OLD TOWN, Maine — Nat Clark, who a week ago was hired as the new head football coach and physical education teacher at Old Town High School, has opted not to accept those positions.
Clark, who had yet to sign a contract after being approved for the jobs by the RSU 34 board of directors last Wednesday evening, notified Old Town High School principal Scott Gordon of his decision Monday afternoon.
“Honestly, I just had a change of heart,” said Clark, who now plans to remain a physical education teacher and coach at Bangor High School. “The students at Old Town High School deserve someone who will commit totally to them and to building a strong program up there. After a few days I realized that it wasn’t me.”
Clark met with prospective Old Town football players last Friday, then mulled his decision over the weekend before contacting Gordon.
“I sincerely apologize to the students at Old Town High School,” said Clark. “I realize my decision may have caused some confusion, but the students were great.
“This decision wasn’t about the students, it was about me.”
The 35-year-old Clark was set to replace Steve Calande, who resigned in April after two seasons at Old Town and subsequently took a job as a physical education teacher and head football coach at East Catholic High School in Manchester, Conn.
Calande guided Old Town to a 6-3 record in the LTC Class C ranks in 2010, the program’s first winning season since 1997. The Coyotes went 2-6 last fall after moving back up to the Pine Tree Conference Class B ranks.
Clark, a 1995 Bangor High School graduate and former football player at the University of Maine, began his coaching career at Bangor in 2000.
After two years at his alma mater, Clark joined former Bangor coach Gabby Price in restarting the Husson University football program beginning in 2002. He remained at Husson as both an assistant coach and assistant athletic director for student wellness through 2008.
Clark spent the last three football seasons coaching back at Bangor, where last fall he coached the offensive line and linebackers under current Rams’ head coach Mark Hackett. He also coaches the school’s girls junior varsity basketball team.
Clark has taught physical education at Bangor High School for the last two years after one year in the same capacity at the William S. Cohen School in Bangor.
“Nat got here, met with the kids, and then spent time over the weekend doing some soul searching and realized that this wasn’t what he wanted to do,” said Gordon. “It’s probably better that it happened now rather than a year from now and then we’d have to do another search.”
Gordon said he has contacted another candidate for the open football coaching and teaching positions at Old Town and is “giving him a couple of days to make a decision.”
“If that doesn’t work out we may have to open up a new search,” he said.
Great person. He’ll be super anywhere.
He is a great person…. I wonder if Old Town would have been smart to not have made the announcement until all the T’s had been crossed and the I’s dotted. A signed contract would have been the signal that Nat was really going to make the move from Bangor…
He had met with the kids and started lifting sessions. Is that not a sign that he wanted the job?
And he went on WABI saying how excited he was to be taking the job. He is a good guy and a good coach. Wish him the best. Not sure Old Town is to blame for announcing it. Wondering if it will come out that he will be a certain basketball coach’s replacement?
If no contract had been signed(which doesn’t happen until after the school board approves the hire..or gives the superintendent hiring authority…which typically only happens over the summer months), then it would be irresponsible on BOTH sides to announce the move (and I certainly wouldn’t go on television if proper protocol had not been followed).
That said, Nat is a good guy…never understood the move from Bangor to OT in the 1st place (not a knock on OT, just a pay cut).
I didn’t say he didn’t want the job… I was commenting on Old Town making an announcement when it wasn’t a done deal. As for going on WABI and talking about it, would he really talk about NOT being excited about it? It just seems the cart went before the horse on this whole situation. As for him being a replacement for Coach Reed, time will only tell. Depends on who talked him in to staying at Bangor and what promises might have been put out there… We all know how Bangor works when it comes to this sort of thing.
It became public when the school board approved the hire at their June 20th meeting according to the BDN.