The Central Times Editorial Board has named senior running back Aiden Clark the Central Times’ Male Athlete of the Year, following two years starting on the varsity football team and helping to lead the Redhawks to their first semifinal appearance since 2013 in his senior season.
Clark is also a sprinter on the track and field team, as played baseball for three years.
“Coming in as a freshman, it was always like my dream as a kid to play for Naperville Central,” Clark said. “I knew I definitely had big shoes to fill.”
Clark first started playing football when he was five for the Naperville Youth Football League, and later played for Central’s feeder team. Many of his youth teammates would accompany him on the high school field.
“I was always asking my parents when it was as soon as I could start,” Clark said. “I started playing in kindergarten.”
In youth football, Clark got playing time as a defensive lineman and tight end and played as a safety on Central’s freshman team.
“I was kind of nervous in that I’d be stepping on to the big stage right away, not in that I’d be playing varsity, but just that I was excited to play high school football and kind of emulate what I had seen prior and some of the people that I watched growing up,” Clark said. “I was just really excited to be a Redhawk.”
In Clark’s junior season, his first on varsity, he had an opportunity to play in the first game of the season after one of his teammates got hurt.
“I had a few big plays and a few hard runs and I think that earned the respect and put me on the map during that game,” Clark said. “Despite being a little bit smaller, I could still play varsity football at a high level.”
By week four of his junior season, Clark’s starting roster spot was solidified on the depth chart. In week 6, Clark made a game-winning touchdown against crosstown rival Naperville North by extending the ball just over the goal line in the last few seconds of the game.
“I was kind of overwhelmed with the amount of people that wanted to talk to me,” Clark said. “In school or the media because to me, I hadn’t changed at all. I was the same guy every day. But to everyone else, I was the stud running back that was the new face of the offense.”
By the end of his junior season, Clark put up 1,030 rushing yards as well as 15 touchdowns for the Redhawks.
“We knew how fast he was and explosive as he was,” head football coach Mike Ulreich said. “But we knew at times during the year, he was going to have to hit some hard runs inside. The great thing about that Naperville North run is that it signifies the growth that we had as coaches and Aiden working together. That was a downhill physical run that he was able to do, then once he got out of the box and into space, he was able to finish and score.”
After building momentum through his junior year, Clark was sidelined with a PCL tear in week five and was supposed to be out for four to six weeks. He was back in two.
“He was maniacal in making sure he was at full speed, strength, ready to return and contribute,” Ulreich said.
Even considering missing out on multiple games in the middle of the season and not returning at full-strength, Clark still put up 1,318 rushing yards and 14 touchdowns in the process of providing a critical element of the run game in the team’s deep postseason run, where they eventually fell to York in the state series semifinal.
“Week two, Naperville North, one of North’s big defensive linemen fell on him,” Ulreich said. “I thought Aidan was going to be out of the game. He eventually came to me early in the fourth quarter, and he said, ‘I’m going to give it a shot.’ His effort and toughness had reached a point by senior year where it was very inspiring to our coaches and to his teammates. He didn’t want to let his team down, and it just meant too much for him. He willed himself back in the game and broke some huge runs late in that game.”
Clark was named a captain of the team for his senior year.
“Our best players need to embody our core values: selflessness, toughness and championship effort,” Ulreich said. “Aiden Clark 100% embodies who we want to be.”
In addition to football, Clark played baseball his freshman through junior years.
“Aiden’s just a very gifted athlete,” baseball head coach Mike Stock said.
Clark played infield on the freshman team, yet in his sophomore year, was called up to catch on the varsity team after the starter, Colin Barczi, was sidelined with an illness.
“I was kind of thrusted into a big role, seeing faster pitches than I’ve ever seen with big shoes to fill,” Clark said. “Some of my teammates doubted me, but I just tried my best.”
Although he ended his sophomore baseball season with an on-base plus slugging of .544, Clark quickly improved to end his junior season with an OPS of .944.
“When Colin came back, we asked [Clark] if he wanted to go back down and he didn’t,” Stock said. “He wanted to be around that level of play because he loved it. He loved playing at that varsity level, that is as far as you can go, and we found different ways of using him.”
Clark was named an all-conference baseball player at the end of his junior year.
“He’s one of those kids who was adaptable and would quickly, if he wasn’t up to that point, become a student of the game,” Stock said.
In the winter athletic season, Clark picked up indoor track his sophomore year, and ran outdoor track for the first time his senior spring season.
“You watch a professional sprinter and they’re confident, almost arrogant,” head track coach Steven Stack said. “ I wouldn’t even come close to using arrogance for Aiden, but he’s really confident that he knows what he can do.”
Clark runs in the 4×200, where he has had the opportunity to run with his brother this past season. Their relay broke the school indoor 4×200 record at the Downers Grove South Mustang Relays with a time of 1:31.15.
“It was a great experience,” Clark said. “Obviously my family loved it.”
Clark hopes to qualify and eventually place at state in track.
“I think Aiden has learned from football, baseball, track and now is passing that knowledge on,” Stack said.
At five-foot-eight, 190 lbs., Clark is on the smaller side of high school running backs, and sees his size as his greatest challenge during his college recruiting process.
“I could play with anybody,” Clark said. “I’ve played against some of the top recruited kids in the nation and gone toe-to-toe with them. I think that my size is definitely something that people look at and it turns them away early, but then once they see me play, they change their minds.”
Clark is committed to play Division III football at Williams College in Massachusetts.
