William Clayton

Bryce Alderton

William Clayton saw the banner and imagined sprinting onto the field

alongside his teammates before kickoff.

The only thing different was the scene played out at John Wayne

Airport last Monday and instead of cheerleaders holding the sign, it

was Clayton’s family, whom he hadn’t seen in two years.

The former Newport Harbor High standout in both volleyball and

football who earned Sea View League Male Athlete of the Year honors

in 2000 returned from Maryland, where he spent two years as a

volunteer missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day

Saints.

“My immediate family, extended family and some friends from the

church congregation were there, 30 to 40 in all,” Clayton said. “When

they saw me they were yelling and cheering and I ran through the

banner like I was a champion. We turned some heads. I was just glad

to see them.”

Championship form is something Clayton, who will begin his

sophomore year at Stanford this fall, has grown accustomed to.

Despite missing four games with a thigh bruise as a Newport Harbor

senior, Clayton still caught 19 balls for 232 yards and scored seven

touchdowns as a receiver for a team that went undefeated to win the

CIF Southern Section Division VI championship. He also had a

team-leading six interceptions, two of which came in the fourth

quarter of the CIF title game against Irvine to help preserve a 19-18

victory.

In the spring, Clayton’s focus shifted to volleyball, where he

helped lead the Sailors to the CIF Division I title game against

Corona del Mar. Newport shared the league title with Irvine in 2000

and was the only team to take eventual CIF champion CdM to five games

that year. Clayton also spent one season on the Tars’ varsity

basketball team, when he averaged 3.5 points a game as a junior.

Clayton played middle blocker as a junior for Coach Dan Glenn’s

Sailors, when they finished 22-1 and claimed a CIF Division I crown.

The next year, Clayton, who stands 6-foot-4, shifted to outside

hitter and will enter his sophomore season on the Cardinal men’s

volleyball team at opposite after playing his freshman year at middle

blocker.

“I went up there thinking I would play opposite, but when I got

[to Stanford] I found out they needed a middle blocker,” Clayton

said. “I got a lot of good playing time.”

To prepare for next season, Clayton will begin hitting the weight

room.

He didn’t do any training while in Maryland, where for six days a

week for 10 hours a day, he and 160 other missionaries visited with

families in their homes. Some days Clayton would serve meals at soup

kitchens.

“The No. 1 purpose was to visit with people and share with them,”

Clayton said. “I found that when I serve others before my own needs,

I am a lot happier.”

This spring Clayton, 21, will do another type of serving -- with a

volleyball. He is already thinking about training.

“I didn’t touch a volleyball [the past two years] and I lost about

40 pounds because I wasn’t lifting any weights,” he said. “I was

walking and riding my bike for two years. I have two months of

training before I hit it hard again.

“I know it will be a rocky first few days, but the most important

thing is to get the athleticism back in time,” Clayton said. “If I

spend time in the weight room, the skills will come later.”

Kevin Hansen, a setter on the CdM team which defeated Newport in

2000, will enter his junior season with the Cardinal alongside

Clayton.

“I got to play with him a lot when we were on the Balboa Bay

Volleyball Club and know his playing style really well,” Clayton

said. The club won the 2000 junior national championship and Hansen

was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Clayton is the only boy in a family of four sisters (his younger

sibling Elizabeth will be a senior in the fall at Newport), but he

continues a trend of athletic prowess.

Elizabeth holds the school record in the triple jump (38-feet, 4

1/2 inches), breaking the mark of 37-8 1/2 set by her older sister

Mandy in 1994. M.E. Clayton, the second oldest of Lisa and

Weatherford’s five children, holds the Harbor record in the 100-meter

hurdles (15.54). The youngest sister, Laura, will begin Newport in

the fall.

William, who earned a 4.23 grade point average in high school and

was an Eagle Scout, either wants to major in English or sociology.

For the next two months he will work at a Newport Beach law firm and

lift weights.

He learned much from his two years in Maryland, some of which he

hopes to transfer to the Cardinal.

“I think I’ll be in a better position to support the team and be a

better leader,” Clayton said. “The best leaders are those who can see

the needs of the team and help cater those things. I have a lot more

leadership strength and ability.”

Judging by his past, Clayton is on the right track in that regard.