He was awarded a Big West Conference Honorable Mention for the second straight year after the 2007-08 season, when he led the Cal Poly men’s basketball team in scoring and assists.
But what Mustangs point guard Trae Clark is most proud of is his ability to not only be an athlete, but a student-athlete.
“It was my goal in life to make sure that I played for a Division I team and get my education paid for,” Clark says.
Clark says some professors automatically think athletes want special treatment.
“I’ve had some classes where I really prefer not to tell the professor I’m an athlete because I feel like they think that we feel that we deserve special needs,” he says. “That’s really not the case at all.”
The business major has held his own on the court, too.
Clark, a 5-foot-11, 185-pound senior, enters tonight’s 7:30 game against San Francisco in Mott Gym having started 64 of the Mustangs’ past 65 games.
After being named the Big West Conference Freshman of the Year in 2005-06, the Fremont native upped his scoring average in each of the next two seasons, and posted team highs of 10.3 points and 3.4 assists per game last year, when he tied a school single-game record with eight steals.
He’s continued to add to his career assists total, which at 291 is sixth in Cal Poly history.
But two years after the Mustangs finished a win shy of automatically qualifying for the NCAA Tournament at the Big West Tournament, Clark’s goals aren’t individually themed.
“I just want to have a good year as far as the team goes,” Clark says, “to finish as high as we can in conference so we’re pretty hot going into the conference tournament.”
Mustangs head coach Kevin Bromley calls Clark his “quarterback” and says he’s fulfilled that role since he came to Cal Poly.
“He’s really matured and grown into a good leader,” Bromley says. “He stays positive and upbeat. There’s always adversity on the court, whether it be an opponent or an official or a teammate. He’s learned to fight through that.”
Being a “coach on the floor,” Clark says, has come naturally for him since his days at Newark Memorial High, where he became a four-time All-Mission Athletic League honoree and an All-American top-25 and Slam and Jam All-Star Game selection.
“I don’t ever ask anybody to do anything I wouldn’t do or to go hard in something I haven’t worked just as hard on,” he explains.
His teammates agree, and add that Clark’s someone they like being around off the court, as well.
“He’s a great teammate,” says Chaz Thomas, also a senior guard. “Trae is quick, smooth and aggressive. He’s a great leader, very team-oriented. He’s also a great friend and really fun to hang out with. He’s funny and has a lot of charisma.”
Senior forward and co-captain Titus Shelton says Clark’s experience gives the Mustangs (who lead the conference in turnover margin, at plus-three) total confidence in him as their floor general.
“He’s been doing this for years now,” Shelton says. “He runs the show. His skill and experience and his knowledge of the game are unmatched by a lot of people in our conference.”
Clark’s discipline to study hard on and off the court, he says, came from his father Willy, who never forced his sons to do anything but had a rule that they finish whatever they started.
“Whatever we chose to do, he always worked at it with us,” says Clark, 21.
Clark, whose parents drive to all of his home games, credits his two favorite quotes to his dad: “Greatness comes from within” and “The hardest working people are the luckiest people.”
He says he still lives by the words today.
“I think we can choose our own destiny,” Clark says of the Mustangs (1-4), who – after more than two weeks of road games – will be at home for four of their next five. “We’re young, so it’s going to take six or seven games for us to feel each other out in a game setting. I think we can be as good as we choose to be, as we allow ourselves to be.”