On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Clark from the UMass Dartmouth Flag Football Program in Massachusetts. We talk about building a brand-new program and how he looks for competitive, multi-sport athletes through high school, club, and showcase events. He describes the strong academics at UMass Dartmouth, its location near the water, and the opportunity for players to be part of something from the ground up. Lastly, we discuss his core values of building, developing, competing, and doing it all together, along with his advice for players who want to compete at the college level.
Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to Discover College Flag. Today, I’m lucky enough to be joined by Coach Clark at UMass Dartmouth. Welcome, Coach.
Coach: Thank you for having me.
Matt: Yeah, excited to talk to you. You, you know, you’ve, you’ve got this, uh, title as, as head Flag football coach now for, for all of about, uh, two months, huh?
Coach: A month, two months, somewhere in
Matt: there. Yeah, yeah. Somewhere in there. Somewhere in there. Yeah.
Coach: It’s, it’s kind of a blur.
Matt: Yeah, I bet. I bet. Well, it’s exciting to, the, uh, another, another college starting a team. Uh, you guys are gonna start, I guess, not this coming spring, but spring of ’28. Is that right?
Coach: That, uh, that’s right.
We’ll, um, we’ll, we’ll, uh, compete as a club this spring- Okay … and then, uh, the following spring of ’28, we’ll be full-fledged varsity with our first true recruiting class and, you know, first year of, uh, collegiate competit- competition.
Matt: Okay. Well, with a, with a club team gonna be in play this, this coming school year, do you imagine that to be predominantly incoming and current students, [00:01:00] or are you recruiting specifically for that club team for that first year?
Coach: So, I mean, I’ll, I’ll, I will entertain, you know, the, uh, kind of the transfer coming in, you know, the second semester-type student. So the recruiting process right now is really focusing on 20, um, 7/28, you know, that freshman class. Uh, so it’s gonna be heavily current athletes, current students, you know, student body.
Um, but definitely keeping my eye out, eye out on any potential, you know, mid-year transfers or, or what have you.
Matt: Okay. Awesome. Well, in terms of, you know, flag just blowing up these days and, and it’s, you know, I think we’re up to maybe 33 states where it’s a varsity sport, but then you got the AAU and travel side of things.
Sometimes those are five on five tournaments, sometimes they’re sixes, sevens, who knows. So where do, where do you see yourself kind of looking for, you know, that recruiting class? Are you thinking is it a lot of high school, a lot of club, a lot of both? What, what, what’s that look like?
Coach: I, I think, [00:02:00] you know, with the lack of, uh, I wanna say regulation or regularity with it, I think, you know, any…
If you, if you’re looking to start this deal, you kind of have to look at both. Um, and, and, and you do this more so kind of like the soccer and volleyball coaches would rather kind of do it rather than a traditional football coach would do it, you know, ’cause you just go out to the team. Yeah. You know, you don’t look at the really the seven on seven stuff.
You know, I think with this, you know, I, I’m definitely looking at the high schools, but I’m also looking at these club teams, um, the travel teams and, and what have you. Um, and really trying to connect with coaches, trying to connect with the athletes, um, on both sides of that thing. Um, it do- You know, to me, it doesn’t matter if you play five, six, seven, eight, you know.
Um, it, it’s, you know, the initial attraction is just like anything else. You’re looking for an athlete. You know, you’re looking for athletes, um, you know, some players with some skill, uh, competitive spirit and, and, you know, and you [00:03:00] kind of go from there and build it from there.
Matt: Well, you mentioned recruiting athletes and, uh, you know, I don’t, I don’t have a massive experience of, of flag football, but my daughter did play and it was, uh, she got recruited by the high school coach ’cause she was on the soccer team, right?
And you look at that team- Mm-hmm … and you had, you know, four or five soccer players, couple basketball, couple volleyball, a lot of dual-sport athletes it seems in the women’s flag football environment. H- how does that come into play while, while you’re recruiting?
Coach: Well, I think y- you wanna, you wanna look at multi-sport athletes.
Um, just because flag football is so new, you’re not necessarily gonna have, um, depending on where you are, a, a ton of flag football players. They’re coming from somewhere. If they’re an athlete, they’re usually coming from somewhere, whether it’s track and field, soccer, lacrosse, you know, basketball, volleyball.
I, myself, you know, I wanna, I wanna look at soccer because th- there’s quick lateral movement and speed. You know, I wanna look at basketball ’cause they’re a little taller and they’ve got some ball skills. You [00:04:00] know, y- you know, you’re looking at, at those type of athletes. So, um, that’s kind of the way that I, I’m looking at it, and that’s, you know, uh, you know, sometimes, uh, you know, what is it?
