Listen to the entire interview with Matt Clark
Matt Clark has learned to expect the unexpected. He's also learned to follow his gut, or his heart, whichever is at play at any given time in his life.
And he's learned to be patient when making life-altering decisions.
Following an outstanding career as a wide receiver for the Montana Grizzlies (1987-90), a career that two years before it started might have seemed impossible, the Missoula Hellgate product got another surprise.
While on a 1991 spring break trip to Lake Havasu in Arizona with some buddies, Clark found out he had been drafted by the British Columbia Lions.
Clark had no more expected to play professional football than he had expected to play for the Grizzlies. But play he did, for six Canadian Football League seasons.
"It's always everyone's dream to pursue that opportunity," Clark said, "but that was a shocker."
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The connection that got him there was former Grizzly athlete Bob O'Billovich, then part of the Lions staff. Clark made the trip to Vancouver, B.C., with Griz teammates Grady Bennett and Mike Trevathan. Bennett didn't make it, while Trevathan actually played one season longer than Clark.
The first training camp included the likes of Major Harris and Doug Flutie at quarterback along with other "names" like Ray Alexander, a future Dallas Cowboys receiver, and Darren Flutie.
Clark wasn't sure he belonged until he actually got on the practice field.
"We learned quick," Clark remembered. "It didn't matter where it came from. It just mattered what you did out on the field."
During that first season the Lions put up 6,600 yards of total offense with Doug Flutie running the show.
Another great memory was the 1994 B.C. team that won the Grey Cup. Clark described that team as "a crazy mix of folks" including some former and future NFL players.
"From a performance standpoint we just peeked," Clark said of the 1994 run. "We ended up winning our quarterfinal game on a last-second field goal. And then we won our semifinal game on the last play of the game."
The Grey Cup was more of the same as the Lions won on a field goal with time expired.
During his CFL off seasons Clark would stay in Vancouver and do promotional work for the team, which often included playing golf with business executives. Saying he grew tired of "getting smoked" and embarrassing himself, Clark started to work harder on his game, and was hooked.
He decided he wanted to become a club professional, one of those persons who runs a pro shop at a golf course, helps manage the facility, and gives lessons to struggling linksters.
But what he learned fairly quickly after a short stint as an assistant club pro in Reno, Nev., was that club professionals don't actually get to play a lot of golf. He also figured out he didn't have the game to back up his title, so he got out and hooked up with Adidas for the first time.
Clark previously had worked for Victory Gear Athletics based in Missoula. It was there that he met a woman he would eventually marry, Three Forks native Jill Irey. But their wedding didn't happen until December of last year.
After they met and worked together in Missoula, Clark and Irey moved to Portland, Ore., where Clark again was employed by Adidas and Irey went to work for Columbia Sportswear.
While he was quite successful and generally happy with his career, something was gnawing at him. He started thinking about following in his father, Frank's, footsteps and becoming a teacher.
"Maybe just being around that and being around kids, and I'm still a kid at heart," Clark explained when quizzed about the career decision.
Before diving in, Clark talked at length with his father, other teachers and friends as part of a process that evolved over a number of years. While he loved the competitive aspects of the sporting goods business, he continually asked himself if he was really making a difference.
"I just saw how much he (his dad) loved going to work every day and interacting with people," Clark said, "and the relationships he still has today, and the (former) students that come up to him and tell him about the impact he's made on their lives."
It helped Clark remember that many of the people who had positively influenced him were teachers and coaches.
The changeover started with attending Portland State University for three quarters. Clark got up to speed on his health and physical education requirements, and then passed the tests he needed to before going for a master's degree in arts and teaching.
Clark was accepted by Concordia University in downtown Portland for an 11-month, intensive program. Once he completed that he did his student teaching and a practicum.
By his own choice, Clark did his student teaching at Benson Tech, an inner city school in downtown Portland, an experience he has found invaluable in his young teaching career.
"I was placed at a higher socio-economic school," Clark recalled, "and I actually put in a request to get set up at Benson Tech. I just thought it would be a great opportunity. It's a diverse situation, something I thought would make me not only a better person but a better teacher as well."
