How Coastal Carolina safety Clark is leaving college athletics in a better place

For everything Coastal Carolina senior starting safety Nicholas Clark does in games and practices to help his team and teammates, he’s doing a lot more for their benefit off the field.

And his work for college athletes isn’t limited to football or the Conway campus.

Clark came to Coastal in 2013 from Hampton, Va., to play football and earn a degree.

He’ll leave the school in December as one of the leaders among student-athletes in the country.

Clark serves on the NCAA Division I Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, is president of the Sun Belt Conference SAAC and lead representative of CCU’s SAAC, and he additionally serves on NCAA policy-influencing committees and councils at both the national and campus levels.

“I told myself at 19 years old by the time I leave here I want it to be different. I want to be able to give student-athletes coming in things I didn’t have,” said Clark, who has a communications degree and will earn a master’s in business administration in December. “I try to enhance the student-athlete experience on these different committees. That is what I commit a lot of my time to when I’m not on the field. It has truly, truly changed my life.”

Student-Athlete Advisory Committees give student-athletes a voice in the NCAA at the campus, conference and national levels, and Clark is at all three.

SAAC members communicate with athletic administrators on behalf of student-athletes, have input in the formulation of policies affecting student-athletes and organize community service efforts. Each university’s SAAC has a vote on proposed NCAA legislation.

At the national NCAA level, Clark serves on sub-committees including the Division I Transfer Working Group that includes athletic directors, senior woman administrators and faculty athletic representatives, and the NCAA Board of Governors Student-Athlete Engagement Committee, which addresses issues that impact athletes at all NCAA levels.

Clark is currently involved in proposed changes to transfer rules that would allow student-athletes that meet GPA and test score requirements to play immediately and avoid sitting out a season.

Last year he was on a committee that helped craft and push NCAA legislation on athletes’ time demands that now requires students be formally informed of time demands for their Division I sport and allows athletes to more easily pursue internships and opportunities to study abroad without affecting their athletic eligibility.

The national SAAC is also currently addressing ways to assist athletes that experience burnout.

“I plan on enhancing the student-athlete experience and I’m curious to see what it’s like within the next five to 10 years, because it’s constantly changing,” Clark said.

CCU’s SAAC, which features nearly 40 athletes with a recommended two from each sport, meets monthly, and Clark travels to meetings at either the NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis or Sun Belt headquarters in New Orleans about four times a year while also regularly participating in conference calls.

While he seems suited for politics, Clark wants to become a collegiate athletics director. “I like sports legislation,” he said. “I want to stick along the sports side.”

Growth of a leader

Clark’s mother is a kindergarten teacher and father is a NASA engineer who is also the longtime president of the non-profit Southeastern Virginia Pop Warner league, which featured future NFL stars Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress and Percy Harvin in their youth and led to Clark and his two older brothers playing college football – Terry at Randolph-Macon and Stephen at Delaware.

His family preached benevolence, so in high school Clark would feed the homeless at shelters and visit with less fortunate youth.

“Seeing the gratification people get out of just coming and spending time with them, that means the world to me,” Clark said. “That means a lot more than any play I can make on the football field. That’s the stuff that people are going to remember. People remember how you make them feel.”

In his youth, Clark attended Kids Across America, a Christian sports camp for urban youth and their mentors that planted the seed in his mind regarding life in addition to and after sports.

His off-field involvement at CCU began as a freshman when he attended a Big South Leadership Conference with older teammates De’Angelo Henderson and Quinn Backus. “I saw it had food, fun and family, and I’m like, ‘This is everything I’m all about, so let me go check it out,’ ” Clark said. Cari Rosiek, CCU’s Associate Athletic Director and Senior Woman Administrator who is the faculty advisor to the school’s SAAC, drove a van to the conference in Black Mountain, N.C.

“After that it was like Nick just caught the bug, it was almost like a light bulb went off and he realized what he wanted to do with his life,” Rosiek said. “He wanted to seek more opportunities in getting into administration and working a little bit more on the other side of the coin when it comes to collegiate athletics.”

An injury gave Clark time to further explore his off-field interests. He broke his left wrist as a redshirt sophomore and was unable to do much relating to football. “I believe true-heartedly that was God slowing me down saying, ‘Hey Nick, I have a bigger platform for you,’ ” Clark said. “Football is going to be here, but that wrist slowed me down and I got more involved with SAAC, I had more time to do those things.”

Rosiek put Clark on a couple school committees at CCU, including the Intercollegiate Athletic Committee that features faculty members and athletic administrators, and he sought more opportunities.

He attended a Sun Belt summer student conference and returned as the conference SAAC president despite CCU being new to the conference. “He said, ‘I raised my hand and said I want to be the president and gave them reasons why I wanted to be president and they voted me in,’ ” Rosiek recalled.

He has attended the exclusive NCAA Sports Forum, the seventh NCAA Career in Sports Forum in Indianapolis, and is the lone athlete on the CCU Leadership Council that features one student from different organizations on campus.

His community involvement around campus includes food bank deliveries, providing underprivileged youth with Christmas presents and a recent fundraiser for Hurricane Harvey flood victims.

“He’s just that person that really puts others before himself,” Rosiek said. “I have to bet before he walks off this campus he will potentially know almost everyone. He really has put himself out there to meet and find out about people’s stories.”

Clark has performed on the field, recording a career-high four tackles in each of the past two games, and in 34 career games he has 39 tackles, two interceptions and a fumble recovery.

He played in all 12 games last year, starting two, after playing in 16 games combined as a redshirt freshman and sophomore and missing 10 due to injury. His value to the team goes well beyond stats.

“He’s very well respected in the community, among the professors, and among the people here on our staff,” CCU interim head coach Jamey Chadwell said. “He’s well respected by the football team because of that leadership he’s been placed in through the NCAA, SAAC and some of those things. I think the guys look to him for leadership in a lot of ways.”

This story was originally published November 2, 2017 at 8:44 PM with the headline "How Coastal Carolina safety Clark is leaving college athletics in a better place."