September 23, 2009

Former Golden Eagle Milone Clark in Globetrotter camp

Former Tennessee Tech basketball standout Milone Clark is one of six players selected to participate in a rookie tryout camp for the legendary Harlem Globetrotters.

Training camp opens Thursday in New York

PHOENIX, Ariz. -- Former Tennessee Tech basketball standout Milone Clark is one of six players selected to participate in a rookie tryout camp for the legendary Harlem Globetrotters. The six new players that will join Globetrotter veterans for the team’s annual training camp, beginning Thursday in New York, to vie for spots on the world’s most famous basketball team.

"We're excited about the opportunity for Milone," said Golden Eagle coach Mike Sutton. "He's already had a couple of other professional opportunities, and this will be a new exprience and we wish him all the best. Those are some exttremely talented players as evidenced by the Globettrotter team we saw play here in our own gymn last year."

The competition will be challenge for the 6-foot-4 Clark, who played in 120 games at guard for Tech from 2002 to 2006. He finished his career with 1,020 points, 475 rebounds,93 steals and 40 blocked shots. A team captain in his senior season, he wrapped up his time at Tech by earning all-OVC honors. He won the team's Most Improved Player Award as a sophomore, led the team in free throws twice, and topped Tech in field goal percentage as a sophomore. As a senior, he was voted winner of both the Sam Harley Lynn Award and the Golden Eagle Award.

Known as Milone "The Spark" Clark, he hails from Gibson, N.C., and played for the NBA Development League’s Sioux Falls Skyforce in the 2008-09 season.

The rookie class is led by 6-7 Charlie “Cobra” Coley – selected in the Globetrotters’ third annual player draft in June – who missed winning the 2009 College Slam Dunk Championship by a single point in a dunk-off. A University of North Carolina at Charlotte product from Lake Worth, Fla., Coley sports a 40-inch vertical leap and once dunked while jumping over a car.

Joining Coley will be Tay “Firefly” Fisher, a 5-9 sharpshooting dynamo out of Siena College. A 2008 Globetrotters draftee, he helped lead the Saints to the 2007-08 MAAC regular season and postseason titles and a stunning 83-62 upset of SEC power Vanderbilt in the first round of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. Fisher, who hails from Kingston, N.Y., shot a blistering 44.4 percent from three-point range his senior season.

The other rookies competing at training camp in New York are:

* Donte “Hammer” Harrison, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. The 6-8 powerhouse led the Hampton University Pirates in field goal percentage and blocked shots in 2008-09 and was the team’s second leading rebounder.
* Antoine “Bones” Millien from Queens, N.Y., a long and lean 6-9 dunking machine who led Idaho State University in scoring and blocks in his final season at the school.
* Roscoe “Sarge” Johnson, from Sterling, Va., who attended Allegany College of Maryland before joining the U.S. Armed Forces. A phenomenal dunker, the 6-4 Sarge still serves his country as a member of the Reserves.

These players will join Globetrotter stars Big Easy Lofton, Flight Time Lang, Special K Daley, Scooter Christensen, Ant Atkinson, Handles Franklin and many others as the Globetrotters prepare for their 84th consecutive season of touring the world.

The Globetrotters’ training camp will culminate with the team’s third annual private performance in Harlem on Monday, Oct. 5. Presented in cooperation with the NYC Police Athletic League, the Globetrotters will showcase their spectacular brand of fun family entertainment for thousands of smiling Harlem school children with a game against the Washington Generals at the 369th Harlem Armory.

Sponsored by Campbell Soup Company, Spalding, and America’s Best Contacts and Eyeglasses, the Original Harlem Globetrotters have played in 120 countries on six continents, entertaining over 130 million fans and crossing barriers between cultures, societies and people from all walks of life. The Globetrotters are one of only six teams to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. For the latest news and information about the Harlem Globetrotters, visit the team’s official Web site: www.harlemglobetrotters.com.