SARNIA – The Lions are continuing to have an impact on the recruiting trail.
Forward Clayton Burgess has committed to Head Coach James Grant and the Lambton Men’s Basketball Program for the 2024-25 season, and beyond.
Burgess is the seventh member of the 2024 recruiting class for Coach Grant and the rest of his coaching staff after a sizeable turnover following the end of the 2023-24 campaign. Burgess will join Loghan LeBlanc (New Waterford, N.S.), Owen Newell (Brussels, Ont.), Cory King (Toronto, Ont.), Jaxson Halward (Woodstock, Ont.), Darius Schmidt (Waterdown, Ont.), and Samuel Isaac (Winkler, Man.) as a newcomer with the Lions when the new season opens in September.
“Clayton is a great add for our program,” said Grant. “His size and athletic ability will help us on both ends of the floor, and he’ll be a really important piece in building a positive culture moving ahead.”
“We are really looking forward to having Clayton suit up for us this fall.”
Burgess, a six-foot-eight forward, comes to Lambton College from Glendale High School in his hometown of Tillsonburg. Burgess also competes for the Oxford Attack U19 Program out of Woodstock where he currently plays with Newell and Halward in the Attack black, blue, and white uniforms.
The uniforms may look a bit different when he joins the Lions in the Fall, but Burgess is looking forward to having the opportunity to play with both Owen and Jaxson, as well as his new teammates, at the collegiate level at Lambton College.
“I’m excited,” said Burgess. “I’m also a bit nervous to move away from home, but I’m looking forward to moving away with some childhood friends and I think it’ll be good to play at the next level and evolve with some of the guys from my old team.”
“Coach Grant knows what he’s doing out there, so I think it’ll be fun to play for him and it’s a new challenge for me on the court. With him, I’ll be able to learn more about the game. Academically, it’ll be fun to get back into the groove of things in the classroom and get my schedule going.”
Coming into the offseason, Grant and his coaching staff put an emphasis on adding size and athleticism to their roster. The addition of Burgess checks both of those boxes off the top. Add in his ability to shoot from long range while defending at all three levels and the Lions have added yet another exciting and talented piece to the puzzle for years to come.
Academically, Burgess will be enrolled in the Child & Youth Care Program at Lambton College.
The Lions are coming off a 2023-24 season that saw the group finish 9-9 during the regular season, good for seventh in the always-competitive OCAA West Division. They were unable to replicate their post-season magic from the 2022-23 season, one in which they finished seventh in the regular season but made a run to the OCAA Final Four. This year, the Lions dropped their OCAA Crossover Game on the road at George Brown, who went onto win a CCAA Silver Medal, bringing a premature end to their season.
Now, Coach Grant and his staff have turned their focus to building the roster for the 2024-25 season, and the addition of Burgess to the mix is the latest impact signing for a program that is building towards an exciting future.
Welcome to The Den, Clayton!
For more information, or for any media inquiries within Lambton College Athletics, please contact:
Tyler Bennett
Lambton College Sports Information & Marketing Coordinator
tyler.bennett@lambtoncollege.ca