Jacksonville, AL – After 30 years at the helm, Jacksonville’s Clark won’t coach volleyball this season as he moves towards retirement; ‘feels like a good time to do it, if there ever was a good time’
By Al Muskewitz
When David Clark first walked into Jacksonville High School as a new coach and teacher at a time when the world was a much different place he was excited for all the things he was going to do for the Golden Eagles and all the change that could take place during his tenure. It never occurred to him he would be one of them. For 30 years, Clark has been the face of Jacksonville volleyball. He has coached other sports at the during his time at the school – almost all of them at some point, actually – but he’s most closely associated with the Golden Eagles netters. Come next fall, though, there will be someone else calling the shots on the court as he retires from coaching and possibly teaching in the only place he’s ever hung a shingle.
“It is a hard call,” Clark said during an easy 30-minute conversation filled with the insight and perspective reporters have come to expect from his post-game interviews. “(Leaving) baseball wasn’t as hard – not that I didn’t love baseball, but I was assistant coach for several years and I didn’t get involved just because of my son but that was part of the driving force behind it. “Volleyball was harder because it’s what you do, it’s kind of your thing. And here, fortunately, we had an opportunity to build something with all the great kids we’ve had here, and it’s hard to walk away from that at any point, But, you know, sometimes programs go through changes and I don’t think we’re a way away from where we’ve been, but I don’t know that my style will continue to fit the athlete possibly that’s coming through now. “It’s been different and I’ve had to adjust, which is fine. I have over the years adjusted, but I’m not sure I’m in a position to make the adjustments that need to be made now. It seems right. It feels like a good time to do it, if there ever was a good time.”
He’ll be 55 this year and with his children — both of whom played for him — either out of finishing high school he wants to enjoy the family life. He stepped away from baseball to watch his son Colton play college ball and he’ll watch daughter Caitlin play volleyball at Snead State. “That’s the biggest part of it; it’s kind of been my plan since she showed interest and started playing,” Clark said. “It matches up with my years of service, her graduating; that was kind of always the idea of what would happen. “When Colton graduated and went on to play, I couldn’t picture myself being at a ball field with him at another ball field somewhere else when I could be watching him. And I can’t picture missing my daughter’s opportunities in another gym when I feel like I should be there watching her. Because it only lasts so long.”
He wasn’t prepared to talk about what the future holds, but he doesn’t plan to be idle. “I think it’s a time for me to maybe do something different,” he said. “I’m not ready to be at home. If COVID taught me one thing, two weeks at the house when the projects you’ve put off forever are caught up and the money runs out to do projects and you’re staring at the wall, I couldn’t do it. I was coming unglued, so the thought of being retired and not having a goal or somewhere to go is not something I think I could function at. The idea of slamming on the breaks and now you’ve got zero is not very appealing.”
Clark has been at Jacksonville a long time. He’s the longest sitting coach in his sport in Calhoun County and only four members of the staff and faculty at his school have been there longer. He’s coached virtually every sport they play there – baseball, basketball, softball, soccer, even a brief turn at track and field. He’d never formally been a football coach, but he did film for Rusty Burroughs’ teams. He also is the school’s athletics director. But when March rolls around he’ll put a wrap on it all at 31 years and change, hoping he has left it better than he found it. If he ever got around to totaling up all of it, he’d find his teams have won more than 1,500 games, well over 2,000 if you credited his record with the developmental teams. [read more…]
