Back in late August, just after the surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee and before the grueling rehab assignments began, Lake Clark feared his competitive football days were done. His senior season as East Hamilton High School’s starting quarterback had been lost before it began, the result of the brutal injury he suffered in a scrimmage less than two weeks before his team’s first game.
At 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, and with a knack for delivering the ball to receivers with a simple flick of the wrist, Clark had thrown for more than 1,900 yards as a junior, including 438 yards and five touchdowns in one game. Before the injury, he had earned interest from nearly a half-dozen NCAA Division I schools — a mix of mid-major programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision and some in the lower-tier Football Championship Subdivision.
But after the injury, as he watched helplessly from the sideline each Friday night and the calls from curious college coaches no longer buzzed through on his cellphone, Clark would have been hard-pressed to believe he would get another chance to continue competing in the game he has played since he was 5 years old.
Signing a college scholarship is special for every high school player who earns the opportunity, whether it happens during the early signing period in December or on the first Wednesday of February, the traditional national signing day. For Clark, who signed scholarship papers Wednesday to attend and play for Emory & Henry College, it was even more meaningful.
“I know what it’s like to have the game taken away for a long period of time,” Clark said. “I know it can end in just the snap of a finger. That’s why I rehabbed really hard and why I will go hard every day at practice and make the most of every opportunity.
“I was at my lowest around the third week of the season last year. I had no offers, was getting no calls from coaches and had no idea if I would even get a chance to walk on with some team. It was brutal. I wondered if the last game I got to play in was going to be our playoff loss my junior year. There was definitely some doubt about what would happen.
“But I just kept doing what my doctors told me to do with my rehab, and once I got the OK to start working out, I went as hard as they let me and never looked back.”
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / East Hamilton's Lake Clark passes during a game at Red Bank on Oct. 22, 2021.Earning a college athletic scholarship is a rare accomplishment. According to NCAA figures, around 7% of high school football players receive one, and those numbers are certainly lower for players who miss their entire senior season due to a severe knee injury.
But Clark persevered through those towering odds, mainly through simple, old-fashioned hard work. He began moving and stretching his surgically repaired knee the day after the procedure, and after just two weeks, he was allowed to do short squats. He progressively built up to the point where he was squatting 275 pounds before the new year began, and now, not quite six months removed from surgery, he is back on the football field, rolling out, slide stepping and firing spirals to receivers again.
“Some people say they hate practice, but that was the stuff I missed — the grind and just working to get better,” Clark said. “It took some time to regain my confidence and not worry about reinjuring my knee, but now I’m just grateful to have another chance to keep playing. It’s a huge relief.”
Emory & Henry is a Division II program in Emory, Virginia, and the Wasps compete in the same Southern Atlantic Conference as Tennessee schools Carson-Newman and Tusculum — two of the programs that had initially recruited Clark prior to his injury. He chose Emory & Henry over Cumberland University in the Nashville area, and he also had an offer to remain in state and join the Austin Peay program as a preferred walk-on.
Central receiver/running back Donovan Smith and McMinn County athlete Jayden Miller also signed with the Wasps on Wednesday, and versatile standout Juan Bullard — who took over at quarterback for East Hamilton after Clark's injury and became a Mr. Football semifinalist and an all-state selection — has Emory & Henry as one of the finalists he’ll choose from next week.
“It’s still a shame that Lake missed out on getting to play his senior season with his teammates, and the exposure he would’ve gotten by playing,” East Hamilton coach Grant Reynolds said. “But he proved what type of young man he is by the way he’s handled everything. Even though he couldn’t play on Fridays, he was still a leader for us at practice and on the sideline during games.
“He worked really hard to come back from the injury and really never wavered in how determined he was. He didn’t quit, and now he’s earned a chance to go back out there and prove himself again.”
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.
Updated with more information at 5:10 p.m. on Feb. 1, 2023.