Waltham High's Evan Clark: Competitive Spirit Of The Hawks

WALTHAM, MA — Evan Clark saw the goal line and was going to do whatever it took to reach it. It didn’t matter to him that it was a hot day in front of a handful of fans for the Waltham High School football squad's game at Westford. It didn’t matter to him that the three-year starter had a young squad around him that was going to struggle to compete in the Dual County League. All that mattered to Clark was that he had a chance to make a play for his team.

Clark wound up getting crunched as he lunged just short of the end zone on the two-point conversion attempt and suffered a bruised shoulder that knocked him out of action for the rest of the September game against Westford. He returned to the lineup quickly — first for spot duty and then in every way he could to help the Hawks clinch a playoff spot — as a team captain.

"It was definitely painful," he recalled. "But as it gets later in the season, everybody has aches and pains. We were a team where nothing was going to be given to us anyway. We had to fight and claw for everything we got."

Clark wound up helping the Hawks fight and claw to a 13-0 victory against Malden Catholic on a frigid Thanksgiving Day finale when he intercepted a pass late in the first half. Then he did the dirty work for the Hawks on the basketball court as the only returning senior for a squad that won 14 games. He also did it as a captain for the outdoor track team.

For all he did for the Hawks throughout his senior year, Clark was awarded the Harding Award as the top senior male athlete.

"He was an integral part of our program for the past three years," Waltham coach John Bourque said. "It was great to see him get recognized for that."

Bourque credits the way Clark’s drive was unwavering from the field, to the weight room, to the classroom for his success as he looks forward to a football career at Division II Stonehill College.

"I think it speaks to who he is as a competitor," the coach said. "He is a great kid and had great role models coming up through the program. We knew we had (an inexperienced and unsettled) quarterback situation coming into the season and we were a little bit concerned how that might affect Evan, and how schools might look at him. But Stonehill was really, really impressed with him despite our record.

"He’s an athletic kid and that’s a tribute to his character. I’m fired up for him."

There was little doubt on the basketball court that Clark fired the ignition switch for the Hawks as he dove for steals and disrupted the opposing team on defense.

"He was always pressuring the ball," Waltham basketball coach Mike Wilder said. "That led to so many things that did not show up on the stat sheet — his deflections that led to steals for other players, his pressure that led to bad passes."

It also led to a team culture that Wilder credited with keeping expectations high despite graduating 11 of 13 players from the previous season’s Division 1 North quarterfinalist squad.

"Some kids were legit scared of him," Wilder said. "His attitude was: 'Our culture is to win. I don’t care if you are new to the team or not.'"

"How do you measure the impact of that? That’s his leadership skill."