AURORA | Smoky Hill quarterback Trent Clay verbally committed to Black Hills State University on Thursday.
Following a four-year career as the Buffaloes starting quarterback, the versatile 6-foot-4, 180-pounder is headed to play at the next level. The national athletic letter of intent signing day for football is Feb. 5.
Clay threw for 1,510 yards and 16 touchdown in his senior season, which put him over 5,000 yards passing for his career according to coach Justin Hoffman and landed his name in a variety of places in the Smoky Hill offensive recordbooks.
“Trent broke five career school records this year, which is a great accomplishment and for a kid to be a four-year starter at quarterback in a league like the Centennial League, that doesn’t happen very often,” said Smoky Hill coach Justin Hoffman, who had Clay as his quarterback for one season after taking over the program.
Clay also rushed for a career-high 389 yards and six touchdowns as a senior.
He was a second-team All-Centennial League and All-City selection as a junior when he threw for 1,579 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Clay is also the leading scorer (12.6 ppg) on the Smoky Hill basketball team that’s off to an 8-6 start.
A week earlier, Grandview linebacker Kolten Johnson also verbally committed to play at Black Hills State, located in Spearfish, S.D., a Division II school that is part of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. Facebook: Aurora Prep Sentinel