Almost $200,000 raised for stricken Calaveras coach Kraig Clifton

Most days, his chemo-blasted body feels as if it wants to go into hibernation.

“It gets a little harder every day,” said Kraig Clifton, the longtime Calaveras High School boys basketball coach and former Sonora High three-sport star. “It’s not horrible, but not good, either. I sleep a lot.”

Clifton, 42, began his third round of chemotherapy on Friday. He suffers from stage IV pancreatic cancer, which is incurable. Clifton stands a 16 percent chance of surviving five years, according to the National Cancer Database.

In sports terms, he is the ultimate underdog.

“We just don’t know how long this will go on,” said Clifton, who has four children, ages 4 to 11, with his wife, Alissa.

On Saturday, the counties where he was raised proved they still love a good underdog, especially Clifton.

More than 800 people filled the hall at the Calaveras County Fairgrounds in Angels Camp for a dinner and auction benefiting the Clifton family. The event generated approximately $102,000, according to Doug Clark, one of the organizers.

Clark praised leaders from Calaveras and Tuolumne counties for embracing the Clifton family. In the last two months, fundraising efforts have exceeded $190,000, including $64,300 on a GoFundMe page started by Doug and Michelle Clark.

“I can’t say there is one person responsible for this. There were so many people involved in it, between the Calaveras crew that came together and the Tuolumne crew that came together,” Clark said. “We had several meetings, and on average there were 30 people at those meetings.”

In the week leading up to the dinner, Clifton wasn’t sure he would be strong enough to attend. The first two rounds of chemo left him nauseated and fatigued.

However, his weakened body cooperated.

“I was very fortunate it landed on a day that I was feeling good,” Clifton said. “It was a memorable night. Something special. Something I’ll never forget.”

Central Catholic football coach Roger Canepa served as the auctioneer, while Calaveras football coach Jason Weatherby was a member of the food committee.

Weatherby provided the barrels for the smoked meat.

Canepa coached Clifton at Sonora, where he is remembered as “one of the best defensive backs that’s ever played for me.” Later, they coached together at Calaveras. Canepa was the varsity football coach, while Clifton and Clark served as coordinators for the junior varsity.

“He was hilarious,” Clifton said of Canepa as the auctioneer. “He did a great job.”

Canepa put the evening in historical context.

“I can tell you this right now. I’m 52 and I’ve been to some of the best fundraisers we’ve had in our county, and this is the biggest one ever,” he said. “It shows how much he’s loved by everybody.”

Clifton spent most of the night locked in conversation, each discourse taking him to a place and time unaffected by cancer.

There were his old roommates at Columbia College in Sonora – Scott Conklin, Karrie Walker-Hold and Cathy Coate – who traveled far to check in on their friend. They came from Southern California, Colorado and Kentucky.

Darren French, an assistant basketball coach at East Los Angeles College, drove through the night following a game to attend the dinner. French was an assistant at Columbia under Denny Aye, who, with Clifton at the point, guided the Claim Jumpers to the 1993 state championship.

“That was awesome and unexpected,” Clifton said of French’s appearance at the dinner.

The rest of the guest list was comprised mostly of Mother Lode residents, no small feat in a region with longstanding rivalries.

“They fact that two counties, two communities came together to make this work is amazing,” Clifton said. “They organized it well, and I know they put in tons of time to make it special – and it was.”

Clifton said his battle is reinforced by love flowing from both sides of the Stanislaus River that he never dreamed possible.

“I really wasn’t able to soak it all in until it was done,” he said. “When I showed up, it was more than I ever expected. I was just conversing with people all night. There were a lot of thank yous, handshakes and conversations with people I see every day and people I haven’t seen in 20 years. It was spectacular.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 5:05 PM with the headline "Almost $200,000 raised for stricken Calaveras coach Kraig Clifton."