Inside the deeper purpose fueling the growth of Norfolk State’s Da’Brya Clark

Opposing players’ eyes scan for Clark’s green-and-gold No. 1 jersey before searching for their teammates. Comfortable dribbles tighten. Safe passes turn into prayers. The Norfolk State junior guard pinballs across the court like a washing machine on a spin cycle, impossible to ignore and disruptive by design.

Hands everywhere. Feet never still.

As the heartbeat of the Spartans, Clark controls the rhythm of the game, tilting it in Norfolk State’s favor, possession after possession, right on time. But there is more to her constant movement than meets the eye.

Her edge didn’t just appear one day. It was forged long before the stats and scouting reports lauded her. It was shaped by her life experiences, including absence and pain she learned how to carry. Clark’s grind and passion make sense once one understands her journey.

Basketball entered Clark’s life early. She recalls being four or five years old when she started tagging along to gyms with her dad, watching him play in men’s leagues around Baltimore. She didn’t need instruction — she absorbed the game just by being there.

Years later, on buses headed to AAU tournaments as a member of the Washington, D.C. youth organization Team Takeover, she watched highway lights smear across windows while teammates FaceTimed their mothers and passed around snacks packed with handwritten notes. In hotel hallways, laughter spilled from open doors as parents drifted in and out, arms full, voices familiar.

After games, players hugged their families and replayed moments from the floor. It was in these moments that Clark resolved to be the family and support that was absent for her, choosing to channel her sense of longing into determination and grit on the court.

Clark kept moving forward, carrying her bag and a void she couldn’t yet describe. But the absences in her life didn’t make her bitter — they made her stronger. What she missed didn’t hold her back; instead, it fueled her desire to become a pediatrician and helped her decide who she wanted to be.

“I just feel like I didn’t always have the resources I needed as a child,” Clark said to The IX Basketball last month during a Zoom call. “My mom wasn’t always around until my later years. Seeing teammates travel with their parents and their moms was tough for me. That’s where my passion comes from — to give back and to make sure I can uplift kids who’ve faced the same kinds of challenges.”

Learning to be proud

First-year Norfolk State head coach Jermaine Woods sees that dynamic up close when Clark is around his wife and son.

“Bree has taken my family as her family,” Woods shared. “She and my wife talk more than I talk to her sometimes. She loves my son. That’s his sister. That’s what he thinks.”

That’s why she smiles and relaxes around children. She fits in easily with families, acting as if they are her own, and moves with the quiet confidence of someone who knows what it means to belong.

It’s also why, as most students were winding down for the summer and heading to nearby beaches, Clark was stepping into labs to study for exams. The load wasn’t light — she took a lecture course alongside a three-hour lab, balancing academic demands with workouts and practices.

By day, the click of computer keys filled the room as she diligently completed pediatric coursework. At night, the echo of basketballs striking hardwood followed her back into the gym. The grind felt familiar.

“I’m proud of myself for sticking with it,” Clark said. “It takes a lot of perseverance, resilience, and discipline to even stay in another state for the summer and take classes and be on your own, and just having to get up and motivate yourself every day. It’s challenging to balance sports with academics, but at the end of the day, my story is my story.”

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Fresh challenges

Clark faced a big challenge when her former coach, Larry Vickers, left for Auburn in March. She briefly entered the transfer portal but decided to stay. She had to adjust to a new coach, a new system, and new roles. After last season’s success, she got more attention from opponents. Defenses focused on her, and she had less room to play comfortably.

Early in the season, shots she had made a year ago were contested harder. Passing lanes closed quicker. The noise outside the program grew louder, questioning Norfolk State. Clark heard all of it, but she didn’t flinch. She kept receipts.

“I feel like just this year, a difference in my game than last year is more at the mid-range level,” Clark said. “I felt like I was always a capable three-level scorer. Over the summer, I’ve been trying to work on scoring off the dribble, especially my mid-range pull-ups and shots behind screens. Even though I did those things last year, I feel like I’ve improved in that area a lot.”

Adjusting meant patience. It meant trusting the process while being guarded differently every night. It meant leading through a slower start and staying grounded when the results did not come immediately.

Her persistence paid off, and now her sense of purpose shows most during games.

Clark recently etched her name in the Norfolk State record books, setting a school record with nine 3-pointers against South Carolina State with a breathtaking display of marksmanship and flair. A week later, she followed it with eight more against Coppin State, confirming it wasn’t a fluke. Each successful shot represented something deeper than taking history on a ride, but a triumph over past loneliness, the forging of her own path to support and connection, and proof that the work paid off.

When Clark faced Howard last Saturday in Burr Gymnasium, her dad, stepmom, mother, the twins and family friends were in the stands. Faces she’d once watched other players run toward after games were now there to watch her. She hugged them postgame as she went into the stands in her black game uniform.

Clark’s shot-making didn’t arrive overnight. It was shaped in the quiet moments in empty gyms during solo workouts when sweat beads formed on her forehead. Clark has always been determined, and her edge has helped her power Norfolk State to back-to-back MEAC titles.

That same discipline shows up beyond the court. Clark has earned Norfolk State Athletic Director Honor Roll recognition every semester she’s been a Spartan and was named to the All-MEAC Academic Team in each of her first two seasons. She balances her skills on the court with steadiness in the classroom.

