When the University of Hawaii didn’t recruit Ben Clarke for its football team, he was undeterred and went about aggressively recruiting it instead.
And when he was finally brought on campus only to be told he’d be moved from tackle to center, a position he’d never played, Clarke was undaunted. He shrugged his shoulder pads and made it look like a snap, becoming the school’s offensive player of the year and an All-Mountain West Conference pick as a freshman.
Along the way he has managed a 3.85 grade point average in biology.
Clearly, here is a man who relishes a challenge and pounces on opportunity as if it were a loose football.
Which is precisely what his coaches and teammates were thinking when they asked him to take on the biggest task yet, being the front-and-center leader of their most critical unit, the developing offensive line.
“I know he is still young and I know he’s a sophomore, but it is like we told him the other day, he has to step up and be like a veteran right now,” said Chris Naeole, the offensive line coach. “He started (all) 12 games last year and there aren’t a lot of guys (here) with that kind of experience, no matter what year they are in school. He has to forget he’s a sophomore and just go grab the bull by the horns.”
Technique- and performance-wise, Clarke has been a solid as the Rocky Mountains that tower over his Littleton, Colo., hometown. He’s been a fast and thorough study in reading defensive alignments and making blocking calls. He was one of just two freshmen in major college football last year to be a starting center for the season and gave up just two sacks in the process.
All of which have made him someone to build on and rally around. Teammates voted him onto the squad’s leadership council, testament to their admiration for his commitment and maturity.
In time, it was felt, he’d give up his deferential ways and comfortably settle into being a follow-me leader in the trenches. But with the Aug. 29 season opener against 24th-ranked Southern California barreling down on them in a season that unfolds without mercy, time is a luxury the Rainbow Warriors no longer have.
So, a lot of the ’Bows’ hopes for 2013 sit squarely on the offensive line and the shoulders of the 6-foot, 3-inch, 285-pounder now charged with leading it.
“Just being a sophomore and having some (upperclassmen) around being a leader is something that I have to get used to,” Clarke said. “It is a little weird, but I have to step up and be ‘that guy’ they want me to be. That’s what they (the coaches) tell me. They say they need me to be more vocal and not worry about what (year) I’m in.”
They’ve counseled their bearded center that he has to lead in a manner that works for him and gets the message across, that the ingredients are there. “He doesn’t have to be loud, he doesn’t have to be pushy,” Naeole said. “He’s just got to show them what he expects of them. He’s got to give them that look where everybody respects you and they go, ‘Oh, bleep, Ben’s mad. We’d better get going.’”
Once again, Clarke has a challenge to embrace, which usually means we’ll see him at his best.
———
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
