Clark’s Saints get one more chance
As low seed, Flagler faces long road toward conference title, nationals
By Lou M. Dubois
When Flagler lost to Concordia University (Neb.) last March in the second round of the national tournament, it was the end of an era for a team that has frequently dominated the Florida Sun Conference, and made trips to Missouri in March a regular vacation.
After the Saints lost eight seniors from last year’s squad, Head Coach Bo Clark realized that it would be tough, if not impossible, to rebuild his team and maintain the level of achievement the school and the community had become accustomed to.
One season later, as the Saints prepare to enter postseason play as the lowest seed in the Florida Sun Conference tournament, Clark has suffered one of his toughest seasons in 20 years at the helm. But at the same time, he feels he has accomplished a lot with his young team, all things considered.
“I really just feel in a lot of ways that I’ve done a pretty good job with this team,” Clark said. “It’s really tough when you have six players out of 12 that are freshman. But that being said, this team has never quit, and that’s something that makes me feel like I’ve done my job as a coach.”
While he recognizes that the season has not played out as he may have wished, he also said there have been high points and things that he’s seen that have made this season more than beneficial for his team.
“I was really kind of hoping once we got into the conference that those freshmen that played a lot early on would have a ton of experience,” Clark said. “But the bottom line is that they didn’t have any Florida Sun Conference experience. Our league is tougher than our non-conference schedule, bottom line. And we were just a young team playing in a league of juniors and seniors.”
In the past two seasons, Flagler had gone undefeated (12-0) in conference road games, one of the biggest keys to their success.
And while this year’s team grew as a unit and in Clark’s system, he points to their inability to win on the road in the conference (0-6) as a key statistic to their entire season.
With that being said, the Saints have battled in nearly every conference game this season, something their 2-8 league record may not show. In 12 games, they have been outscored only by a total of 22 points, an average of less than two points per game.
“As much as 2-8 is disappointing, I think these guys believe they can beat anybody in the conference,” Clark said. “And we all truly believe that we can beat anybody. We’ve got to play a complete game though, something we’ve struggled to do.”
A win over SCAD on the road on Feb. 21 would put the Saints in the Florida Sun Conference Tournament’s Final Four at Embry-Riddle, where they would face Florida Memorial in the semifinals with a possible rematch with the Eagles on the horizon.
“It’s a new season now,” Clark said. “I think these guys definitely still have some juice in their battery. So hopefully we can use it to get to this weekend.”
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