Coach Marshall Clark

Marshall Clark was a great man who didn’t just coach us, he coached us well. Coach Marshall Clark was the greatest coach that anybody who went to Saratoga could have and probably ever will have. Each year he said that he was going to retire, but each year he couldn’t. He had to see how the freshman, sophomores, and juniors would do in the years to come. He couldn’t leave because even in the slowest of us, he could see the potential and couldn’t quit and not see what would happen to them. Coaching was what he did and what he loved, and all of us only wish to die doing what we love. I didn’t know Marshall as well as some of the seniors did, but in the little time I knew him, I grew to love him and respect him like another father. It was worth the pain just so that I got to know him for the little time that I did. Which is much better than not know him at all. Anyone that was coached by him did not just think he was just there. He was something else; he would have given anything to any of us. When we were at the meets I heard other coaches yelling pointless remarks at their runners like “go faster.” The only thing Marshall yelled at us was our times. In his last speech to us, he told us that he doesn’t care how fast you are, as long as you try and improve. He would think of us better than someone who was Olympic material as long as we push ourselves to a level of improvement. Hari said “As many of you know, I wasn’t very fast last year, and I got where I am today because of coach Marshall.” Chris Chapman stated, “Coach Marshall was the nicest man I ever knew. I even said that if he wasn’t coaching, I wasn’t going to do cross-country, but I’m finishing the season for him.” Matt Hiscox decided that we all do one lap in his honor. We took the lap slow, thinking of Marshall. I suggest that the next lap you take be in honor of this great man whether you knew him or not. It is the least he deserves. Everyone did everything they could to help Marshall, especially Dmitri who was the first to reach him after he had fallen. He immediately performed CPR on him and got him breathing again. Even with all of the efforts of Dmitri, Coach Jordan, Dr. Skelly and everyone else, it couldn’t help. The doctors said there was nothing that could have been done. I’d like to personally thank all that helped him and especially Dmitri who without a doubt did more to help Marshall than anyone else did. Dmitri hopes everyone will pay more attention in your health classes and not just fool around with the dummies as many people did. This may someday save someone close to you. We shall all keep Marshall in our memories, and in our running we will honor him. We will only honor him with a fraction of what he deserves, but with all our hearts. For the people who didn’t know him, I feel very sorry for you and hope this letter sheds some light on what kind of a man he was. We hope that in generations to come, people will know Marshall Clark’s name and hope that the track will be named, “The Marshall Clark Track.” We as a cross-country team are renaming one of our runs. Skateboard Hill will now be called Marshall Hill because that was the run he had planned for us on the 1st of October. Everyone who was there and knew Marshall cried. He was not ordinary, he was extraordinary. He means as much to people as their own flesh and blood. We don’t know how we’re going to finish the season without Marshall, but somehow we’ll do it. Running is about endurance, we’ll endure whatever comes our way. No matter what it takes we will find the strength to finish the season the best we can for Marshall. He would not want us to stop, he would want us to, as he said in his last speech, try hard and improve. Marshall Clark didn’t just coach us, he coached us well.

Coach Clark, we hope that you've been able to watch this team grow and mature over the last three years. Thank you for helping us become the athletes that we are today.