Clarence
Turner

CLARENCE TURNER has won well over 700 games as basketball coach at Camden High School. He came to Camden High in 1968 as an assistant coach under the great Tony Alfano, and was made coach when Alfano retired in 1970. Between then and 2004 his teams won seven state championships, 19 sectional titles, and 24 conference titles.

Clarence Turner was suspended for one year by the NJSIAA, allegedly for two incidents that occurred in 1998-99 - one in which he pulled his team off the court before a game was over because of his players were being abused by the crowd, the other in which some players joined a fight in the stands during a playoff game, for similar reasons. In the opinion of this writer, the real reason behind Turner's suspension more than likely was the success of his teams..

Coach Turner returned to Camden High for the 2003 season and guided his team to a Group 3 Title. He coached at Camden High through the end of the 2006 season. At the end of that season, his record stood at 729-134. His teams won 21 sectional titles and seven state titles. 

1974

Camden Courier-Post - December 19, 2003

By Kevin Roberts

Shomari Moore was living in Memphis, Tenn., when he heard that Clarence Turner was back as the basketball coach at Camden High School.

So Moore came home to play basketball.

"When I heard Coach Turner was coming back, I knew I definitely had to get back," said Moore, a star senior guard on this year's team. "I knew they'd be doing this right. I knew what Camden basketball was going to be, again.  

"So it was time for me to come back to Camden, the city when~ I was born and raised, and tie part of something special."

There are those who believe South Jersey basketball is better when Camden is good and Turner is in his environs, raging on the sideline. Those people should cinch up the seat belt and hold on for a wild ride.

Because Camden is loaded. And Turner is back. Camden will open the season, which begins this weekend for most teams in South Jersey, among the region's finest. The Panthers are, as Moore and many others know, different with Turner on the bench.

Turner is the all-time winningest coach in South Jersey, set to rack up his 700th career win early this season, and he provides an aura to Camden basketball that is hard to define.

But it's there, and it's not going anywhere, not anymore.

"He gives the city a sense of pride," said the Rev. J.A.

Jones, a community ac­tivist and pastor at First Nazarene Baptist Church in Camden. "He's a symbol."

Back to stay

There may have been a time when Turner, who won't reveal his age but is easily past 70, could see the finish line. One of the things that bothered him most about a four-year suspension from 1999-2002 was that he confronted the nagging feeling he'd never get this job back, and that meant he couldn't have gone out on his own terms.

Look at him now, with for­mer Camden greats Kevin Walls and Greg Barr on the sideline as assistants, and you might draw the conclusion that Turner is setting this thing up to go out on his own terms. He seems set to get Camden back to its familiar place atop the state and finally ride off into the sunset after a career that can claim seven state titles, 19 South Jersey championships and 24 conference championships - and courted controversy at every turn .

No chance.

Turner laughed at this notion last week and said he has no plans to leave "'The High" in the near or distant future. He'll coach there until they drag him from the gym, kicking and screaming.

What keeps him going? "Still pissed off," Turner said. with a smile. "I love the game. And I love working with the kids, because I really believe playing basketball and being here helps the kids be productive. I love coaching.

"But that's the best answer I could give you: Still pissed off."

Special to Camden

It's not just that Turner wins, although he wins a ton.

Turner's record as coach at Camden is an astonishing 695-112. But when Turner was pushed from the bench after the 1998 season, Glen Jackson took over the basketball program and won. The Panthers won a state title in 2000 with Dajuan Wagner, and won the Tournament of Champions for the only time in the school's history.

Jackson was a class act as coach; a decent and dignified gentleman. Still, there's just no denying that even as they celebrated the state title, a lot of people wanted Turner back at the helm.

"Oh, that's accurate; yes," Jackson said. "He's a foundation in that city. The first time I met him, I was in the second grade. And he brought the Camden High basketball team into our classroom and spoke to us. And from that moment on, from the second grade, I wanted to be part of Camden High basketball."

Camden is still intensely important to Jackson, now an assistant principal at Winslow Township. While he was coach, Turner was a little less than gracious about Jackson; still Jackson has nothing but kind things to say about Turner, in particular, and Camden in general.

