A Fond Farewell

The game plan is bittersweet for former USC Head Coach Clay Helton and his wife Angela. As they pack up and leave their seaside home in Palos Verdes and head to a new life in Statesboro, Georgia for a new job as Head Coach at Georgia Southern University, they are feeling nostalgic.
The family moved to Palos Verdes in 2010 and raised their children in the community. 24-year-old Reid graduated from Palos Verdes High School in 2016 and USC in 2020 and currently works in commercial real estate.
23-year-old Aubrey was in 5th grade when the family moved to PV. She graduated from PVHS in 2017 and currently attends Make-Up Designory School in Burbank.
Turner was in kindergarten when the family moved to PV and he is graduating from PVHS this coming June. He will be attending and playing football at Western Kentucky University immediately following graduation.
The kids will continue to live their lives at college and here in California and the Helton’s are looking forward to new beginnings as empty nesters in Georgia.
“We loved our time in PV and it will always be such a special place for our family. Thank you to everyone that welcomed us and made us feel like part of the community. I describe PV as a small town that sits by the ocean. It truly was a wonderful place to raise our children. We are thankful for the 12 years we were blessed to be part of this special community,” says Angela.
During their dozen years on the hill the children were involved in a myriad of sports and charity groups and Angela is proud of the foundation she started.
“It’s The Clay & Angela Helton Foundation. It’s to help and support homeless youth. We held an annual shoe drive to provide much needed shoes to homeless youth of LA. We had sock drives, served meals, provided clothes, raised money for housing and hosted an annual Christmas party. All of this would not have been possible without the amazing communities of PV and USC,” she says.

HOW THEY GOT TO PALOS VERDES
“Clay was a football coach at University of Memphis for 10 years before our move to PV. Clay’s dad is a retired football coach. He worked for the Los Angeles Raiders 1990-1993. His parents lived in Palos Verdes during their time in California. They moved here the summer after Clay and I graduated from High School in Sugar Land, Texas in 1990. Because Clay was in college when they were here he was only here during school breaks.
I visited a few times and loved it. We went to high school together in Texas and we were “just friends” until graduation. We started dating and there’s a whole long romantic story that leads up to now being married for 27 years. All of that is what led us to PV. Clay’s mom told us that it was such an amazing place to raise your kids and we definitely needed to look here.”
Along with the stunning ocean views Angela says, more than anything, she and her family will miss the incredible people of Palos Verdes and the special friendships they made during their time here.