Like, I think it’s 11 on the field in soccer, right? Yep. Um, okay, so how many can play at a time? If y- you know, if you’ve got some skill but you’re maybe not playing as much as soccer, well, “Hey, come on. Try this new sport out.” It’s same thing with basketball. If you’ve, you’ve, you’ve got a young lady who can run or, or who’s a little bit taller and can catch a ball or throw a ball, like, you know, you’re looking at those type of skills that are transferable, um, to, to flag football.
You know, you’re not looking for big, you know, you know, 300-pound, you know, lineman or what have you. You’re looking for people that can move, um, that have some transferable skills, um, to, to the flag game because a flag game is, even though it’s football, and I, I will reiterate that it is football, it’s very different from the traditional sport.
Matt: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and one of the things that you’re seeing a lot of, especially on all the various [00:05:00] social media sites is, is ads for i- ID camps and clinics and combines and all these other various things. Uh, are you, are you going to those? Are you working those? Are they, are they important at all to what, what you’re seeing?
Coach: I would, I would think that they’re very important. And, and just, and being 100% transparent here, I am s- still learning.
Matt: Yeah.
Coach: Um, and, and trying to identify, um, where all those things fit, you know. Um, again, the, there’s a wide array of, of combines in those things. It’s not like there’s just the AAU circuit and, you know, you know, you kind of go, you know where you’re going.
I’m kind of learning where to go, how to get there, who to connect with, uh, kind of as we build this thing. So yes, to answer your question, it’s very important. Yes, I, I w- I am and will be out on the road at, at some of these events. In particular, uh, there’s one up, uh, down, I should say, in Conshohocken, um, Pennsylvania coming up, We Run the World.
So I’ll, I’ll be at that one, the, for the [00:06:00] duration, um, evaluating and, and trying to make some connections with, uh, some, some student athletes down there. Um, and just looking to kind of broaden our scope, uh, and our, and our net here at UMass Dartmouth. Um, so I’ll, I’ll, I’ll definitely be at, uh, out and about at those, uh, ID camps and, and clinics.
Matt: Okay. Well, whether it’s high school club, at a clinic, whatever it may be, what is it that makes up that hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player both on and off the field?
Coach: So, you know, the one thing that I, I rarely talk about, and, and we can branch off after that, the one thing I look for is, is competitors.
Um, the one, you know, if you, if you see it, I think you get, if you look at the graph behind me, you’ll see #compete, ’cause that’s what, that’s what it’s all about. Um, I w- we want to identify good athletes, but we want to fi- identify competitors. Everybody thinks they work hard in this world. Everybody thinks that they deserve whatever they feel is coming to them.
Everybody deserves that promotion or that job or that [00:07:00] spotlight, um, because they think they work hard, but how many people actually compete for it? And, um, the, the sooner, the sooner you learn that life is a competition, uh, the better off you’ll be. Whether that’s in the classroom, it’s on the playing fields, or it’s out i- in the professional world, you know, you’ve got to learn how to compete.
Um, the first person you got to learn how to compete with is yourself, and then you got to go out and compete with, with everybody else out there who’s trying to do s- if not the same thing, something similar. So the first thing we look for are competitors, and then obviously you want to look for speed and, and, and, you know, different attributes that, that kind of stand out.
And then the other thing is that w- we’re looking for is what type of person are you? What type of teammate are you? You know, what do you, how do you react when, when things are going great? How do you react when, when there’s some adversity? Um, are you somebody who cultivates and brings people together?
Are you somebody who isolates and what have you? We want, we want to bring things together here. So, you know, our, our core values are build, develop, compete together. You know? [00:08:00] So we want to build relationships. We want to develop, you know, develop you, and we talk about 3D development, developing the athlete, developing, uh, developing the student, developing the athlete, and developing you social, socially emotionally.
So we want to develop you. We’re gonna compete at everything that we do, and we’re gonna do all these things together
Matt: Yeah. No, I love that.
Coach: Yeah.
Matt: All right. Well, in terms of the, this first team, is there a roster size that you’re aiming for, that you’re hoping to have come that first year?
Coach: No, I, you know, I’m not really looking at numbers.
Um, uh, you know, I think I’d ha- like to have a larger roster if we could have my way, uh, about it, um, in order to really live out that, that core value of build, develop, compete, you know? Um, you know, focusing on the development part, you’re gonna have multiple skill levels there, so you wanna, you wanna have those high-functioning, uh, athletes, and then you wanna have those athletes that you’re gonna build and develop for later as well.
So, um, I, I won’t put a [00:09:00] number on it specifically. I know, you know, in college we play sevens, so, so there’s that part. Um, but you know, you wanna be deep. You wanna have some depth, and you wanna build some competition within the program. So, um, again, I won’t put a number on it, but I w- I will say, you know, a minimum of three deep.
