Central Catholic Hires Clifton Hodges as Girls’ Basketball Coach

Clifton Hodges has been named the head girls’ basketball coach at Central Catholic High School, Director of Athletics Greg Dempsey recently announced.

“We are very excited to have Coach Hodges lead our Lady Irish basketball program,” Dempsey said. “He brings a great amount of enthusiasm, success, and passion to build on the success and tradition of our program.” 

Hodges comes to Cherry Street following 5 seasons as the girls’ basketball coach at Springfield High School. He led the Blue Devils to at least 19 wins in 2 of the last 3 seasons.  In 2022-23, Springfield captured a district title and advanced to regional finals.  A season earlier, Hodges guided Springfield to its 1st sectional championship in the last quarter of a century, and he was named the District Coach of the Year.

“I’m extremely excited and honored to lead this storied program,” Hodges said. “This is an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Along with coaching at Springfield, he currently serves as an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) coach with the Rice Basketball Academy (2022-Present). Hodges previously worked on the AAU circuit with Jr. Lady Devils (2016-19), Glass City Fury (2016-19), and most recently Athlete HQ (2019-22).

Prior to taking the helm of the Springfield’s girls’ basketball program, Hodges was an assistant girls’ basketball coach (2018-19), an assistant football coach on 2 occasions (2011-13, ‘22-23) and assistant boys’ basketball coach (2011-18) at his alma mater.

Hodges has worked 20-plus years as a quality inspector for Chrysler.  He and his wife Lashawn have 3 children: A’ maya (20), Aleah (18), and CJ (11).