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PIEDMONT – His story will likely never achieve the lofty status reached 20-some years ago by author Winston Groom’s fictional Forrest Gump, but that’s fine with Wren High’s Larry Clark, Jr.
For the past few years, Clark, the Hurricanes’ cross country and track coach, has been quietly sharing his remarkable story – one that in one sense parallels Groom’s novel – with the students on his teams and with small groups in the Upstate.
Clark, now 45, was born two months premature. He weighed just three pounds at birth. “Complications” quickly dropped his weight to two pounds. Clark’s lungs were underdeveloped, and he had chronic hip displacement.
His parents would take Clark home after six weeks in the hospital. Doctors told his mother to prick her son’s feet periodically to make Clark cry, thereby encouraging lung development. For the first three years of his life Clark slept in Gump-like leg braces to strengthen his hips.
By age 12, Clark’s body was the size of a normal 10-year-old’s. He said he wanted to participate in school sports, “but I quickly found out that contact sports wasn’t advisable.” He then discovered running.
“I could run and do it no matter how small I was,” Clark said. His father, Larry Clark, Sr., entered his son in his first road race that year, a 10,000 meter event. Clark, Jr., finished first in his age group.
“I believe my time was around 42 minutes,” he said.
A year later, the younger Clark participated in track at Star-Iva Middle in Anderson District 3. He ran track – the mile and the two-mile throughout his high school career -- and started running cross country as a freshman. He was the cross country team at that time.
“I was the only one on the team,” Clark said. “I had to run with other schools whenever they had home meets.” He said he remembers running as an independent with Hannah and Daniel, and he continued to compete as an independent in cross country throughout his four years.
Crescent would later build its cross country program under SCTCCCA Hall of Fame coach Jim Crawford, but in those early years it was Clark’s success on the high school 
track that drew the most attention. During his junior and senior years, Clark won four individual state titles in the 3200 and 1600, which helped earn him a partial scholarship to Clemson University. In his freshman year there, Clark earned All-American honors and he was named All-ACC in cross country three times. He also was a five-time All-ACC selection in indoor and outdoor track.
Clark also was named to the ACC Academic Team 11 times.
“I kind of came into my own while I was at Clemson,” he said, with help from Clemson alums Dave Geer, Jim Haughey and others who invited Clark to work out with them.
“I had never done anything of the scale and magnitude that they were doing, and having them take me up and put them under their wing helped pull me along,” Clark said. “I owe a lot to those guys.”
Clark would go on to earn three degrees from Clemson, a bachelor’s, masters and education specialist degree.
Clark would earn his teaching degree from Winthrop University and land his first teaching job in 1992 as an aide at T.L. Hanna. He would move Easley High in 2002 before moving down the road to Wren in 2009. He now teaches Global Studies there, in addition to coaching track and cross country.
Clark said he struggled for a time before deciding to pursue a career as a teacher/coach, seriously considering going into the ministry before changing direction.
“I wanted to go into seminary, but now I consider (teaching/coaching) as my mission field,” he said. “I want to work with kids and try to help them get going in the right direction.”
Clark said he credits his parents for encouraging him to share his story, which he has been doing primarily with youth groups and his high school students.
“I tell them that I’m no different than anyone else who works hard and perseveres,” he said, a message that appears to be having an impact on his teams. This year’s girls cross country team won their region, while the boys qualified for State even though they were in what Clark refers to as a “rebuilding year.”
“That was a huge feat for them,” he said.
Looking ahead to the upcoming track season, Clark said he expects the girls to be “competitive from top to bottom,” with a good pole vaulting group among the boys led by seniors Harrison Hix and Michael Fowler, and junior Max Fleming. And now, Clark is coaching his 12-year-old daughter, Matte, meaning the teaching and coaching, and the motivating, will likely continue well beyond the current school year.