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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Clay transferred to UW for ailing mother

Huskies defensive back Brian Clay was scheduled to receive a scholarship until Steve Sarkisian left for USC. (Associated Press)
Christian Caple Tacoma News Tribune

SEATTLE – Brian Clay was on scholarship at Hawaii, where he spent the first two seasons of his collegiate career before transferring to Washington in September, choosing here to pay his own way as a walk-on.

And that was a sacrifice he made not only in pursuit of greater competition and the chance to play in the Pac-12, but for his mother, Mary Jane, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when Clay was in high school.

Clay grew up in Vacaville, Calif., about halfway between Sacramento and San Francisco, which made for long trips back and forth from Honolulu. But more important, he said, is UW’s nationally renowned Multiple Sclerosis Center, where his mother receives treatment twice per month when she comes to visit.

He likes to be there.

“Washington has one of the premier MS centers, so I wanted to be closer to home so I could be with her coming up here and getting treatment,” Clay said after a recent practice.

It is the plight of Clay’s mother that most motivates him in his pursuit of a spot on Washington’s two-deeps, in pursuit of that coveted scholarship, which previous coach Steve Sarkisian and his staff had promised to deliver this spring.

That was before they left for USC.

But the coaching turnover doesn’t bother Clay, a 6-foot-1, 193-pound defensive back. It’s pretty much all he knows. Chris Petersen is Clay’s fourth coach in four seasons, a list that begins with Greg McMackin (whom Hawaii fired after the 2011 season), then Norm Chow (2012), then Sarkisian (2013), then Petersen.

“He’s been a fun guy to coach,” Petersen said. “He’s got a great demeanor about him, really good attitude, and he’s getting better every day out here.”

“You’ve just got to adapt, play ball and play through it,” Clay said.

He seems to be adapting fine. UW’s secondary has been thinned by graduation and spring injuries, which have helped thrust Clay into the mix with the first and second defensive units during spring practices.

For now, he’s playing for a scholarship. And for his mother, who is in a wheelchair, who would love to see her son play in a Pac-12 football game.

“That would mean the world to me, honestly,” Clay said. “That’s everything I want. She’s the reason, honestly, why I work so hard, and why I have the motivation to work hard and run all the time and have all this energy, because she physically can’t do it herself. She used to be active, and now she’s not. But she lives her dreams through me.”