For Corey Clifford, the only thing scarier than playing basketball with a potentially serious heart condition is not being able to play the game at all.
The love for basketball runs deep in Clifford. The 22-year-old was born into a family of hoops fanatics and was introduced to the game when he six years old.
“I have a big family with a lot of cousins, and they all played,” he said. “I would see them play and picked up a ball and decided to try it.”
Clifford’s favourite player was Toronto Raptors star guard Vince Carter, whose athleticism and power were things Clifford admired as a young player. Like so many other young players, images of Carter’s legendary slam dunk contest in 2000 are burned into his memory.
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“He was just so explosive on both ends of the floor and had such good fundamentals and court IQ,” said Clifford. “That dunk contest was crazy.”
While he was passionate about the game, Clifford said it did not come naturally to him, and he would struggle against his siblings or cousins while playing. Clifford said he would spend hours pracitising by himself on outdoor courts near his house to improve his game. After a day of school at Port Edward Elementary school, he would work on his free throws.
He said even if he wasn’t as good as some other players, he loved the intense feeling of competition he felt when playing the game against other good players.
“Basketball is such a competitive sport,” he said. “No matter how good you think you are, there’s always someone out there better than you so you have to work to improve your game.”
Clifford first played organized basketball in Grade 8 and 9 at the old Prince Rupert Secondary School. When PRSS and Charles Hays Secondary School merged, he played for Mel Bishop on the CHSS Rainmakers. He said his year playing within Bishop’s structure taught him a lot about how to play the game.
“I always want to be a star player and be a flashy player,” he said. “But Mel taught me to make the simple play, and get the job done.”
Clifford’s high school experience carried over to his play in the tournament, where he has been a member of the Kitkatla Warriors intermediate team for the past seven years. He said there is nothing quite like competing for your community in front of them.
“It’s just a great feeling knowing you can wear your village on your chest with pride,” he said.
Clifford’s love for the game has been recently made more complicated by the fact that he has an atrial fibrillation, which means that his heart beats much faster than normal. Clifford found out about the condition after going to a hospital to have pins removed from a previous wrist injury.
“They took my vitals, and my heart was beating at 196 even though I was sitting down and hadn’t been doing anything,” he said.
After visiting a heart specialist in Vancouver, Clifford opted to undergo a procedure where doctors stopped his heartbeat for thirty seconds and then revived him, hoping to bring his heart rate under control. The procedure was successful in slowing down Clifford’s heart rate even though he says it still fluctuates from time to time.
When asked about how having such a condition affects the way he plays, Clifford said he has gotten good at understanding where his limits are and not pushing too far past them.
“I feel I know my body and I know my own limits so I try not to push myself too far,” he said. “There are times in games when I know I push myself further than I should.”
Watching Clifford on the court, one can see when his limit is blurred. He is non-stop motion, always running up and down the court, constantly harassing opposing players with the ball to try and give his team an advantage. On offence, Clifford has a relentless desire to get to the basket, and he is difficult to stop once he builds up some speed.
In the 2018 All Native Tournament, Clifford helped propel the Kitkatla intermediates to two victories against powerhouses such as the Prince Rupert Synergy Storm and Skidegate. He said being on the court and playing against his friends makes the risk worth it.
“Life’s too short to try and hold yourself back from doing what you like to do,” he said.
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