On the floor, her brilliance is reflected across the conference leaderboards as she’s blossomed into an all-around force and a legitimate MEAC Player of the Year candidate. She’s been named MEAC Player of the Week four times and MEAC Defensive Player of the Week once. Clark has piled up so many awards and records this season that she’s practically taken up residence in Norfolk State’s social media graphic templates.

Clark leads the MEAC in 3-pointers per game (2.4), ranks second in scoring (15.0) and steals (2.6), fourth in blocked shots (1.1), fifth in free-throw percentage (75.3%), seventh in assists (2.4) and 12th in rebounding (5.2). At 5-foot-7, Clark plays bigger than her frame and fearlessly attacks the basket, throwing her body into a forest of taller, stronger defenders, often creating space and opportunities for everyone else.

The numbers confirm how much more responsibility she’s clearly carrying this season. Clark’s usage rate according to HerHoops Stats has climbed to 27.8%, up from 23.2% a year ago, meaning more Norfolk State possessions are ending with the ball in her hands. She’s answered that demand with efficiency, as 48.6% of her points have come from 3-point distance after 40.4% last season. Clark’s 3-point rate is 46.4%, up from 35.4% from last season.

And her impact has reached beyond scoring. Helped by consecutive double-doubles against Delaware State and South Carolina State, Clark’s rebounding rate has risen to 8.6%, up from 6.2% a year ago. And when the floor opens up, she capitalizes. According to Synergy, Clark is converting 50.5% of her transition attempts, consistently finishing strong at the rim.

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The foundation

Clark showed these qualities long before she came to Norfolk State.

At home, Clark is the oldest of four siblings — three sisters, including a set of twins, and a younger brother. One sister, Dream Clark, a high school freshman, has followed her footsteps into basketball, watching closely the way sisters do.

Clark’s high school coach at Baltimore Poly-Tech, Kendall Peace-Able, who played collegiately at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and has more than 400 career wins, knew something was special about her almost immediately. She watched Clark come through in the clutch, knocking down four free throws in the final 30 seconds of a city championship victory and posting 20 points, eight rebounds, and five assists in a win over unbeaten Howard in the Class 3A state title game.

“I met Da’Brya at a very, very young age,” Peace-Able told The IX Basketball before the Coppin State-South Carolina game on Jan. 18. “She was always reserved, but you could tell she was intelligent. You could tell she had a lot to offer. She had a lot of kill in her. She was part of a team that upset some local programs with long, established histories of winning. Da’Brya was an excellent person. The family dynamic may have been divided at times, but they always showed up to support her when she needed it.”

Seeing Clark build on that foundation and play on bigger stages, including back-to-back NCAA Tournament games at Stanford and Maryland, has meant a lot. When Clark set the school record for three-pointers, Peace-Able was one of the first to text her.

“I am proud of her,” Peace-Able said. “To see one of my daughters leave the program and be seen on a national stage, to play in the NCAA Tournament, that’s big. But more than that, I’m proud of the relationship. Maximizing the time, maximizing the development, and building something with somebody I know I’ll love forever.”

Purpose beyond the game

Clark’s pride shows up in how she encourages others, builds trust, and helps people feel seen in ways she once needed herself. Being believed in matters to her because she knows what it feels like when it’s missing.

She sees that purpose reflected in teammate Jasha Clinton, a single mother balancing the demands of college basketball with raising her daughter. On team trips, Clinton’s child is folded into the rhythm of the program — tiny footsteps trailing gym bags, crayons spread across hotel tables, small hands tugging at hoodies. Clark notices everything. The balancing act. The exhaustion. The resolve. She doesn’t romanticize it. She respects it.

“Bree is great with Gia,” Clinton said over Zoom to The IX Basketball. “She’s very picky. She loves mommy, but she likes Bree.”

Traveling without her daughter carries a mental toll Clinton feels long before the bus pulls away. Clinton says support from her mother, teammates, and grandmother makes a huge difference.

“There were trips where we’d be gone for four days, and mentally I’m thinking, ‘oh my God, I’m about to be gone again,’” Clinton said. “I talked to Coach Woods and decided to bring her on one trip. Everything went well. She didn’t cry at practice or anything. Everybody was shocked.”

Watching that dynamic has left a deep impression on Woods, one that goes far beyond basketball.

“Her major is crazy, and she’s still holding it down,” Woods said of Clark. “I really admire her perseverance and the way she refuses to use her childhood as an excuse for her future. What she’s doing in life, and the life she’s impacting around her, is unbelievable. Sometimes I have to remind her of what she’s doing without even realizing it.”

Woods’ voice softens when he talks about Clinton.

“I get tears in my eyes,” he said. “I was raised by a single mom. I didn’t have my father in my life. So when I see a single mother like Jasha showing up every day, doing everything the right way while pursuing a degree in social work so she can help people like her — that’s admirable.”

He pauses, then widens the lens.

“You’ve got two kids who grew up with challenges and now want to help people who grew up like them,” Woods said of Clark and Clinton. “Forget the basketball player. Their legacy won’t be how many games they won at Norfolk State. It’s going to be how they impact the world. The things people don’t see — that’s what I’m most proud of.”

Clark’s game disrupts space. Her life’s work aims to fill it.

Just as she narrows the court for her opponents, she expands possibilities off of it. Every time she steps into a lab, onto a floor, or into a room with a child who needs to be seen, she carries that purpose forward, creating presence where there once was none.

“My passion for children is unmatched,” Clark said. “I like being around kids. I just light up. That’s a direct reflection of my childhood and my upbringing. It’s what keeps me motivated and centered.”

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