"He always knows the right buttons to push to mottivate people," Jackson said.

"Some things he's said have been viewed as controversial. Well, that happens. That happens for all of us."

Still battling

Maybe it happens more for Turner, and that may be why he's such a touchstone figure for people in Camden.

"What Clarence Turner brings to the table is this sense of us vs. them,''' Jones, the reverend, said. "We're both from the pre­Civil Rights era. You have to understand that he brings his hurts from that time, he brings his frustrations.

"Camden is the second­poorest city in America. This basketball team gives the city a sense of pride, that out of all this despair we've produced basketball players who've excelled, who've gone on to college and excelled.

"We look at him as man who is willing, and who is able, to take the system on. He's one of our symbols."

Uncompromising men are easy to admire, the saying goes, and Turner is an uncompromising man. His battles with the NJSIAA, or referees, or administrators, or just about anybody he views as an adversary, are legion.

His critics will say that he fights them reflexively, sometimes when there's no reason. He's quick to see adversaries just about everywhere, and surely he's made more than a few enemies along the way.

Turner acknowledges that some battles he's lost have come at a cost to his kids.

"That's the thing that really hurts me; when I believe they've gone after me and the kids are the ones who pay the price," Turner said. "The powers that be in this state are supposed to be for the kids. They're not supposed to be out for me."

If there is an area where Turner might have mellowed with age and time away, it's that in a lengthy interview last week at Camden High, he's offered a dozen chances to rail about his suspension or pick a fight with any number of adver­saries on any number of topics.

He gently deflected every question, saying, "I don't want to get into any trouble. I'm tired of all that."

But then he smiled, and a steely and determined look flashed across his face and Turner said: "But if anybody wants to fight, I'm ready. I'm not backing down from anything. Ever."

Barnstorming past

Clarence Turner grew up in North Carolina, and he was drafted into the Army in 1954. He came to Camden in large part because his late brother, Edward, had settled there. Turner was hired as a teacher at Camden in 1961, and in 1970 - at the peak of a tumultuous civil rights movement at Camden and across the country - Turner became the head basketball coach .

And the rest is history. Asked what he learned along the way that influences the way he coaches today, Turner tells a story about a baseball game played years ago:

"I pitched, and we won," Turner said. "But the coach wasn't pleased with our effort. He gave it to us. You watch to see how some people respond to that, and (Hank) Aaron responded with a double, a triple and a home run in the next game. You knew he wasn't going to be there long; the Boston Braves grabbed him about a month later."

The lesson: Effort is everything; never quit, play to the maximum at all times. The great ones will rise to that idea.

Man in the middle

There's no way to really understand a life lived over 70 years in the times Turner has lived. All you get are snippets, stories, incidents, tied together to give you a quick sketch of the man. Some is real, some is facade, some is caricature.

The real man, as always, is somewhere in the middle. That's the man who takes a good number of young boys each year and makes one of the most powerful basket· ball teams in the state..

"It's not just basketball, it's life you're working with," Turner said. "You mistake life for basketball, you've got a problem.

You're a mentor, and a father to them while they're here. I take that role on."

Camden's players will go to Puerto Rico this year to play. The team regularly makes trips to all kinds of places. These things cost money, and money is not easily raised in Camden.

But the Panthers will raise it, always do. Turner sees to it, and a community that prizes basketball so highly makes it happen.

"Clarence Turner understands the projects," said Jones, whose church helped provide blazers and slacks for the players for these trips. "He understands the plight these kids come out of. And he gives them hope."

Turner believes these experiences are important to the kids. He believes there is great worth in being a basketball player at Camden.

"That's why I ask a lot of my kids," Turner said. "If I see you in the hallway, that's your ass. Kids who perform on my teams, who perform in sports, they're supposed to be leaders, not followers. I want leaders. If you're a follower, I can't use you."

Playing for a legend

In Camden, players grow up hearing about basketball and "The High." In some places kids grow up dreaming about the NBA. In Camden, they grow up thinking about playing for Clarence Turner at "The High."

So when they get there, they want to play well.

