Tom Clark
Clark, Tom: Redan High School
Clark was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame in 2024.
As a baseball coach, Tom Clark was known for his well-coached teams who showed discipline and class on the field. But when the spotlight was turned off, Clark was known for his humorous, laid-back, have-fun approach to the game.
And the longtime coach/scout remains well-respected.
Clark was inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024.
In 20 years as a prep and junior college coach at Redan High, Gordon College and Lake City (Fla.) Community College, Clark amassed 811 combined victories.
A Michigan native, he came south and took over at Redan High School in 1984. He compiled a 91-26-1 record there in four seasons where he was named DeKalb County Coach of the Year three times and the Atlanta Diamond Club High School Coach of the Year in 1988.
He took over at Gordon State and made the Highlanders a junior college power where he won 222 games in six seasons, including a state championship in 1991 and a school-record 52 wins in 1990. In 1993, he was named College Coach of the Year by the Atlanta Dugout Club.
He left there and headed farther south to Lake City (Fla.) Community College where he coached from 1994 until the program’s final season in 2008 after the school decided to drop the baseball program. Clark won 463 games and his 1999 team was ranked No. 1 in the final regular season rankings.
After Lake City, Clark became a scout for the Cubs where he served until retiring at the end of the 2022 season. His scouting area included a good portion of the Southeast but especially South and Middle Georgia.
He was known for his love of coaching baseball and Harley Davidson motorcycles. During picture days at Lake City, he often took a traditional photo with his players in the school uniforms, then another with the team posing in Harley Davidson shirts and flexing their muscles. Clark would pose with the team on his motorcycle.
“I remember the final game at Lake City I told the kids I was doing something special for them,” Clark said. “The kids were devastated that they were dropping the program. When it came time to meet at home plate to exchange lineup cards (before the game), I drove up to home plate on a motorcycle. They liked that and went crazy. The team we were playing did too.”
Another time, Clark had a player named Deunte Heath whom he described as a quiet player who didn’t say much. He picked up Heath from the school’s dormitory and drove him over to the field on his motorcycle, getting a smile from the pitcher. Clark said it was a way to provide a spark and have fun too.
“I didn’t do that for everybody,” he said. “But it was a way to have fun and make things interesting for the kids.”
While at Redan, his assistant was Greg Goodwin, who took over when Clark left for Gordon College.
“I learned more baseball from that guy in two weeks than I learned in four years at college,” said Goodwin, a member of the Georgia Dugout Club Hall of Fame. “He’s a baseball junkie. He’s been successful everywhere he’s been.”
To get an idea of Clark's impact, Goodwin said when he retired from scouting for the Chicago Cubs, the organization flew him to Chicago to give him an award for his service.
“The Cubs never did that,” Goodwin said. “He’s a baseball lifer. That’s the best way I can describe him.”