INDIANAPOLIS — What started at Mercer Field at Franklin Community High School helped fulfill a lifelong dream.
Forever Grizzly Cub Max Clark has had a wild past month, being named the Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year, and to top it all off, drafted third overall in the MLB draft by the Detroit Tigers.
Clark himself said it's been surreal.
"To win the most prestigious award in high school sports is huge. You have guys like Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield who have won this award, and it's super cool to be in the same conversation as those guys. Those are guys I have looked up to for a long time. To be in this position now is something super special," Clark told 13Sports. "Being drafted was a surreal feeling as well. Every kid at 5 years old had dreams to play professional baseball or professional football, whatever it may have been, and now to look at that 13 to 14 years later and be in this position is an incredible feeling. I'm really excited for the coming years to achieve and chase that dream that I've had ever since being a 5-year-old. It's slowly coming together, and I'm super excited."
It's a feeling that Clark said he wouldn't have had without the support of Franklin Community High School – a place he is forever grateful for.
"It means the world to me. Franklin Community has been a special, special community to be a part of. There are not too many communities out there that would sit through the 39-degree, freezing rain baseball games 500 people deep. It's been an incredible feeling to have a community that has my back the way Franklin does," Clark said. "It's been my goal to give back to them the same energy that they've put into me. I've done that with the youth camps, the donations, whatever it may have been. Those are huge, huge pieces for me. They've done so much for me. The support has been there all four years of high school and even my seventh and eighth grade years, so I finally have the opportunity to give back, and I'm going to take full advantage of it, no doubt, because of what they've put in for me."
Indiana is undeniably known as a basketball state. Clark's meteoric rise through the national landscape of prospective baseball players has left a mark nationwide. The 18-year-old hopes to set an example that baseball players from Indiana and the Midwest can thrive collegiately and professionally.
"I do take a huge amount of pride into that. To be the guy to represent Indiana baseball—and not just Indiana, but the Midwest as a whole—has been a really, really cool position to be in. I've been out there on social media and on the field trying to be a role model to kids that may live in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, whatever it may be, trying to give them faith and hope that no matter where you come from, you can go play at the next level," Clark said. "It's been a really, really cool position to be in. I hope to continue to try and utilize this position for the better as I lead this Indiana and Midwest train to the next level of sports."
With all that's happened this past month, Clark still has a decision to make: begin his pursuit to Major League Baseball or accept a scholarship to Vanderbilt — a position he views as a win-win situation.
"I still haven't made a decision. We'll start that in the coming week. It's been crazy. You have two extremely good options between starting your professional baseball career, or going to play for the absolute powerhouse that is Vanderbilt baseball. There's no wrong answer here. It's two great streets, two great paths that will ultimately lead to success. I'm super excited to tackle it, but I'm still up in the air, so we'll see." Clark said with a smile. "All I know is I get to wake up every day and play the game that I have loved since I was 5 years old for the rest of my life, for the rest of my career, so I'm super excited for that opportunity, whatever that path may be. I know the future holds a lot of very, very good things as long as I continue to do what I've been doing since I was 5 years old. I'm definitely super excited. I'm definitely eager to get started. However, I'm a little in the unknown as well."
No matter how you look at it, there's certainly a lot to look forward to if you're Max Clark.