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Put me in coach...
Bassett's Ed Clark is back on field after two difficult years
Sunday, April 8, 2007
By ANDREW STEVENS - Bulletin Sports Writer
The chances of Ed Clark taking anything in life for granted, especially baseball, are slim at best.
Bassett’s senior center fielder is just six games into only his second full season in a Bengals’ uniform after missing most of the last two years with a rotator cuff injury and a torn ACL.
Instead of spending the majority of the last two years taking batting practice, shagging fly balls and running sprints on the warning track, Clark has spent countless days in rehab sessions and doctors’ offices.
In two separate moments, in two separate states, while playing two separate sports, Clark went from being a year-round baseball player to a sidelined cheerleader.
Prior to his sophomore season, Clark was playing in an under-16 USSSA baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C., when he suffered a torn rotator cuff on what he originally believed to be a routine throw from the outfield.
After appearing in eight games as a designated hitter toward the end of his sophomore season, and working to rehab his shoulder in time for his junior year, misfortune struck Clark again just months before baseball season was set to start.
An innocent game of pickup basketball during a weight training class at Bassett went terribly wrong with the release of one jump shot. Clark rose off the floor to shoot and when he returned to the hardwood his momentum carried him in one direction, yet his legs went in a different direction. With them went his anterior cruciate ligament and any chance of playing his junior season.
Thus started yet another round of rehab for Clark and another difficult season confined to the dugout offering up as much advice and support as he could to his teammates.
With his days as a high school student running out, Clark began to wonder about his future and if he would ever again play the game he had grown to love since he was big enough to swing a bat.
“I kind of beat myself up about my own stupidity for getting hurt which I think most athletes would,” Clark said. “It just kind of hurt me not to be out there and help out the guys. At certain points it was tough...and I intended on my junior year being one of my better years. I figured if I was going to play in college I was going to have to get noticed my junior year and then every thing stopped when I got hurt.”
Forced to move on without the heart and soul of his program, Bassett head coach Bill Parks realized just how important Clark’s presence could be for some of his younger players. Even though Clark couldn’t lead by example on the field, his energy and enthusiasm toward the game is a truly immeasurable quality.
“I like to consider our baseball team a family,” Parks said. “We wanted Ed around physically whether he could do anything or not. It was difficult for him also, because he feels like he can’t help the team if he’s not physically doing something. But I told him, ‘Ed, I know you can’t physically be the leader that you can be but it’s going to be a lot to these other guys to just have you around.’ His passion for the game is contagious.”
Determined not to let his circumstances get the best of him, Clark had knee surgery and immediately began rehab in hopes of getting ready for one last season in a Bengals uniform. The recovery process began with Clark spending a week with his leg in a machine that could move it 24 hours a day at the push of one button on a remote control.
Plenty of stretching and time on an isometric machine in the next six months got Clark ready in time to play for Martinsville’s American Legion Post 42 in the summer of 2006. Clark batted around .300 for a 42 club that finished 23-8, but more importantly he regained confidence in his ability to play a game he’d been forced to watch for the better part of two years.
“Post 42 was extremely important because I got to see live pitching and it got me back on the field,” Clark said. “I don’t want to toot my own horn but I’m a very fundamental outfielder. It would have hurt me to go straight from rehab back to school ball because I would have had to pick up a lot of stuff. When I look at it was kind of like a rehab program in a way, but it was fun in the same way because we were pretty successful.”
Although the Bengals are just 2-4 through six games this season, Clark is hitting over .400, is starting to get noticed by some nearby colleges and his impact is being felt in the locker room just as much as it is on the field. His tutelage of fellow senior Josh Kinney brought about a drastic change in Kinney’s work ethic and attitude toward the game.
“I always look at Ed when I’m doing something wrong because I’m an outfielder too,” Kinney said. “In the past I just didn’t care and then this year it just all the sudden hit me that I needed to step up and be a better ball player. I’ve just been so laid back the last couple of years and I wasn’t looking at the team I was thinking more about myself. I’ve learned to push myself because after Ed hurt his knee he busted his butt to get where he is now.”
With every pitch, every at-bat and every fly-ball Clark gets one step closer to the end of his high school career. Most big-dreaming high school athletes in his position would be all but overwhelmed with the pressure of trying to cram all the goals most freshmen set for themselves at the beginning of their prep career’s into just one season. Clark on the other hand — he just wants to play baseball.
“From the past three years until now I had so many goals that I set for myself for each year and all together,” Clark said. “To fit all those goals into one year is extremely difficult. As long as you’re a leader it doesn’t matter what your stats are.
“If I hit .200 the rest of the year and we won every ballgame I would be fine with that. I would be upset with myself because I wasn’t doing what I needed to be, but as long as we’re winning ballgames that’s all that matters.”
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