Shawn Clark Interview

So we were talking about just how much the folks in Greenville are looking forward to the start of college football season. Hopefully there could be fans at East Carolina games. Later on this year, we're being joined now by the head coach of the Mountaineer, Sean Clark. In fact, I was just going through a drive-thru earlier today and the lady handed me my food had an App State football medical face mask on.

So a lot of App State fans in our listening radius. I gotta know, as many of us are still social distancing, many people still in their homes, how's the homeschooling going for the two kids? Well, it's getting better. We're on a great routine right now. I think we're on the downward slope because I'm not sure if I can take this for another six months or not right now.

But it's going well and we're still looking forward to getting this school year completed. Give me the course that Sean Clark believes might be the second best thing he can teach after football being number one. Well, it's for sure not math. This common core math has got me stumbled every single day because I get the same answer they get.

We do it a totally different way. But I think fourth grade history is my go-to now. And we're learning a little bit of science with the sediment rocks and igneous rocks, so we're doing very well here at the Clark household.

Maybe if we have time at the end of the interview, we can get into the different kinds of rocks, sedimentary and otherwise. Sean Clark with us here. Follow him on Twitter at coach underscore sclark. Tell me this, though. When you're separated from your team and you know that probably hurts preparation that you were planning for in spring practice, do you find comfort in knowing that you have an older team and also that your guys already know what you're all about?

I do. And like you mentioned, we're a very senior-heavy team this year, and those guys know what it takes to win. And with technology the way it is, our coach staff is doing a great job staying in contact with our players on a weekly basis. And we just finished finals last week, and now we're doing position meetings through Zoom. So we'll have a team meeting Thursday, and we'll start with our position meetings, and we'll do an install. We were very fortunate to have spring practice early in February, early March, and we have 11 days in. So we're ahead of the curve a little bit, and again, not much is going to change in how we play, the brand of football we're going to play.

So I feel very comfortable where we are right now. You mentioned some of the Zoom meetings. Beyond that, what are some other ways you've been able to keep your guys engaged? Well, you know, the Zoom is probably the number one deal, and through technology we can send them tests through football. We do FaceTimes. We can do multiple FaceTimes right now with some of your players.

So it's neat for me to pop in on the Zoom meetings. I know when our offensive line is meeting twice a week now, I'll just pop in and say hello to them. And just different ways you do things, and there's no playbook for this. So we're all learning at the same pace, and everyone I talk to, all the coaches throughout the state are doing something a little bit different. And we have a great plan, and we just look forward to getting back and bone to get started for this coming season. We were talking to Lincoln Riley a couple weeks ago, and he said that the Last Dance provided an opportunity for him to instill in his players, hey, you need to act like there's no entitlement when you step on campus.

There's none of that at all. Even the greatest ever had to bust it all the time when he was in college and in the pros in order to get what he wanted. When you watch the Last Dance, is there anything that you pull from it that you pass along to your players as a teaching tool?

Without question. I was like a little kid at Christmas every Sunday night at the TV, and there was the one episode that hit me that his quote was, winning has a price, and leadership has a price. And I think that is so true in our program right now because all these guys, our seniors have played for three or four years, and they have a standard. They played a certain standard. We have to do a great job of bringing our young guys along to let them know that, listen, this is not going to be easy, but if you want to win, that's what we have to do.

So as soon as that episode showed, I took a picture of it or recorded it and listened to it about three or four times and just hit me like a ton of bricks, man. This speaks directly to me. Just the kind of player and competitor he was, and he held everyone on his team at a certain standard. Remind me, you grew up in the state of West Virginia, yes? I did, Charleston, West Virginia.

Charleston, West Virginia. See, I was reading Wright Thompson's story today on Michael Jordan and about his roots in Wilmington. And the stories I read about him growing up in the woods, as someone myself who grew up in the woods north of Raleigh, I found inspiration knowing, hey, this guy, he was able to walk similar land that I did and achieve greatness, maybe have the greatest individual career ever.

You say you've been going to your television Sunday as if it's Christmas watching this. What draws you to Michael? What do you admire most? Well, again, one of my best friends in college, he's a big Carolina fan. Growing up, I was a Duke fan, so we would go back and forth. But just the way he competes, he held himself at such a high standard, and he wouldn't take anything less than that. And just, you know, everyone sees all the great things and the great shots he made, but no one saw the hard work he put into it.

And to me, that's what it's about. In college football, you get out what you put in. And so to me, that was probably the biggest thing I see, is what kind of competitor he is, and he was always working to achieve higher team goals. And I think when Phil Jackson put the triangle offense in, it kind of took away from his production in some ways. And just the way he bought into it as a team sport, and look what he's done.

Six championships, one of the greatest players of all time. App State football coach Sean Clark with us here on Sports Hub Triad. The last time you were with us, you said pretty early on, all conversations you had with the Sunbelt commissioner, with Doug Gillen, pointed that we're going to find a way to have football this fall. What gives you optimism that when we get to September, we're going to be kicking it off at the Rock? Well, I think at first our state, our governors did a great job of getting us back into some sort of normal life.

But we have weekly meetings, and every week something's changing. And I do think we're on the verge of getting back to a normal life. And I think once we start football, that's going to give us a sense that, hey, we beat this virus, we can go on with our lives.

And it won't be the same, possibly, but at least we'll have football back in our lives again. I've got to know, though, I see Dave Claussen, he has his ACC Big Four championship ring that he got for his team after beating all the ACC Big Four teams. Your team wasn't on the schedule, so they couldn't call themselves North Carolina state champs. Had the great year last year, more wins than any other team's ever had in state history.

How much do you circle that game? Wake Forest, App State, what's it mean to you? Well, again, I have a lot of respect for Coach Claussen. I played against him when he was at the University of Richmond. He was at Bowling Green, and now Wake.

He has an outstanding job at Wake. It's going to be a great game. I think it's great for college football. I wish we did it every year. I wish we played all teams in this day of the year. I think it's great for college football.

Anytime you can play a regional schedule. I go back, we played Wake Forest here a couple years ago, and it was the largest crowd ever in the history of our school. We played UNC Charlotte the last two years, and both broke attendance records. I think it's great for college football, and we can't wait to get started. I know it's going to be a great crowd in Winston-Salem.

There will be a lot of black and gold for both teams, and our fans will be prepared for that game. We look forward to carrying the game on our radio station. I know there's a lot of App State fans listening right now. Coach, thank you so much for spending the time. I appreciate you having us on. I tell you, we're always App fans out there.

We can't wait to see you at the Rock this fall. Be safe out there. Likewise, Coach. Thank you so much. Thank you, Bud. That's App State football coach Sean Clark spending some time with us.