"You hear the stories in middle school," senior Dwight Cass said. "He's a legend. When you're playing for a legend, you have to do good for him."

"He's a legend in his own time," Moore said. "He's done so much not just for Camden basketball, but for the city of Camden.

"He brings the best out of you every day at practice. You hear a lot of stories about all the great teams he's had. You want to be one of those teams he talks about, someday."

Turner will win his 700th game early this season. He said the number means little to him.

"Not really," Turner said. "It's another game. You want to have a winning season, a good season. To attain that, you can't worry about numbers like that."

Besides, Turner can't get past the idea that four years were stolen from him. If not for a suspension from the NJSIAA after the 1998 sea­son for two incidents - at the end of Camden's game with Long Branch that escalated into violence and at Bishop Eustace earlier in the season - Turner reasons he'd be bearing down on 800.

"I should have had a lot more wins and a couple more state titles," Turner said.

Turner said there were times during those four years away that he came to grips with the idea that he'd never get back. But it's also true that when Turner was nominated for the South Jersey Basketball Hall of Fame two years ago, his first reaction was: "But I'm not retired!"

He was right, eventually.

Now Turner is back on the bench at Camden, the only place he ever wanted to be and the place where he fits best.

"Camden basketball is very important to the city," Turner said. "They come out to watch us play, and there's pressure on the coach and the team to do well.

Coach Clarence Turner's Record as of December 19, 2003

Camden Coach Clarence Turner voices his opinion to Referee Walter Brown during a recent scrimmage
Camden Courier-Post December 19, 2003

Philadelphia Inquirer * January 20, 2004

By Sam Carchidi

Back when he lived at home, Eric Turner said his father rarely changed his demeanor when he returned from coaching one of his Camden High boys' basketball games.

Win or lose, he said, his dad - Clarence Turner, the winningest coach in South Jersey boys' basketball history - was his stoic self.

"I'm the one who had to bug him" for details of the game, Eric Turner said in the Camden locker room Saturday after his dad's team whipped Woodrow Wilson to give Turner his 699th career victory.

Even on the rare occasions when Camden lost, Turner didn't bring the anguish home with him. "He never showed it," the younger Turner said. "He just moved on to the next game."

Eric Turner, 30, a former Highland wrestler who is now a juvenile detention officer, paused for a few seconds.

"The only time I ever saw him change his mood was when he was suspended for four years. That hurt because he coached [Dajuan] Wagner as a freshman... and he wanted to coach him for all four years."

Actually, Turner was suspended for one year by the NJSIAA for two incidents in 1998-99 - one in which he pulled his team off the court before a game was over, the other in which some players joined a fight in the stands during a playoff game. After Turner's suspension ended, Camden did not hire him during each of the next three years, even though he had applied for the job.

Turner's four-year hiatus is behind him. This is his second year since he returned to the coaching ranks last season.

The coaching layoff seems to have mellowed Turner.

Oh, he still gets feisty - and angry - when he talks about his four years away from the game. But he appears to take things more in stride and seems less vocal on the sideline.

I expected the 70-something Turner to be furious that Camden's high-school gym floor - which was ruined by a leaky heater in November 2002 - couldn't be used for 13 months until Saturday's game against Wilson. Instead, he calmly said, "It was disappointing, but there was nothing you could do about it."

Turner will be aiming for his 700th career win this afternoon when the Panthers play host to Paul VI. His first win was in 1970.

"I don't remember who it was against," he said, "but I know we had a good team."

Back in the 1950s, long before he became Camden's coach, Turner had aspirations of becoming a major-league pitcher. He was a pitcher in the Brooklyn Dodgers and Chicago White Sox farm systems; he later played on the Jackie Robinson All-Stars, a team that barnstormed from Baltimore to Mexico and played 45 games in 30 days.

Robinson, Gil Hodges, Maury Wills and Ralph Branca were among the players on the team.

Those players left lasting marks on major-league baseball.

Turner has left his mark on the South Jersey hardwoods. He became a Camden basketball assistant in 1968. Two years later, he replaced the highly successful Tony Alfano as the Panthers' head coach.

