After a disparaging, injury-plagued 2011 season, Joseph Clark made it clear he would play through just about anything during his senior season.
So the dislocated shoulder he suffered earlier this season was nothing compared to the mental anguish he dealt with when he missed a good chunk of 2011 with a broken collarbone.
It was another speed bump in Clark’s prep career as a running back, one that will end in a few short months.
“As long as (the injury’s) nothing too serious … and something that wouldn’t cripple me for the rest of my life, I’m gonna go ahead and try to play because I absolutely love the game,” Clark said. “I enjoy every second of it.”
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Clark has experienced a resurgent season so far for Parklane. He leads the team in touchdowns with nine and is second on the team with 222 yards. Clark totaled 77 yards and three touchdowns last Friday against Central Private.
“It hurt,” said Clark, recalling his injury. “It was my junior year and I expected to do well … and I didn’t even get to play. It was a real bummer.”
Clark did play, however. He rushed for more than 100 yards and three touchdowns in the 2011 season opener and was former coach Bo Milton’s workhorse back heading into district play. Then Clark broke his collarbone in late September and missed the rest of the season.
Now Clark is healthy and thriving in first-year coach Mike Powell’s new offensive system.
Powell’s spread attack is a complete 180 from Milton’s smash-mouth type play, but Clark has still been able to incorporate his downhill style with his nine touchdowns.
“A big and physical runner,” Powell said of Clark. “I like his size. He’s not worried about lowering his shoulder. That’s something I saw on film last year, is we got a guy back there who ain’t afraid to stick it in there.”
Clark has done most of his damage inside the red zone, where Parklane is more inclined to line up in power formations. Seven of his nine touchdowns have come inside the 5-yard line.
Clark acknowledged the brute strength of linebacker James Michael Schmidt, who lines up at fullback in the Pioneers’ goal line packages, as a huge factor in his touchdowns.
“Whenever you have someone as big as him blocking … and you can get down behind him, it’s easy down at the goal line,” Clark said.
Along with the entire offensive line, Clark dealt with a huge learning curve with the new zone offense.
To this day, Clark is still searching for a better grasp of the offense.
“I’m still learning different things every day as we go, to be honest,” he said. “… It’s been pretty tough for me actually. It’s not hard, just difficult to learn.”
Powell believes Clark is coming along fine and thinks his best football is still ahead of him. That would certainly bode well for Parklane, as it starts district play Friday against East Rankin.
“He’s just building that memory bank on reading this guy, reading that guy and it just takes reps, reps, reps, reps reps,” Powell said.
Clark has been able to stay fresh the entire season with the help of fellow senior running back Taylor Burt. Clark and Burt battled the entire spring and fall camp for the starting gig, but Powell was impressed with both and developed a time-share.
While the reps aren’t exactly split 50-50, it’s close enough. Clark has 48 carries on the season while Burt has 46.
Luckily for Powell, the two are close friends and actually use the time-share as friendly competition.
“The biggest thing for us is you have two guys competing and it hasn’t become an issue for us … that’s a really good thing,” Powell said. “It shows a lot about their character and what the team means to them.”