Clark said teaching at Benson Tech gave him a better appreciation for what he had experienced in life so far, and he also established lifelong friendships while he was there.
"Don't get me wrong," Clark said. "It was unbelievably challenging, but with that challenge comes the reward that goes with that. So it was a good learning experience (and) a fun time."
Clark currently teaches physical education and is an assistant football coach at Glencoe High School in Hillsboro, Ore., a job he landed at a teacher fair in Portland while he was finishing his master's. One of the Glencoe staff members who interviewed him also happened to be the head football coach.
"Here I am, living the dream and loving it," Clark said. "Maybe it takes me awhile to figure out things, but I think I've really figured something out here because I'm really enjoying what I'm doing. I just feel so at peace now."
Clark's only
previous coaching experience was with youth teams in the Portland
area. Ironically, one of the men he coached with was Michael Kempt,
a former Montana State linebacker whom Clark played against in
college, and whose son, Cody, is now a Bobcat quarterback.
In high school Clark's first love was basketball. He actually didn't try football until his junior year after his older brother Chris, who played football and wrestled, had told all his friends and coach Van Troxel that Matt didn't play football because he was afraid of contact.
"He (Chris) knew what buttons to push," Clark laughed, "and so, just to prove him wrong, I went out for football as a junior. I loved the physicality and everything about it."
Prior to his senior season he attended the Grizzly Football Camp and caught the eye of coach Larry Donovan and members of his staff. Montana State and some smaller schools also showed some interest.
In what appeared to be an unfortunate turn of events, Donovan and his assistants were fired while Clark was a senior at Hellgate. When Don Read's staff came on board, they knew little about him.
But they did know Hellgate boys' basketball coach Eric Hays, who had Oregon roots, and they asked him about Clark. After a glowing report from Hays, Clark was offered a scholarship to UM.
He showed up to fall camp as a 6-0, 155-pound receiver and immediately was struck by the sheer size of teammates like Larry Clarkson, Pat Foster and Jason Ray.
"And I'm thinking, 'what have I done? I do not belong with these guys,'" Clark said.
But then he saw guys like Trevathan and realized he might be alright. It took just a few practices to become more comfortable.
"Either you're a competitor or you're not," he said frankly. "I wasn't one to run away from any challenge. When you're in the middle of battle and things are on the line, you either answer the bell or you don't."
Clark still shows up in the Grizzly record book at 12th in single-season catches per game, 14th in career receptions, 15th in single-season receptions, and 18th in career receiving yards.
He also won the Pat Norwood Award as the Grizzlies' most inspirational player following his senior season.
Clark was injured that year and only played about half the season. He thought if he couldn't be on the field he needed to contribute by trying to inspire his teammates to play to the best of their abilities.
One of his fondest memories as a Grizzly was the 1989 team's run to the I-AA semifinals, even though they took a beating at Georgia Southern.
"We'd like to think that kind of got the ball rolling," Clark said. "It was something very new to us. (It) turned out to be a learning experience for all of us."
Also high on his memories list is his first trip through the tunnel and onto the field at Washington-Grizzly Stadium.
"Just to see how Washington-Grizzly has evolved and how Montana football has evolved since then is just unbelievable," Clark added.
But, like so many other former Griz athletes, Clark cited teammates and coaches as his fondest memories.
"You can play football only for so long," Clark stated, "but it's the relationships that you make (that are) life long and lasting."
Clark said athletics taught him so much about dealing with adversity and challenges and learning how to compete and work with others.
"Not just doing things for yourself but working together with others to achieve a common goal," Clark said. "There are so many different things you can pull from being involved with athletics that have helped make me who I am today and develop my character as a person."
With his mom and dad retired in Missoula, Clark tries to make it back as often as possible and tries to look up old buddies when he does.
Clark's recent wedding also told him something pretty significant about his then wife to be.
"We actually had our rehearsal dinner scheduled for the night of the (FCS) championship game," Clark recalled. "This just solidified why I married Jill.
"After the Grizzlies ended up winning their semifinal game, she started calling around to try and find a (new) place (for the dinner) because the original place didn't have any big-screen TVs . . . so that we could move the dinner to another place that had big-screens so we could watch the game during the dinner."
