Scott Clark
I have no exact recollection when I became friends with Scott Clark. I do, however, remember an early conversation, not sure it was the first though, where we were track side at a meet and I asked how come so many of his kids had hyphenated last names. Scott at this time coached at Sant Bani, the smallest school to participate in NHIAA sanctioned sports. Back in those early days, with less than 80 kids in the high school, choosing athletics was easy. In the fall, you could run cross country or wait until winter and play basketball. Easy choices. Scott put together some small but ferocious teams, winning Division 3 multiple times (it was called Class M&S back then) and took a few teams to New Englands. Of course it never hurts to have a couple Freeman brothers come through your program but it takes more than that to make New Englands.
Not entirely sure about why he coached an inordinate amount of hyphenated last names, he speculated that it might be that parents that wanted the Sant Bani experience might be in a relationship that favored strong women that wanted equal representation when it comes to their offspring’s last name. Having our athletes battling in distance races we’d often find ourselves standing trackside, 40 or so meters beyond the start/finish line encouraging our kids to lean in and hold on. This led to conversations about running and training and the seeds of friendship were sown.
However the growth of that friendship was certainly enhanced when I joined the Spring Track committee as the third D3 representative. At my school we had a new AD who didn’t understand the scheduling process for track, and I, having been around for a bit now, would take a look at the master schedule, send the AD the changes that made the most sense, and our schedule would be set. However this AD never sent anything back to scheduling so that spring we were attending meets we weren’t supposed to be at and skipping meets we were. When Kristi Hikel, the other D3 member of the spring track committee and I met up at a meet our teams were both at, she said to me “Mr. Smith, we need to talk!” to which I replied, “we do.” Next thing I know I’m on the committee.
Scott and I share the same gene of getting to the point and doing things efficiently. Safe to say we grumble about meets that drag on, coaches, ADs and programs that are looking to for an advantage over other teams unfairly, and anytime we could be doing something else with better opportunity and a better outcome. Two peas in a pod comes to mind. To this day Scott often says I say exactly what he’s thinking, him being smart enough in knowing I won’t keep my mouth shut, thereby allowing what needs to be said, come out from someone else’s lips than his.
It’s only coincidence that the two of us also were the only coaches in NH to have been still running meets on a dirt track. When I found out Sant Bani still held meets on theirs, I immediately signed up for the upcoming season. We traveled up to the backwoods of Sanbornton, a lonely mile up a dirt road our bus driver was sure was the wrong way. Their track framed in by railroad ties, they even had an old school-hand pulled lane lime liner so there could be lanes for the races. I was so taken with the low tech, highly efficient meet and the process and procedures in place to make things more efficient, I signed up for every Sant Bani meet I could. We ended up attending one six-team meet that start to finish took 65 minutes, with the last event being the combined high jump, simply because with some of the athletes in some other events, it took a while to get all the jumps in with people checking in and out. Our cool down would always be the lonely mile back out to the paved road.
Scott eventually made the move to Belmont, just down the road from his house, just before Sant Bani switched from middle/high school to just middle school. In addition to a better salary and shorter commute, Scott would be able to take his meet management skills to a rubberized track, and expand his reach as a coach with a bigger pool of athletes. While having been known for his distance squads, Scott’s knowledge of other things track is much better than mine and he’s always had a great batch of hurdlers and jumpers. I was more than happy to sign up for all the Belmont meets now as well.
But truth be told, while we love the opportunity to talk cross, track and training, we love to talk about what each other is up to, with conversations usually centering around our families and more specifically our kids. I was lucky enough to catch Scott’s kids going through the Sant Bani program, both being contributors in different ways to their teams. Taylar found herself always a few bodies short of a full team, while Colby made it to Meet of Champions three times in cross country, making New Englands his senior year. He was also the only 9:40+, 125+ two-mile discus thrower.
In these later years, he’s been able to do the same with my kids. Victoria, my eldest, the outspoken friend to everyone, would be on teams that were just missing out making it to Meet of Champions. My youngest Amelia, a bit luckier, was part of the 2023 D3 state champion team in cross country, and part of a 4×800 team, making it to Meet of Champions. Victoria started it while Amelia got to finish it. And Scott was right there cheering them on the whole time. The running joke between families is it was like having a second coach/second father there coaxing you on. This trickled down to our athletes as well. Many of my favorite athletes from my teams have stories about Scott giving them data while they circled the track or the course.
Now both our sets of kids have moved beyond the high school confines. Taylar and Colby are married off, with Colby and Hannah making Scott a proud grandfather. I’ve hung up my coaching whistle (fun fact – never had one and I can’t imagine Scott having one either) but we make sure that our paths still cross. While we met trackside, sharing many of the same values about the benefit of athletics for kids, we enjoy each other’s company enough that the end of high school athletics will not be the end of the friendship. We’ve got plenty more to talk about and we’re nowhere near finished. While we don’t see each other often enough, when we do we make the most of it. And I’m thankful for that.
I’ll see you out there.
