Hempfield grad David Shearer earns call to Clarion Sports Hall of Fame

His school-record 42 points in a game at Hempfield has stood for 27 years. And David Shearer is not going to lie: He’s proud of it.

Long miffed at the lack of recruitment from college coaches, the 45-year-old Shearer is humbled by such an impressive accomplishment in high school.

“That thing is still hanging on,” he said.

But Shearer is quick to note that Leon Agnew scored 41 in a game for the Spartans before going on to play four years at West Virginia. Meanwhile, Shearer’s only college offer was from Westminster (Pa.), then an NAIA school about to transition into NCAA Division II membership, where it spent three seasons before ultimately settling in Division III.

“I was recruited by a coach (Ron Galbraith), who ended up leaving, and the new coach (Jim Daffler) didn’t want me,” Shearer said. “I wound up going to WCCC (Westmoreland County Community College), which had no basketball program. I just worked out in the gym, and I made my own highlight tape and shipped it off to schools.

“The only one to give me an offer was Clarion.”

Imagine that. On April 26, Shearer will be honored at the NCAA Division II school, now known officially as PennWest Clarion, with his induction into the Clarion Sports Hall of Fame.

He is one of six new class members.

“It’s a nice accomplishment. I’m really happy about it,” Shearer said.

From 1999-2002, Shearer helped the Clarion men’s basketball team compile a record of 73-36. In his junior year, he helped the Golden Eagles to their first Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship, leading the team in steals (83) and earning Division II All-America honors.

Then-coach Ron Righter said of Shearer: “He does the little things that don’t show up on the stats sheet.”

Apparently, the 6-foot-4 Shearer did the “big things” as well. He ranks 12th all-time in points scored (1,248 points) and seventh in rebounds (794) and is just one of five Clarion players with 1,200 career points and 700 career rebounds.

He also recorded more than 200 career steals.

“There was this misconception about David that he was just a tough guy,” said former Butler star Aaron Epps, a teammate of Shearer’s for two seasons at Clarion. “But he was a skilled basketball player. He was a great mid-range shooter, and he could get into the paint and cause trouble for opponents.”

Other inductees are Barbara Buck (1984-87), women’s volleyball; Jeff Golias (1979-82) and Alfonso Hoggard (2007-10), football; Diane (Picking) Watson (1977-79), women’s swimming; and Mike Kalinowski (1987-92, 1997-2023), radio play-by-play.

Golias literally wears his college alma mater’s nickname on his sleeve as the owner of North Huntingdon-based Golden Eagle Equipment, an outdoor power equipment dealer.

A Chartiers Valley product, Golias played center for then-NAIA Clarion from 1980-82 before signing a free agent contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who released him in camp after an injury.

While Shearer’s name at Hempfield is among the leaders in a majority of statistical categories, it was his unsympathetic approach on the basketball court that at times stood out most.

“Dave always had a chip on his shoulder,” said Epps, a point guard. “He was an under-the-radar guy at Hempfield, very underrated.”

Said Shearer: “I didn’t even start on my ninth-grade team at Hempfield.”

But he wound up making quite an impression with the Spartans, scoring more than 1,000 career points.

As a senior, he was the only WPIAL player at a Class 4A school (then the PIAA’s largest classification) to average at least 20 points.

“I had all the accolades, but all I saw were guys around me going to play college ball,” said Shearer, whose final season saw Hempfield settle for a 22-6 record after losing to Franklin Regional in the WPIAL semifinals.

Current Hempfield coach Bill Swan, then an assistant at Connellsville, remembers Shearer as “one of the most competitive, toughest kids that ever played at Hempfield.”

Shearer, who is employed as operations manager at McKees Rocks-based NCCM Co., carried over that attitude to Clarion, where he went into his freshman year wondering what role he would play.

“They just brought two transfers in from Hartford, which was Division I at the time,” Shearer said. “I remember calling my dad and saying, ‘I have no idea if I’ll play a lick.’ It wasn’t five minutes when my named was called. I went in there and had six points and 12 rebounds in 12 minutes. Next game, they started me, and the two Hartford guys ended up leaving.”

Shearer earned PSAC Freshman of the Year, even though his numbers were underwhelming.

“We were the 13th-ranked team then, but my stats were very modest,” Shearer said. “I didn’t blow up anything, but I hit all the boxes.”

Clarion’s Hall of Fame bio of Shearer doles out such adoring labels as “very talented,” “physical” and “hard-nosed.”

“He was a great player, and they had some very good teams at Hempfield at that time,” said Swan, who is in his second stint as coach at Hempfield.

Epps, who received multiple Division I offers but stayed closed to home, first attending Clarion and then transferring to Slippery Rock, had no trouble recollecting the time alongside Shearer for those first two fleeting years.

“The only time (Butler) played Hempfield was in the playoffs. We didn’t play many Westmoreland County schools,” Epps said. “But they got us, and Dave was a heck of a player then. He was even more impressive in college.

“He was tenacious.”