Matt: Okay. All right. Um- No, makes, makes sense …
Coach: put it that way.
Matt: Okay. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. Maybe some folks not familiar with UMass Dartmouth and, uh, you know, con- confusing it with UMass or Dartmouth, right? So, uh- So w- you know, they, they obviously had something there to, uh, to entice you to come take this job, so talk to us a little bit about the school.
What have you found that’s exciting, different, maybe some things we wouldn’t even know by going through the website.
Coach: So… I’m sorry, as I, I- That’s all right … I, I just got a warning on my laptop, and I, I’m just plugging it in here.
Matt: You’re fine.
Coach: Or trying to, as it’s behind me. So if you’ll excuse me, sorry.
Apologize about that. There we go. Yeah. Um, [00:10:00] so y- so one, uh, if you said, um- You know, confusing us with UMass. It’s not really confused. We are U- University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Okay. Uh, so, you know, we are a, a UMass institution. Um, uh, you know, a state school in Massachusetts. So that- that’s not to be confused.
We’re just the Dartmouth location, uh, as opposed to Amherst, Boston, and Lowell. Okay? Um, so there’s that part. Um, you know, first of all, we are an outstanding research-based institution. Um, so, you know, one of the things that, uh, I do anytime I’m, you know, um, approached about an opportunity, um, or a job or things like that, I kind of do some research on it.
And l- you know, just, just seeing the outstanding academics that we have here, the outstanding academic standard, uh, all of the research that we, we’re, our, our student body, uh, participates in, and the things that they come up with, and then the, the placement rate of the school. You know, [00:11:00] we’re over 90%, 92%, over 92% as an institution within six months of graduation.
And in this day and age, with, with job markets being the way they are and, and ever-changing, um, you know, that’s hard to do. Um, outstanding nursing, uh, program and outstanding engineering program. Um, and I’m not sure if, you know, if everybody’s aware that STEM engineering is, is widely popular and growing, um, amongst females.
And then nursing, having the ability to have a nursing program that, um, that does, like, basically 100% placement is, is, you know, that was enticing. So that’s a, that’s great framework and, and a starting point for me. Um, and then other factors came along. You know, I’m familiar with New England. Um, as many people don’t know or may not know, I, I’m in my 29th year of coaching.
Um, all of that time has been as a football coach. Um, I’ve been a head coach. I’ve started, I’ve started a college football program and things like that. So I have those experiences. So the [00:12:00] opportunity to do that and to do it in a familiar, um, region of the country, um, be close to the water. Yeah, I mean, we’re, we’re right near the beach.
We’re near the water, you know, near the Cape, Martha’s Vineyard, all that stuff is close. So you got location, you got the education, and you got the opportunity to start, um, something from scratch and be a part of history. So those are the things that kind of brought me here and, and attracted me to this opportunity.
Matt: Awesome. All right. Well, in terms of, uh, you know, it’s kind of hard to do this to, but I’m gonna ask you anyway ’cause we’re looking pretty far into the future here. But let’s assume you’re in that first season. Uh, competitions are coming. W- what do you see a typical week looking like for the players in terms of, you know, when, winter classes, meals, practices, games, all that kind of stuff?
Coach: Um, what do I see it looking like? Yeah. You know, well, um- We will have, you know, a, a… I would say it’ll be a pretty typical week for spring sport athletes, I’ll put it [00:13:00] that way, or, or non-football athletes. Um, you know, football where you have one competition a week, we- we’ll have multiple. Um, so, you know, so we’ll have, uh, probably three practices during the week, uh, two heavy practices and then one, you know, type of, uh, game prep slash, um, mobil- mo- mobility practice, you know, where we’re kind of get- working the kinks out and imp- you know, improving flexibility, mobility, those type things.
Um, our girls will have, um, ladies will have the opportunity to work with our full-time strength staff, so we’ll have two days of strength and conditioning in there, uh, whether that’s one weekend day and one weekday, uh, during the week, minimum of two days. Um, and then, you know, the object- objective is to have, uh, one competition, um, during the weekday, weekdays, and then have a, you know, you know, we wanna call it a tri-squad, um, on the weekends, minimum of one, potentially two, um, and have those continue every week.
Um, and that’s part of the development piece too, where you’ve [00:14:00] got the, the game opportunities during the week, and then multiple on the weekend, where you’re able to get multiple athletes, um, into, um- You know, into game situations and, and build and develop. Um, and, you know, and that’s how you build your depth.
So, um, so that’s kind of what the week will look like. We’ll have some academic checks in there and practices and meetings and what have you, not to give too much away. Sure. Um, but that’s a general structure. I think that’s pretty much how everybody runs their programs, um, for the most part. Um, so it’s not gonna look too much different than anyone else.
Um, m- maybe just the rigor and maybe how we do what we do.
