Searcy High School Football
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- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
By Jennifer Webb
On Thursday after a short practice, each player gets his jersey and takes a poker chip. They place their chips somewhere they know they can keep track of them, since they will need them the following day. On one side is the word HARD, which is an acronym. The other side simply reads “All In.”
A few players go home, but most stay to attend FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes). They look forward to it because with FCA comes a home-cooked dinner. (For teenage guys who burn 3,000 calories a day, food is a high priority.)
They listen to an inspirational message delivered by a local church pastor as they eat, and then go home with the poker chips in their pockets.
The acronym HARD stands for Honesty, Accountability, Relentless, and Disciplined. Each player learns them by heart because each word is a weekly theme that repeats. The message in FCA always coincides with that theme. It gives them something to think about the day before and the day of the game.
The game of football itself is hard. Each player spends more time practicing than they do on the field. Life is also hard, but head coach Zak Clark does all he can to invest in his team at Searcy High School — both as football players and as young men.
The players bring the poker chips with them the next day. When it’s time to get on the bus to go to the game, they turn them in, symbolizing that they are “All In” for game time.
Head coach Zak Clark strives to be as all in as he asks from his players. Originally from Northwest Arkansas, Zak attended St. Joseph private catholic school until the 6th grade. His dad was a Razorback baseball coach, and his Mom was a public school teacher. Growing up as a coach’s kid, he remembers being on the road with the team but still making it to church for mass on Sunday mornings, no matter where they were. Growing up in that environment gave him a solid foundation. He hopes that his walk in life shows his faith.
“We need as many people of high character and faith as we can get around our kids. It gives us hope. The kids aren’t perfect. I’m not perfect, but I hope they catch something I say or that how I treat them positively impacts their lives.”
- Coach Zak Clark, Searcy High School Lion Football
He likens being a coach to being a parent. He knows that he’s not perfect and makes mistakes from time to time. Likewise, the kids on the team are not always perfect and mistakes happen from time to time. When they do, he does his best to balance accountability and consequences for their actions with grace. For his own mistakes, he endeavors to go back and tell the kids, “I didn’t handle the situation as I wish I had. If I had it to do over again, I would have . . .” In doing so, he models reflecting back, taking responsibility for one’s actions, and learning from mistakes.
“It’s important for us as coaches to stand there as a man and tell these young men our faults and what we wish we should have done differently. With them, that’s a big part of the maturation process. Modeling ‘we’re not perfect and we don’t have to be perfect, but let’s be honest with ourselves,’ is a great way to model growing as a person.”
- Coach Zak Clark, Searcy High School Lion Football
In the five years that Coach Clark has been at Searcy, he’s continually blown away by the support of the community and from the parents of his players. He is also quick to recognize his assistant coaching staff. They are also all in, and often the players feel more comfortable coming to the assistant coaches than to him as the head coach. Thanks to the spirit of cooperation that they cultivate between not just the players but also the coaching team, things often run much more smoothly.
“Before I moved here, I didn’t know much about the community of Searcy. I only knew a handful of people, but I had heard good things. I’ve been blown away by the support from the community and from parents. This really is a wonderful place to live and raise a family.”
- Coach Zak Clark, Searcy High School Lion Football
Read the full issue below.
