New Head Basketball Coach
Longtime Temple College men's basketball coach Kirby Johnson will be retiring at the end of the year. Athletic Director Craig McMurtry has announced the sole finalist of the men's head basketball coach is Clifton Ellis, who played under Coach Johnson from 1995-1997 and has been coaching high school basketball for the past 20 years.
A graduate of Roosevelt High School in San Antonio, Clifton played point guard for the Leopards and was both an All-Conference and All-Region selection. After playing at Temple College, Clifton went on to play at Texas State University in San Marcos, where he served as captain of the team his senior year and led the team in assists. He earned a BA in kinesiology/education from Texas State in 2000.
Ellis has coached high school basketball in the San Antonio area since 2000. He started as an assistant coach at South San Antonio High School and was named associate coach at Converse Judson High School the following year. He landed his first head coaching job in 2005 at Karen Wagner High School. In the six seasons he was there, his team won four district championships, made three appearances in the regional tournament, and won two regional tournaments that allowed them to advance to the Texas State Tournament Final Four. His team was ranked in the ESPN top 50 from 2008-2010 and had numerous players sign at various levels of college basketball. Two of his former players are now playing in the National Basketball Association -- Andre Roberson (Oklahoma City Thunder) and Jordan Clarkson (Utah Jazz).
Since 2012, Ellis has served as head boys basketball coach at Samuel Clemens High School in Schertz, Texas. He was hired there to turn around a program that won only seven games the year before. Since Ellis took over the program, the varsity team has won three consecutive district championships and made consecutive appearances in the Texas State Tournament Final Four for the first time in the school's history.
In addition to his coaching duties, Ellis teaches world history, government, and economics. He earned a master's degree in education administration from Texas A&M University - San Antonio in 2010 and is currently working on his doctorate of educational leadership in sports management/administration at Concordia University - Chicago. Ellis was a founding member and later president of the San Antonio Area Basketball Coaches Association, which was established to give local coaches a unified voice in growing the game of basketball in the San Antonio area. He helped establish an annual clinic to bring coaches together from the club, high school, college, professional, and international level to create ideas and share coaching techniques to further promote quality basketball in San Antonio.
From 2012 to 2015, Coach Ellis served as a board member and South Texas regional coordinator for the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches, the largest state basketball organization in the United States. Since 2015, he has served as United States Regional Director for the Basketball Embassy, a non-profit organization based in San Antonio that works in basketball diplomacy around the world. His work with this organization includes directing camps, leading coaching clinics, meeting with officials from the U.S. State Department and foreign leaders. The organization has worked with basketball federations throughout Eastern Europe, Asia, and with FIBA Europe to break down cultural, national, and religious barriers through sport. It also works with local school districts to help with youth basketball development. In San Antonio, the organization has provided free weekly basketball camps for children living in a homeless shelter. Coach Ellis has received several awards, including San Antonio Express News Coach of the Year in 2009 and 2014, News 4 San Antonio Coach of the Year in 2009, and Rio Grande Valley Coaches Association Coach of the Year in 2009. Most recently, he was named State Coach of the Year in 2016 by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) Coaches Association.