I didn’t know how my rehab was going to work out. There were times where I was depressed and down but my family really supported me and kept my spirits up.”

After more than a year of rehabilitation, Clark was cleared to play again, although he had to repeat his junior year of high school. He went on to star for Largo High and helped lead the Lions to the Maryland Class 3A title in 2008.

But after graduating, his basketball future was in doubt. He considered joining a junior college team in order to better prepare academically for playing on the NCAA level. Clark ultimately decided to attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, but not to play basketball.

Early in his freshman year at Lincoln, however, another stroke of fate got him back on track with his basketball dream.

“I was down about basketball,” he said. “I was thinking that maybe it’ll work out. I played in an open gym and coach saw me, and the school offered me a scholarship and I ended up playing.”

After his freshman year, Clark decided that Lincoln was not a good fit and ultimately transferred to Bowie State to be closer to home.

“I’m not a super-religious person, but I recognize that God is in control of everything,” said Clark’s mother, Emily. “Prayer was a huge part of his recovery. People would ask him when he was going through the situations with the surgery what could they do to help and the biggest thing was prayer. We had specific and gradual prayer and slowly but surely, he came back to himself fully.”

Jay Gavin’s journey

By the time Gavin graduated from Bishop McNamara High School in 2007, he had established that he could play on the NCAA Division I level.

He moved on to Marist College and earned Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Co-Rookie of the Year following the 2007-08 season, the first player to earn the honor in the school’s history.

But when then-Marist coach Matt Brady took the job at James Madison University during the summer of 2008, Gavin transferred to Virginia Commonwealth to play under Anthony Grant.

Under NCAA transfer rules, Gavin had to sit out the 2008-09 season, but it was during that time more important matters took center stage in his life.

“I understand that everything happens for a reason and God put me at Bowie State for a reason,” Gavin said.

Gavin’s mother became ill and was hospitalized, and she shielded him from knowing too much about her health. Gavin said his mother had a reason for that.

“Honestly, my mother was the type of person, she didn’t like me to worry,” Gavin said. “If she didn’t feel well, she wouldn’t tell me. I didn’t really know too much about how she was doing. It wasn’t until the end of the year that I learned that she had gotten worse. I tried to get an NCAA waiver to be able to play [during the 2008-09 season]. They denied me and it was then it dawned on me that my mother wouldn’t be able to see me play more games.”

Gavin’s course changed yet again in 2009. His coach at VCU, Grant, took a job at Alabama. But even more was in store.

“It’s like two years of college, two coaches leave me,” Gavin said. “VCU hired coach [Shaka] Smart. I come home and basically a couple of weeks into the summer, my mother doesn’t wake up one day. It wasn’t an easy thing to deal with because my mother was my biggest fan, my support system and best friend. When my heart gets heavy, I sit at her grave site to talk to her.”

Gavin returned to Virginia Commonwealth for his sophomore season and played in 17 games before leaving the program in February 2010. He said he came to a Bowie State game that winter and realized the school would be a good fit for him.

Even though Gavin was transferring from Division I to Division II, NCAA rules required him to sit out another year because it was his second transfer. But he was granted a waiver and was able to play last season.

Gavin already has completed his undergraduate degree in sociology and is enrolled as a graduate student in communications at Bowie State. He is averaging 14.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and leads the team with a .458 percentage from 3-point range.

Personal trainer Keith Williams has worked with numerous college and professional athletes including Gavin, who Williams has known since the Bowie State guard was 13. He said it wasn’t a surprise to see Gavin persevere through tough times.

“One, he comes from a good family and they instilled hard work in him,” Williams said. “He’s a worker. He realized at a young age you have to come to work. I think that is the biggest reason that he has overcome what he has because he understands that no matter what happens, he just keeps on working. When everything shakes free, he’ll do well. He’s a born leader and a really humble kid that’s well-grounded and that has helped him.”

thampton@gazette.net