In his 29-plus years as head coach, Camden has won seven state championships, 19 sectional titles, and 24 conference crowns while compiling a 699-113 record.

Turner has had his detractors - critics cite his run-it-up tactics and battles with officials and the NJSIAA - but no one argues about the man's ability to evaluate talent and to put his players in the type of situation in which they excel.

"He's very disciplined and a teacher of the game," said Camden senior guard Wayne Smalls Jr., whose father was the leading scorer on Turner's first team. "Every day you learn something new, especially on defense."

Ah, defense. Over the years, Turner's teams have frustrated most opponents with their full-court, trapping pressure. It has become their trademark, their calling card.

"I like to run and press and take it to teams," Turner said, "but every year we change the style, depending on the type of team we have. I try not to make them do what I like, but what they do [best]."

What this year's team has done best is kick-start its offense with its relentless defense. Witness Saturday's 71-54 win over arch-rival Woodrow Wilson, a game in which Camden forced 29 turnovers, several of which led to fastbreak baskets.

"This team can move," said Turner, whose squad is off to a 4-1 start. "I like that about them."

This team, led by guards Shomari Moore and Smalls, forwards David Foster and Kevin Payton and super-sub Terron Murray, hopes to give Turner his eighth state title. The Panthers won a 2000 state title - and the Tournament of Champions crown - when Glen Jackson coached the team during Turner's four-year absence.

"I only watched a chosen few of those games," Turner said of his four years away from the sideline. "I'm not a watcher. When I was a baseball player, I loved playing, but I didn't like to watch... . The same thing with coaching. I'm not a spectator."

He is a doer, a man of strong convictions, a person whose presence - though a bit more mellow these days - is extremely powerful.

"He's a legend," said Moore, Camden's high-scoring senior, "and I trust everything he says."

After 699 wins - and counting - why not?

Camden Courier-Post * February 29, 2004

By PHIL ANASTASIA

There were 37 seconds remaining in the game, and in the regular season, when Shomari Moore and Dwight Cass decided something special was in order.

"An exclamation point," Cass called it.

It was that and more. It was the last of six dunks thrown down by the Camden High School boys' basketball team Saturday afternoon, and the only one that began as a pass that ricocheted off the backboard.

It also was an official announcement: The Panthers are open for business.

"Everybody is peaking at the right time," said Cass, a 6-foot-7 senior who scored 24 points as Camden rung up an imposing 102-76 victory over Winslow Township in a battle of the No. 1 and No. 3 teams in the Courier-Post Top 20. "We've got a lot of high hopes. Everybody is focused on what we have to do."

After a nerve-jangling week in which the Panthers faced the possibility they would be disqualified from postseason play, then learned they would be the No. 9 seed in the South Jersey Group 3 tournament - thanks to four forfeit losses as the result an NJSIAA ruling - coach Clarence Turner's team was in full roar against the Eagles.

Full-court pressure defense. Relentless offensive rebounding. Plenty of scoring power, as Cass, Moore (27), Kevin Payton (15) and David Foster (15) hit double figures and Wayne Smalls added nine, including a 3-point jumper at the buzzer that broke the century mark and brought a huge cheer from the large contingent of Camden fans.

Those are the hallmarks of a Camden team that's ready to make some serious noise in the tournament, and those were the things that were on ample display inside the Panthers' refurbished gymnasium on a warm, spring-like afternoon.

"We just didn't match their intensity," said Winslow Township senior Cedric Smith, who scored 26 points and made several impressive plays. "You can't come in here and play dull. They played so tough, boxing out, getting loose balls, playing hard defense."

Camden is the best 13-7 team and the best No. 9 seed in the state. Still, after Troubling Tuesday - which featured the state ruling and a loss to cross-city rival Woodrow Wilson - Turner wanted to see something familiar in the regular-season finale.

"When we got the news (that four early games were forfeits in an eligibility issue), they were a little deflated," Turner said. "They went in a little bit of a shell. It's a thinking game, and they weren't thinking the way they should.

"This was a good game. It helps us. It gives us an upbeat feeling going forward."

