Clark Athletics: Building athleticism, academic achievement and a conscience

Being an athlete at Clark is a balancing act. It's not just about being competitive in one of the best athletics conferences in the region. It's about being a successful team member, student and member of the greater community.

A Clark athlete's success on and off the field involves balancing three components:

• Athletic achievement—beyond winning games, athletes are expected to learn how to set and achieve goals and learn the discipline of their sport.
• Academic achievement—athletic teams set a goal of achieving a minimum 3.0 G.P.A.
• Community service—athletes are expected to participate in community service projects with their teams.

Athletics Director Linda Moulton says her coaches are specifically looking for those student athletes who can handle this balancing act. "When we recruit, we look for students who fit in well with Clark and our programs-who can add to their team's success but can also be successful in their studies and understand the importance of giving back to the community."

And while athletes face high expectations, Moulton and her coaches take equally seriously their responsibility to provide a quality experience for athletes over their four years at Clark. "We know that the whole experience that we, coaches and athletes, try to provide and create together is something our athletes will take with them for the rest of their lives," says Aquatics Director Paul E. Phillips, who coaches the men's and women's swimming and diving teams. "Throughout their four years here, we try to provide our athletes with a quality experience, so that when they leave Clark, they can say they played college athletics and were part of a team, learned to give back to the community and learned the discipline of being successful in the classroom."

The cost of staying competitive

But providing athletes a "quality experience" has its financial challenges, says Moulton. To stay competitive-which entails recruiting and retaining the best athletes possible and giving coaches ample time to mentor those athletes on the field and in the community-requires more resources, particularly in the areas of travel enhancement, facilities and staffing.

"Of all the things we think our student athletes can benefit most from in their experience here, it is team trips,² says Moulton. Athletes not only get to experience a different part of the country, but perhaps a different culture. A trip presents bonding opportunities and we know from experience, these are the things that students remember and talk about after they graduate." Team trips are also a great way to connect with Clark alumni across the country. By taking "Clark on the road," Clark athletes create visibility for the athletics program and the University. Coaches also use trips as a recruitment tool. "The reality is our coaches have to offer team trips to recruit the student-athletes we want. Most other schools offer trips, and many of our prospective athletes have already been taking these kinds of trips in high school," explains Moulton. "Given the explosion of club programs and traveling teams, athletes and parents expect trips, which is different from a few years ago."

The challenge, however, is that Clark coaches have to do their own fundraising for these trips since they are not included in the athletics-operating budget. And these trips come with a high price tag. Last year, the women's soccer team went to Atlanta, men's soccer went on a preseason trip to the Bahamas, and the swimming team went to California and is planning a trip to Puerto Rico in January 2007. Every spring, the baseball, softball, lacrosse teams travel south to play a portion of their schedule in a warmer climate. It is also not unusual that the men¹s tennis and rowing teams also want to travel during spring break to do training before their season begins.

"If I could take one thing away from the coaches and athletes' responsibilities, it would be to minimize the amount of fundraising they have to do for these trips," says Moulton. While she agrees that there something to be learned from some fundraising, the extent to which Clark coaches and teams have to fundraise takes significant time away from the team training and community service activities. "I’d like to be able to make a trip each year with my team, but I have to think about how I’m going to spend a significant amount of time raising the money it takes. In-season weekend out-of-regions trips can range from $5,000-$8,000, while spring break trips can cost form $10,000-$20,000 each year to do” says men’s soccer coach Dave Kulik. Even a two- to three-day bus trip to New York or Washington, D.C. costs a team close to $5,000.

"Our coaches are trying to make that happen through their own fundraising efforts, but that time away from their "coaching" responsibilities has an effect," explains Moulton. "More time to coach and interact with student-athletes translates into more success, plain and simple; not just competitive success, but personal success. It also translates into more time working in the community, which is a vital piece of each Clark athlete's experience during his or her four years here." Currently, the women's soccer team runs a "Kick up the Writing" program, helping elementary school children hone their skills; the men's swimming team volunteers at a community farm and runs free community clinics; and the women's volleyball team participates in the Big Sisters program-and these are just a few examples of the community service activities Clark athletics teams hope to continue.

In addition to travel enhancement, facilities continue to be a priority in the competitive race to attract the best student-athletes to Clark. "We know we lose kids because of our facilities. While we made great strides with the magnificent Dolan Field House and Granger Fields, there are other things we want to do to enhance our outdoor complex. We also need to look toward improvements for the Kneller Athletic Center that will create a better atmosphere for not just our student-athletes, but the Clark community," says Moulton.

"Finally, maintaining competitive coaches salaries, including assistant coaches, would help raise Clark athletics' competitive edge. We ask our coaches to wear multiple hats, so having assistant coaches or even graduate assistants who can devote time to helping with recruiting would benefit our programs and would allow coaches to focus more attention on their coaching and community service work," says Coach Phillips.

Competitive opportunities

Even though there is increasing pressure to recruit and train successful and competitive teams while also balancing secondary responsibilities like fundraising, Clark's coaches agree that this pressure provides an opportunity for tremendous success. "We are juggling fundraising with our community service work and coaching responsibilities while also striving to be competitive with some of the top academic and athletic institutions in the country," says Coach Phillips. "It's great that we have an opportunity to go head-to-head against schools like MIT, WPI and Babson-and win. Anything donors can do to help us enhance our athletes' experience here will create opportunities for Clark teams to be more competitive on the field. Imagine what we could do with a little financial help!"

Give to the Clark Fund now and help the University strive to have the same competitive athletic excellence as we do academic excellence. We want a first class, competitive Division III athletics program. Please give today.

Top