Matt: Okay. Well, you talked about that schedule. W- who do you see yourselves playing? Is the conference … Any, any movements for the conference to fully approve it? Do you know what the … I mean, it seems like every week we’re getting new announcements and new programs, uh-
Coach: Yeah
coming
Matt: online, so, so do you
Coach: know- It’s- … who you’re, you’re gonna be working to play? Yeah, it’s, it’s growing. Yeah, it’s growing. Um, you know, funny enough, you know, I try to keep first things [00:15:00] first, man, and, um, they … Because there are, uh, programs that are starting, um, darn near every day if not every week, you know, I kinda try to not listen to the noise.
Um, and I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way, but, you know, my job is to build the program here at UMass Dartmouth, and I gotta focus on what we’re doing. Um, you know, we can worry about who we’re playing down the road. I try to keep, you know, just keeping my eyes on the prize and, and, and staying focused.
Um, now, you know, I do know that, you know, a- as of before yesterday, um, there was just us and Dean here in Ma- in the state of Massachusetts that had, had, uh, a team. Um, I think Bridgewater maybe or one, one of the teams, you know, out west, um, had just introduced, I believe, yesterday. So that’s, that’s something that’s, you know, coming.
Um, I foresee whether it be MassAC or LEC, the Louise Conference, you know- [00:16:00] Fully committing and, and, um, sanctioning f- flag football by the, by the spring of ’28. So I do expect to have a, a conference, uh, schedule here. How large that’s gonna be, haven’t really looked into that. Um, really focused right now on, you know, recruiting, um, the right student athletes.
And, and once they get here, we’ll focus on building, developing the culture and the standard and, and kind of going from there. Um, you know, but, you know, we’ll, we’ll look at, you know, schools like, you know, East, uh, s- uh, Eastern Connecticut and just team, teams throughout the region right now. Okay.
Matt: Well, I
Coach: mean- Is, that’ll be the focus early on.
Matt: Makes sense. It’s, it’s tough to, to told you to that. I, I understand. So, um, but once you do, uh, you know, let’s say a year from now you’re, you’re full bore, has the athletic department talked about what your, your staff’s gonna look like or who else might be helping out with the team as, as time goes? Yeah.
Or is that still a discussion for, for future times? Yeah,
Coach: that’s, that’s future discussion. You know, I mean, I have some ideas. [00:17:00] Everybody w- I mean, if you wanna be good, you wanna have as much help as possible, but, um, everybody has different budget constraints and things of that nature and, you know, we’ll work through those as, as we get there.
Again, you know, the main focus right now is to, to recruit, recruit, recruit, um, to build. You know, ’cause you can’t coach what you don’t have, right? And who you don’t have. Yeah. So that’s the, uh, that’s the focal point right now.
Matt: Okay. Fair enough. Well, you’ve given us a bunch of info. Gonna leave you with, with one last question and that is, you know, if you had a piece of advice for, you know, any high school girl right now who may be wanting to play flag football in college, w- w- what kind of advice would you offer to them?
Coach: Uh, commit to the process. Um, you know, i- if, whether you have experience or inexperienced, um, find an organization if your high school doesn’t offer it. Uh, find an organization with good coaches, um, that, that you can trust that are gonna, um, invest in you and develop, and work on developing you to be the best that you can be.
And then go out. I- if you wanna play at the [00:18:00] collegiate level, you gotta get out here and kind of put your skills on display. Um, get to these ID camps and showcases and camps and clinics, um, and put on for coaches. And, you know, take criticism, soak up the criticism, and, and take it as food to, to get better, uh, to improve for whatever season because there, there’s fall seasons, there’s spring seasons and, you know, you know, and do it with confidence.
You know, that one thing that’s attractive to coaches is, is confidence. It doesn’t mean that you’re 100% right all the time, but you’re gonna present yourself in a confident manner. Um, and, and don’t be afraid to go out and get what you want, you know? Don’t be afraid to contact these college coaches. You know, we’re, we’re human beings.
We breathe just like you. Um, so go out and attack what you want, you know? And that’s one of the things that we wanna build here, you know? Um, why, why I was so interested in, in, in taking this opportunity, uh, is we want to build strong- Women, you know, confident women that are gonna go out and impact the world.
[00:19:00] Um, and, and we can be, um, a, a piece of that puzzle in helping you give and develop that skill set so, you know, go out and attack what you want.
Matt: Love it. Well, Coach, wish you the best of luck as you get this thing off the ground, and, uh, you know, and we’ll, we’ll keep in touch with you in the future and, and you know, nothing but the best for you.
Coach: Awesome. Thank you, Matt. Appreciate you. Thank you for your time. Appreciate you having me on.
Matt: Thank you.
Coach: That’s all right.