No Timeouts Yet for Clemson Couple

Derrick and Donna Forrest haven’t seen much of each other the last week, but each knows exactly where to find the other. They’re in the final 16 of the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.

Derrick Forrest, a senior, is a starting forward for the 17th-ranked Clemson men’s team. Donna Forrest, his wife, is a junior reserve for Clemson’s women’s team.

They’ll be within a few hundred miles of each other tonight in the East Regional semifinals of their respective tournaments. The Clemson men play No. 3 Connecticut at East Rutherford, N.J. The Clemson women tangle with defending NCAA champion Tennessee at Norfolk, Va.

“It’s special. It’s the first time for me and him in the final 16. We’re happy to be here,” Donna Forrest said Wednesday. “I know that it’s going to be tough competition, but I believe we’re ready.”

The competition off the court to find time together has been equally tough. Since the two tournaments began a week ago, the Forrests have had only a few hours together.

“It’s been rough,” Donna Forrest said. “But this is what he wants, and this is what I want. As long as we’re winning, it’s all right. Eventually, we will be together.”

“Sometimes, it’s tough being married, especially during the season,” Derrick Forrest said. “Our schedules are kind of crazy, but we know there will be more time to be together once everything is over.

“Right now, I like to think that absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

The Forrests managed to spend some time together last week in Connecticut. The men’s team was playing at Hartford and the women were at Storrs, about 30 miles away.

The women watched part of the men’s 79-75 victory Saturday over La Salle. The women were eating their pregame meal in a restaurant and happened to see the game on a television in the bar as they were leaving, which delayed their departure.

“We were yelling and screaming. We were hysterical,” Donna Forrest said. “We were all crowded around the television, and we were jumping and everything. Every time Derrick would make a shot, everybody would look back at me and say, ‘Donna, Donna, Donna.’ I was a nervous wreck.”

Later that evening, Derrick Forrest and a few of his teammates watched the women’s team beat Connecticut, 61-59, to advance to the final 16. Afterward, the couple spent a few hours together.

“We saw each other briefly,” Donna Forrest said. “That was maybe three hours, if it was that long. We’ve talked a couple times on the telephone. But we really haven’t had time to sit down and have a good conversation.”

The Forrests met when Donna was a high school senior in Groveland, Fla., and Derrick was at Chipola (Fla.) Junior College, which Clemson men’s Coach Cliff Ellis also attended. Donna’s brother, Cornelius Brodus, a teammate of Derrick’s, introduced them after a game one night.

“It was love at first sight; it really was,” she recalled.

Donna Forrest later played at Chipola before they transferred to Clemson, Derrick two years ago and Donna last year. The Forrests were married last May 7, on Donna’s birthday.

When the Forrests are not competing on the court for the Atlantic Coast Conference school, they’ve been known to compete against each other.

“I like going 1-on-1 with him until I get mad and then he beats me. He usually does,” Donna Forrest said. “I say he fouls a lot. I have to have some excuse.”

She has also been known to throw an elbow or two.

“Yeah, I throw elbows,” she said. “I have to. How can I guard him? I have to play dirty.”

So who’s the better player, Derrick?

“I’m not going to touch that one,” he said. “She’s pretty good.”