Published: 12:00 AM, Sat Jun 26, 2010
Cumberland County's top rusher leaving area
By Earl Vaughan Jr.
Scholastic sports editor
Terry Sanford football standout Anthony Clanton is relocating to Garner and will likely enroll there in the fall said Bulldog head football coach Wayne Inman.
Clanton led Cumberland County in rushing last season with 2,374 yards, an average of 197.8 per game. He rushed for 26 touchdowns.
Inman said he learned in March there was a possibility Clanton would be leaving the Terry Sanford program. Last week, he said Clanton told him he was moving to Garner to live with his mother. Clanton's father recently remarried, Inman said, and now lives in the Douglas Byrd district.
Inman said Clanton was given a special assignment to remain at Terry Sanford, but he would not have been allowed to take part in athletics there for 365 days. Inman said Clanton could have appealed that, but elected not to and decided to join his mother in Garner.
Losing Clanton will force Terry Sanford to make some personnel changes as it prepares for the fall season, Inman said.
"We feel we have some good skill players that will be able to do a good job for us, but we're going to have to move some people around,'' he said. "That will shuffle things up on defense. We'll be taking a hard look.''
Inman said the rest of the Bulldog team has responded positively to the news Clanton is leaving.
"They all loved him,'' Inman said. "They are a tight knit group. They have picked up the pieces and moved on.''
Scholastic sports editor Earl Vaughan Jr. can be reached at vaughane@fayobserver.com or 486-3519.