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Clark ColemanColquitt County High SchoolColquitt, Georgia by Robert Preston, Jr. photography by Jonathan Chick |
Clark Coleman has an innate ability to learn no matter where he is or in what situation he finds himself. The senior right-handed pitcher for the Colquitt County Packers is a gifted student as well as athlete. He’s ranked fourth in his class and is headed to Georgia Tech to study chemical engineering after graduation. Coleman’s intellect has served him well in the classroom. But it’s also helped him on the baseball field. He learned his most important baseball lesson very early in his varsity career – in his very first outing, in fact. Coleman remembers that day well. He was a sophomore, and his coach sent him in to face the heart of the mighty Lee County Trojans’ batting order. The bases were loaded, Colquitt was down several runs, and Coleman had to face three Division-I prospects in a row. “We were playing in Lee County, and they were very good. I let myself get intimidated. I learned a valuable lesson that day – you shouldn’t let your surroundings dictate how you play your game,” he says. It’s a lesson that has served him well throughout his varsity career. He learned to settle down and trust his ability on the mound. The Packers went on to make the playoffs that season, and look like a postseason contender in 2009. And Coleman hopes to figure prominently in the Packers’ success. Fittingly, Coleman got involved in athletics because of the classroom, and the two have been closely related ever since. When he was in kindergarten, he won taekwondo lessons for being the top reader in his class. Coleman stuck with taekwondo for several years, eventually rising to a second-degree black belt by the time he was in the fifth grade. At age 10, he began playing baseball. Coleman was hooked from the start. He played in the various recreation leagues, on travel teams and, eventually, in high school. “Once I started, I played every opportunity I could get,” he says. Coleman has always pitched, though early in his career his delivery was a little unorthodox. He threw sidearm for a few years until one of his coaches in the seventh grade taught him to throw overhand. After that, he spent more time pitching than anything else. When he’s not on the mound, he plays in the outfield – usually in left. He fancies himself a pretty good defensive outfielder. “I catch what I get to,” he says. But he will make his biggest contributions this season as a pitcher. Last season, Coleman mainly saw action out of the bullpen. This year, he thinks he’ll be a starter. He relies on his fastball, but has a good curveball and an effective change-up. “I started working on my change-up last year. If I need an out, that’s what I like to throw. It’s got pretty good movement on it. Of course, I always throw what my coaches tell me to,” he says. Coleman turned over a new leaf this school year and opted to join the Colquitt swim team. Since he left the taekwondo dojo as a fifth grader, baseball had been his sole focus. He thought swimming would be a good way to get in shape for baseball. He had no idea what he was getting into. “I had never done any swimming before. I thought I was in good shape until I got in the water. There’s a lot of difference between being in shape on land and in the water,” he says. He mainly competed in freestyle and backstroke events, though he also swam breaststroke a few times. “I wasn’t that good in the breaststroke,” he admits. However, he turned in a respectable 28.03 in the 50-yard freestyle. “I would consider swimming more to stay in shape. It’s a good workout,” says Coleman. |
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For most of the last decade, sports have been an enormous part of Coleman’s life. From taekwondo to swimming to baseball, he’s always competed in something. However, athletics aren’t everything. When the 2009 baseball season ends, he will have likely played his last game. “I want to focus on my education when I get to college. If I tried to play college ball, I’d have to go to junior college,” he says. Not that there’s anything wrong with the JUCO route. However, he’s ready to jump right in once he finishes high school. He’s been preparing his whole life for college, and he wants education to be his singular focus after high school. “I’ve always valued my grades heavily. If my grades ever started slipping, I would do what I had to in order to pull them up. If they suffered, I would forego baseball to improve them,” he says. Fortunately for him, that hasn’t been the case. From the time he entered school, Coleman has been an excellent student. He’s one of those rare individuals who has excelled in the classroom without having to put out a great deal of work. He has the ability to absorb information the first time he hears it. That’s been an asset in high school, but his mother, Nancy, fears it might come back to haunt him in college. “Mom says college is going to be tough on me,” says Coleman, laughing. “Grades have always been a big emphasis for us. We always wanted him to do well and apply himself. He probably doesn’t study as much as he needs to, but it’s hard to argue with his grades,” says Nancy. Coleman cites his favorite subjects as math and science. But he’s also good in English as well. Coleman is a good writer, and can express himself well both verbally and on paper. He has recorded the highest scores in the state for the last two years in FFA meats evaluation competitions, and he has also done well in public speaking for FFA. Coleman lists his favorite teachers as Johnny Branton, who taught him chemistry in the 11th grade; Tracy Jones, an English teacher; and Tracy Willis, who taught him 9th grade biology and AP environmental science. “I’ve been blessed with some really good teachers,” he says. He also said his agriculture teachers have been a big influence on him. That’s to be expected – Coleman comes from a family steeped in agriculture. His father, Thomas, is a farmer and Coleman is very active in Colquitt County’s FFA program. His love of agriculture is what has led him to Georgia Tech. He hopes to use chemical engineering to research biofuels, which has the potential to help farmers on a number of levels. “He’s a good kid. He’s well rounded and grounded. He doesn’t flaunt his intellect around others. Intelligence is important to him, but so is hard work. He values hard work in all areas of his life,” says Nancy. • | |
January 2012
Robert Preston Jr. 
Micki K Photography 