Both teams could benefit from this Olympic Conference inter-division clash of two of the most talented teams in South Jersey. Camden got the bounce back in its step. Winslow got the chance to see what it takes to beat an intense opponent in hostile territory.

"It's a lesson," said Smith, whose team will be the No. 2 seed in the upcoming South Jersey Group 4 tournament.

Winslow broke to leads of 9-1 and 13-6. But Camden surged back behind Cass and Foster, a 6-foot-2 senior who does a little bit of everything for the Panthers.

"That's my job - do whatever it takes," Foster said. "This was a big game for us as far as the playoffs. This will get us ready."

Camden's lead was just 64-59 entering the fourth quarter. But Moore, a 5-foot-9 senior who scored 15 of his points in the final eight minutes, and the rest of the Panthers hit another gear, and the Eagles couldn't keep pace.

There was less than a minute to play when Moore saw Cass on his left side during a three-on-one fast break. Moore lofted a pass that kissed off the backboard and Cass rose up, grabbed the ricochet and threw down his third dunk of the day.

And his best.

"We're ready," Cass said, writing the headline on his dunk and to the playoff preview story.

February 28, 2006

Camden Courier-Post * March 11, 2006

By PHIL ANASTASIA

A dizzying day ended Friday with Clarence Turner in the lobby of the Courier-Post building, insisting he has not retired as the Camden High School boys' basketball coach.

Earlier, Camden High School Principal Al Davis said Turner had retired, and the Camden Board of Education office issued a news release announcing that Turner had "tendered his retirement papers as coach of the team."

The school's announcement followed by days an incident in which a Camden player punched an opponent after a playoff game that Camden lost.

Ultimately, the confusing situation is likely to lead to one conclusion: Turner has coached his last game at Camden after 32 memorable seasons.

"Take it to the bank," Davis said. "The truth comes from me. This is the truth."

"I can't go along with that," Turner said, looking at the news release from the BOE office that said that his retirement was planned a year ago to coincide with the conclusion of the 2005-2006 season.

Asked if he wanted to continue as coach, Turner said, "I would. I'd like to do it one more year."

The retirement issue likely is moot. Because Turner, like all Camden coaches, is hired on a one-year basis, he won't be the coach again unless he is recommended to the Board of Education by Davis and Camden athletic director Mark Pease.

Pease declined to comment Friday, but Turner said Pease told him in a conversation this week that "the only negative at Camden is the basketball team."

Davis was adamant that Turner has coached his final game for the Panthers.

"Coach Turner has retired as the basketball coach," Davis said. "I don't talk to the newspapers but I'm saying this. This is what is going to happen."

Turner said he felt he was being unfairly blamed for the incident after Camden's loss to Deptford in Tuesday's South Jersey Group 3 championship game.

Camden senior MacArthur Mason, 18, was arrested after punching Deptford player Rickie Crews in the face in the handshake line.

"I didn't have anything to do with what happened," Turner said. "I can't take the heat for something that shouldn't be the responsibility of just the basketball coach."

Davis said Turner's retirement was planned a year ago and was unrelated to Tuesday's incident.

"It's unfortunate that this incident happened but this was planned a year ago," Davis said.

Turner said he spoke with Davis about retiring after this season when Camden officials named the gymnasium at the high school after him in the spring of 2005.

"But I changed my mind," Turner said. "I told him (Davis) that and he said, "OK.' "

Turner, who is in his mid-70s, became Camden's coach in 1971. He has coached the Panthers for 32 seasons, missing four seasons from 1999-2002 after Camden was suspended from the 1999 state tournament for incidents during the 1998 season.

The Panthers also were banned from tournament play in 1972 and 1992 and could face another sanction for Tuesday's incident.

Turner is South Jersey's all-time leader in career coaching victories. His record is 729-134. His teams won 21 sectional titles and seven state titles.

In the 10 seasons between 1978 and 1987, Turner's teams won five state titles. His 1981, 1984 and 1986 teams had a combined record of 88-1 and each was ranked among the top teams in the nation.

"I admire coach for everything he as done for Camden High basketball and this community," Davis said. "He was not only a coach, he was mentor and a role model. We salute him."