Following God’s plan
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Clinton Sims rarely misses a friendly pickup game of basketball before dawn on Wednesday and Friday mornings at Southeast. Good-natured banter is part of the competition as players call their own fouls and keep score.
Few who see him on the court dunking and snagging the ball know that he also is an artist who creates oil paintings of horses, that he is a Christian rapper or that he
runs a successful swimming pool cleaning business.
Sims, 34, has played basketball since he was a kid growing up in the projects near Paris, Ky. He and his brother, Alvin Sims, were standouts in high school and
caught the eye of college recruiters. In time, Clinton shot up to 6-foot-3, with a 7-foot wingspan from fingertip to fingertip.
Through high school, Clinton specialized in sports and art—a rare combination for most athletes.
His love for horses grew out of the bus ride to school that he took each day from the projects. Along the route, he saw Thoroughbreds grazing in well-manicured
pastures. He began sketching them in art class.
“I just loved watching them,” Clinton said. “I could never express what I saw in words, but I could put it on canvas.”
After a divorce, Clinton’s mother, Jan Sims, worked to provide for her sons. She was determined that they would stay out of trouble, keep away from teens who ran the
streets and avoid alcohol and drugs. Clinton describes himself as a “mama’s boy” who usually stayed in the house with her on weekends to avoid trouble.
Life had a certain rhythm. Clinton and Alvin went to school, played basketball, spent free time in the gym at the local YMCA and worked weekends at local tobacco
farms. It was grueling work, even tougher on scorching hot days when they came close to collapsing in the heat.
If the work was backbreaking, it also was good strength training for arms and legs.
Basketball became Clinton’s ticket out of the projects. In 1997, he was recruited by Boston College, where he averaged 18 points a game his freshman year. SIMS,
He has never figured out why hard work on the court never took him to big-time professional basketball.
When his playing time at Boston College decreased, Clinton transferred to St. Catherine College in Kentucky, then to Eastern Kentucky University where he played for
the Colonels while finishing his degree.
“As a kid from a small town, I didn’t know that playing basketball could be political,” Clinton said. “With nothing in my life going quite right, I began seeking God. Even
though I was dunking on people and shooting threes, it seemed like I never got a break.”
He prayed and fasted and began attending church services. He turned his whole life over to God.
For a while, Clinton played professional ball for the Kentucky Colonels, the low-budget reincarnation of the American Basketball Association, while Alvin began playing
for the University of Louisville.
In 2003, Clinton married Kim Akridge, a member of Southeast, and the two began attending church together. Clinton hoped basketball would last a long time.
When doors opened for him to play in the Dominican Republic, Clinton felt it was his last best chance to play ball. Kim was in a high-risk pregnancy with their first
daughter, Annie, however, and Clinton didn’t want to leave his family. Having children was a miracle for Kim, who had barely survived a near-fatal car accident. Her
lifelong dream was to be a wife and mom.
“Clinton gave up his dream to take care of us,” Kim said. “He became the muscle for the pool business, doing a lot of hard labor to care for our family. We decided to
build the business together.”
After Annie was born in 2004, the Sims had another daughter, Alana.
Sometimes life has seemed like an uphill climb.
“Our biggest challenges have been praying, fasting and tithing,” Kim said. “We have struggled at times to do things God’s way.”
Clinton began painting horses whenever possible. When he is not engrossed in basketball or art, Clinton is exploring a budding music career. He cut a Christian rap
CD called “I’m Clean,” which features songs about his changed life.
Southeast member Danny Sams said Clinton has “a heart for God and a heart to serve.” The two play basketball together and have performed at concerts for
prisoners at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Ky.
“On the court, I call him ‘wind’ because he’s so hard to catch,” Sams said. “When he performs, he’s amazing. Clinton is ‘the man.’”
Clinton’s goals in life have changed.
“When I was young, I felt like Superman,” he said. “But then I realized that I wasn’t. I needed God to lift me up. Now I spend more time with God than basketball. My
dream now is to share my testimony with kids who don’t know that God loves them and has a plan for their lives.”