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10/19/2018 12:00 AMLongtime North Branford High School Spanish teacher Cliff Yerkes is set to become Director of Athletics for the Thunderbirds beginning on Jan. 15, 2019. Cliff, a Guilford resident who competed for the Indians, has built up an extensive résumé on the local sports scene during the past two decades. He feels excited to be taking on an administrative role at a school where he’s been a familiar face for quite some time.
“I coached soccer, basketball, and lacrosse here, so I’m totally familiar with the league, the fields, and the administration. That was definitely a big perk,” says Cliff. “The most important thing for me is the kids here at North Branford. They’re great. Every coach and teacher says that, but it was the biggest factor for me in applying for this job. When you’re with them in athletics, it’s a different relationship than just in the classroom. They want to be there, and it’s a way to give back, grow closer, and have more of an impact on them.”
Cliff’s history in athletics dates back to his playing days at Guilford High School, from which he graduated in 1991. After attending Penn State University—where he served as the team manager for the men’s basketball squad—Cliff came back to Guilford to do some substitute teaching and took on an assistant coaching role with the girls’ lacrosse team. Lacrosse was a brand-new sport to Cliff at the time.
“So, I’m subbing at Guilford High School, and my old basketball coach was hired as the girls’ lacrosse coach. This is on a Friday with the season starting on Monday. He grabbed me and said he needs me to coach his freshmen, because he doesn’t have anybody,” Cliff says. “I told him I know nothing about it, but he told me, ‘It’s you or nobody.’ I knew I wanted to be a basketball coach, so I wouldn’t say no to him, and I really got into it.”
The position ultimately led to a variety of coaching jobs for Cliff. He was as an assistant for the Guilford girls’ lacrosse team in 1998 and then held that same role at Daniel Hand High School in Madison the next two years. Cliff then helped found the girls’ lacrosse program at North Branford and coached there from 2001 to 2004. After returning to Guilford as an assistant for one season in 2005, Cliff spent the next two years as head coach of Indians’ girls’ lacrosse.
Cliff says that it was no easy task to get North Branford’s girls’ lacrosse squad off the ground. However, in the end, he was happy to see that goal come to fruition.
“After two years as a club, the board approved us, and we went varsity,” says Cliff. “In hindsight, I’d never do it again because of how much work it was, but I don’t regret doing it, because it was extremely meaningful for the kids who partook in that. It was such an exciting experience.”
Meanwhile, during the fall season, Cliff was an assistant coach for North Branford boys’ soccer from 2000 to 2003 and then served as head coach from 2005 through 2010. He spent the next three years as an assistant with the Guilford girls’ soccer program.
Cliff has also spent the past two decades coaching up-and-coming athletes on the basketball court. He was an assistant with the boys’ team at Hand in 1999 and then served as an assistant coach for North Branford boys’ hoops from 2000 to 2003. After that, he spent two years as an assistant with the Guilford’s boys’ basketball team, followed by two seasons as head coach of the girls’ basketball squad at Valley Regional High School in Deep River.
Cliff came back to North Branford and served as head coach of T-Birds’ boys’ basketball from 2008 to 2010, winning a pair of Shoreline Conference titles along the way. He spent next six seasons as an assistant for the Guilford boys’ team, before becoming an assistant for boys’ hoops at The Morgan School in Clinton, where coached the last two years.
“I love sports, I love competition, and I love how my instructing of a team can take them from one point at the start of a season to another point when you end the season,” says Cliff, who also officiated girls’ lacrosse for nine years. “Now that I’m going to be an AD, I’m not doing any more high-school coaching. I do still coach my younger kids in soccer, but I’m no longer doing high school.”
Guilford boys’ basketball Head Coach Jeff DeMaio worked alongside Cliff from 2011 through 2016. DeMaio feels confident that Cliff’s wealth of experience on the local sports circuit will serve the Thunderbirds well as Cliff steps into his new position.
“Cliff is completely ready and prepared for this position. He has been involved in athletics for over two decades. He has worked in every capacity from the youth to the high-school levels,” DeMaio says. “He will put the student-athletes first, and I’m confident that his transition will be seamless.”
Cliff has seen a little bit of everything throughout his journey in the sports world. The soon-to-be AD is hoping that his experiences at each athletic juncture has prepared him for what’s on the horizon at North Branford High School this coming January.
“I’ve come at it from the coaching point of view, from the father’s or parent’s point of view, the official’s point of view, as well as the teacher’s side of how that relates to athletics. I feel that makes me a strong candidate,” says Cliff. “I think I have a nice background across athletes to understand how all parties are feeling and how to solve their wants and problems.”