Sidney’s Clark steps down, leaves legacy
By Tim Langevin
This is one bedtime story worth telling, even if the ending is a sad one.
Once upon a time….When Tom Clark arrived on the scene 20 years ago, Sidney players and fans didn’t know what to expect. What they inherited was a basketball coach that built a top-notch program, boys that played an uptempo style bordering helter-skelter, and an educator who put students first. Now that’s “three mints in one”.
This great man’s legacy isn’t about his 175 wins or his 2000 GMVC Coach of the Year Award or his chronic signature underdog victories; rather it’s about his commitment to Sidney High School, the community, the black community in particular, and helping others.
Sidney AD Jeff Courter can attest, “He brought me along. From athletic trainer to athletic director. I learned a ton from him and he will always be my friend. He always put the kids first. He was entrenched with the kids, the parents, and the program.”
Since 1991, Sidney has played in five of the 25 highest scoring games in OHSAA history. And Clark is the architect of the single highest scoring game, a 130-122 setback against Colonel White (Thurgood Marshall) December 11, 1993. Need to see this game at www.sidneyyellowjackets.com. The entire game was a highlight reel. Just watching it wears you out.
Jarred Vordemark (1991-1994), one of the Sidney starters in that game recalled, “It was so fast-paced, we didn’t have time to be tired. It was let’s get the ball up the floor without the ball touching the ground. Our 5-1-3 play worked well. We worked on it every day in practice. It was good for us because we weren’t very big. Coach’s game plan was to run’em down and wear them out.”
That plan worked a year later against Dayton Dunbar. Sidney won 105-104 in a cardiac-thriller. That game ranks as the fifth highest scoring game.
Clark talked about his offensive strategy and who influenced him. You will be amazed:
“I was an open gym player in junior and senior high school. We never had team stuff during the summer. The game was more fluid. Not X to Y to Z stuff. It developed more when I was an assistant at Trotwood. Then in the Spring of 1989, assistant Sherman Perkins and I decided to go to California for three days and talk to Paul Westhead at Loyola Marymount. We didn’t know who Hank Gathers or Bo Kimble was. They could’ve been Larry and Curly for all we knew. Westhead talked about 84-foot game with multiple substitutions, and shooting the ball within eight seconds. Ever since then I believed in up-tempo basketball.”
Once Sidney joined the GWOC in 2000, wins became more difficult. No hiding the fact that Sidney was the little fish in a big pond. But that didn’t deter Clark. He and his players just worked harder. Year in and year out, the Jackets recorded upset specials. Courter calls them “program wins”.
“In those games, we had no business winning,” Courter said. “But he scouted better and prepared his team better, down to every little detail.”
Former player Chris Reed (1999-2002) talked about two memorable games, “My junior year we beat Troy at Troy with that Carmello kid who was 24-years-old or something. My senior year we beat Butler at Butler with their twin towers. Both games we were heavy underdogs. Clark was the smartest coach at getting his players motivated. He not only taught basketball, but life lessons.”
Perhaps the biggest upset of Clark’s career occurred on Friday, the 13th in February of 2009 when Sidney defeated Trotwood 79-74 for a share of the GWOC North lead. The previous meeting Trotwood beat down the Jackets by 40 points.
“That first game at Trotwood, they killed us,” said Clark. “As athletic as they were, we realized they weren’t great outside shooters. So we practiced on our interior defense to force them outside. It worked. We got seven charges called against them in that game. But the key wasn’t Josh Topp or Lamar Taborn or Zach Yinger, but Justin Stewart. He brought a physical toughness to the game. There was no physical intimidation.”
This past season, Sidney knocked off a talented Northmont team, in their gym. Senior Daniel Ocke lit up the Thunderbolt defense for 43 points, the second highest in school history.
His take on Clark, “I always admired him because he always did the right thing. No shortcuts. No breaking of rules. Coach inspired us on and off the court. He demanded we respect our teachers and elders and that we never be late for anything. Always arrive 15 minutes early.”
It’s not uncommon for his coaching peers, many of whom he has helped land jobs, former players, teachers, the AD, the principal or even superintendant, request his knowledge. I’m just waiting for President O’Bama to call. No doubt, this man has touched so many lives.
Vordemark knows, “Tom Clark gave everything to Sidney High School. Summer basketball, camps, weight-lifting. He committed self to basketball. When I was a sophomore at Defiance College, I struggled. Coach sent me a card and told me college basketball and a college education is a huge commitment and to keep my nose to the grindstone. Work hard and make no excuses.”
The advice must have paid off because Jarred graduated and was team captain his senior year.
Asked why he chose to retire at age 58, Clark responded with conviction, “Coaching adolescents is a young man’s game. It’s not so much the eyes of what I see. It’s what people see when they look at me. I felt I’ve lost touch.”
That is sad.
Courter said, “It will be a tough hire. Hard to replace coach.”
Whoever his replacement, like the commercial, “often imitated, but never duplicated.”
As far as the Sidney Faithful concerned, Thomas Clark is one of a kind.
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