Billy Clapper

Billy Clapper (born December 25, 1982 in Altoona, Pennsylvania) is an American college basketball coach and he was the head men's basketball coach at Penn State Altoona from 2009-2015. He was hired as the head coach of the Lions on September 16, 2009.^[1] Clapper was relieved of his position on March 26 after six seasons.

Coaching career

He completed six season as the head coach of the Penn State Altoona Lions, a member of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference and an NCAA Division III institution. The Lions had a combined 38-112 record during his six seasons. The Lions have had seven all-conference selections: Zach Spitz (2010), Kirk Peters (2010,2011),Matt Gehret (2013), and Durant Harvin (2013).He has coached the school's only all-region selection, Kirk Peters (2011), and one AMCC defensive player of the year, Matt Gehret (2013).

His coaching career began as an assistant at Penn State Altoona in 2005–2006. The program had seven victories that season and the team was led by Tyler Franklin, who is the program's all-time scoring leader. During the 2006–2007 season, he was a member of the coaching staff at Indiana State University under Coach Royce Waltman. The Sycamores earned 13 victories on the season and had victories over three NCAA tournament participants: Butler, Creighton, and Purdue.

He joined the coaching staff of Bob Rukavina at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown prior to the 2008–2009 season and during the next two seasons he helped guide the Mountain Cats to a 47–16 record.^[2] They were crowned WVIAC regular-season champions in 2008 and tournament champions in 2009. They advanced to the NCAA tournament during both seasons (2008 - second round and 2009 - first round). He coached two players who went on to earn All-American honors – Chris Gilliam (2007) and Marcus Tullis (2008), both of whom went on to have professional careers overseas.

Playing career

Clapper played high school basketball at Tussey Mountain HS (Saxton, Pennsylvania) until his senior season. He attended Hollidaysburg Area HS (Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania) during his senior where he was a member of the basketball team. His high school career was full of team success as his teams won four league titles, a district title, and each year was state ranked.

His collegiate playing career began at Mount Aloysius College where he played his freshman season. He scored 19 points for the Mounties while appearing in 20 games including one start against Houghton College.

He then transferred to Youngstown State University where he became a manager for the men's basketball team. He spent two years in that role and would become a practice player during that time. He earned a spot on Coach John Robic's team prior to his senior season. Clapper appearend in 6 contests for the penguins including starting on senior night against Butler University. He was a two-time Horizon League academic honor roll selection and was named the Tony Vivo hustle award winner upon completion of his senior season.

Basketball camps

At the age of 17 he began his career as a basketball camp instructor. During his college years he traveled the eastern United States and instructed on camp staffs at major university basketball camps, including Rhode Island, North Carolina State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, West Virginia, Dayton, Duquesne, Xavier, and Louisville. His ball handling and guard skills station became nationally known as he has taught tens of thousands of aspiring basketball players for more than a decade. He has instructed and trained over 180 athletes who have gone on to play basketball at the collegiate level.

In 2005, he created his company Billy Clapper Basketball LLC.^[3] and began teaching and instructing his own camps throughout the state of Pennsylvania. His website www.BillyClapperBasketball.com is a resource for player improvement drills and training ideas. His company produced an instructional basketball video, Ballhandling at its Best,^[4] which demonstrates the ball handling workouts he used during his own playing career. He created a college skills camp that introduces teaching and training to participants that are to help boys and girls play basketball in college.

References

• http://www.altoona.psu.edu/sports/mbasketball/coaching.php
• http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/522621.html?nav=751&showlayout=0
• http://www.billyclapperbasketball.com/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20090814022257/http://www.upj.pitt.edu:80/6824/
• http://espn.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=24463

http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/billy-clapper-1.html