University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Clay Weatherspoon Recaps Summer Gym Internship in Miami
9/16/2020 3:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball
HATTIESBURG, Miss. -- Every student-athlete must have a plan for when their final playing whistle blows, whether it be at 18, 22 or after a professional career.
Southern Miss fifth-year men's basketball senior Clay Weatherspoon has always been ahead of the curve, and his summer interning at Elite Athletes Performance in Miami was a memorable and worthwhile experience.
The gym is co-owned by renowned trainer Ed Downs and Jesus Gallo, and Weatherspoon's days began around 9:45 each morning and featured an afternoon shift after lunch.
"I'd come in and get the groups organized," Weatherspoon said. "We did a big youth camp from second grade to high school and broke them down. My job was to warm them up and put them through whatever workout Jesus gave me that day."
It was a who's who of sports celebrities that appeared regularly. Some of the athletes present were MMA fighters Jorge Masvidal and Valerie Loureda, as well as Felix Hernandez, Anibal Sanchez, Avisail Garcia, Yuli Gurriel and Miguel Vargas among other Major League Baseball stars.
"It was a pretty good experience, and I got to meet some high-profile people," Weatherspoon said. "I went to Ed personally when I was in high school and ran into Mario Chalmers, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Chris Bosh when they were on the other side of the gym and he'd introduce me to them. This summer, it was a great experience to rub shoulders with such people and see how they conduct themselves and apply it to my own sports, especially with their individual work ethics."
Weatherspoon was born in Ridgeland, Mississippi, and went to high school there, but Miami has been a fixture for most of his life. His father, current assistant coach and Southern Miss icon Clarence Weatherspoon, played for the Heat from 1998-00 as part of his 13-year NBA career, so the family would go back to South Florida in the summertime.Â
"It was a home away from home with a different environment from Mississippi," Clay said. "I've been back and forth for the better part of 10 years."
Clay has naturally not been able to go back as much since his collegiate career began due to team workouts and summer school, estimating three weeks per year.
As a recent kinesiology graduate currently pursuing his master's degree in exercise science, Clay has also looked to men's basketball strength and conditioning coach Alex Richard for additional advice.
"Since he went through the master's program, we had a lot of classes that overlapped," Weatherspoon said. "I would bring stuff I learned from class to him and ask him about the lactate threshold, for example, or go to my kinesiology class and discuss muscles and their prime movement from our current workouts. Sometimes I'd have to lift on my own if there were class conflicts. I was multi-tasking by picking his brain while doing my workout and my current chapters. It's interesting to see what you learn in the classroom and to see it in action."
Weatherspoon notes that he weighed around 218 pounds upon entering school, then cut to 195 before rebuilding to 210 with more muscle. One of his takeaways from being in an NBA household was observing nutritional skillsets as well.
"[Clarence] finished playing when I was going into third grade," Clay said. "When he was fresh off retirement, he was in his normal habit of keeping up with his conditioning and eating right, just not to the extent of the NBA. I picked up stuff like avoiding red meat and choosing leaner alternatives like chicken and seafood. I would take notice of the kind of things he ate pregame. My mom is a pescatarian, so I picked that up too and put it all together. I got more experience at my internship and would try going vegetarian for two weeks at a time and compare it to my normal diet."
Weatherspoon joins LaDavius Draine as the lone seniors on this year's team. The schedule will be announced at a later date.
Southern Miss fifth-year men's basketball senior Clay Weatherspoon has always been ahead of the curve, and his summer interning at Elite Athletes Performance in Miami was a memorable and worthwhile experience.
The gym is co-owned by renowned trainer Ed Downs and Jesus Gallo, and Weatherspoon's days began around 9:45 each morning and featured an afternoon shift after lunch.
"I'd come in and get the groups organized," Weatherspoon said. "We did a big youth camp from second grade to high school and broke them down. My job was to warm them up and put them through whatever workout Jesus gave me that day."
It was a who's who of sports celebrities that appeared regularly. Some of the athletes present were MMA fighters Jorge Masvidal and Valerie Loureda, as well as Felix Hernandez, Anibal Sanchez, Avisail Garcia, Yuli Gurriel and Miguel Vargas among other Major League Baseball stars.
"It was a pretty good experience, and I got to meet some high-profile people," Weatherspoon said. "I went to Ed personally when I was in high school and ran into Mario Chalmers, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Chris Bosh when they were on the other side of the gym and he'd introduce me to them. This summer, it was a great experience to rub shoulders with such people and see how they conduct themselves and apply it to my own sports, especially with their individual work ethics."
Weatherspoon was born in Ridgeland, Mississippi, and went to high school there, but Miami has been a fixture for most of his life. His father, current assistant coach and Southern Miss icon Clarence Weatherspoon, played for the Heat from 1998-00 as part of his 13-year NBA career, so the family would go back to South Florida in the summertime.Â
"It was a home away from home with a different environment from Mississippi," Clay said. "I've been back and forth for the better part of 10 years."
Clay has naturally not been able to go back as much since his collegiate career began due to team workouts and summer school, estimating three weeks per year.
As a recent kinesiology graduate currently pursuing his master's degree in exercise science, Clay has also looked to men's basketball strength and conditioning coach Alex Richard for additional advice.
"Since he went through the master's program, we had a lot of classes that overlapped," Weatherspoon said. "I would bring stuff I learned from class to him and ask him about the lactate threshold, for example, or go to my kinesiology class and discuss muscles and their prime movement from our current workouts. Sometimes I'd have to lift on my own if there were class conflicts. I was multi-tasking by picking his brain while doing my workout and my current chapters. It's interesting to see what you learn in the classroom and to see it in action."
Weatherspoon notes that he weighed around 218 pounds upon entering school, then cut to 195 before rebuilding to 210 with more muscle. One of his takeaways from being in an NBA household was observing nutritional skillsets as well.
"[Clarence] finished playing when I was going into third grade," Clay said. "When he was fresh off retirement, he was in his normal habit of keeping up with his conditioning and eating right, just not to the extent of the NBA. I picked up stuff like avoiding red meat and choosing leaner alternatives like chicken and seafood. I would take notice of the kind of things he ate pregame. My mom is a pescatarian, so I picked that up too and put it all together. I got more experience at my internship and would try going vegetarian for two weeks at a time and compare it to my normal diet."
Weatherspoon joins LaDavius Draine as the lone seniors on this year's team. The schedule will be announced at a later date.
Players Mentioned
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