After graduating from the University of Maine in Orono in 1971, Rick Clark taught and coached at York High School for his entire career finishing 45 years later in 2016.  A social studies teacher for 40 of those years, he also coached boys and girls outdoor track for 31 years, winning 2 State Championships.

Rick started as a JV Boys basketball coach for 3 years, a varsity boys coach for 2 years, a girl’s JV coach for 5 years, and then moved on to the Head Coaching job with the girls in 1982. After coaching the varsity girls for 34 years, he retired in 2016 after a thrilling 1 point victory in the State Championship Game capping an undefeated season.  During his career, Rick coached his teams to 4 State Championships, 6 Regional Championships, 15 Regional finals, and 32 tournament appearances.  He finished his career with 509 wins and 206 losses.

Rick became involved with the Maine Association of Basketball Coaches in 1986 and has been involved with it at some level ever since, including over 20 years on the Executive Board and as its treasurer.  He’s also been involved with the WBCA during that same time, attending numerous Women’s Final Four Tournaments and representing Maine as a WBCA Ambassador.  He was selected as the WBCA Region One Coach of the Year in 2009.  He has also presented at Roundtables at the Convention which happens at the Final Four Tournament.

Named Coach of the Year for the MABC several times, Rick also coached the McDonald’s Southern Maine All-Stars on 7 occasions.  The MABC honored Rick with the Contributor Award for his involvement with basketball in the State of Maine in 2016. Rick was inducted into the New England Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010 and the Maine Basketball Hall of Fame with the Class of 2017.

After his retirement from basketball coaching, he was honored by the Basketball Officials of Western Maine with the prestigious Ollie Berg Award for outstanding contribution to the game and the sportsmanship displayed by his teams over the years resulting in 6 Sportsmanship banners in the rafters at the York High Gym. 

Since his retirement, Rick has continued to work with the MABC Executive Board but has found much more time to spend with his family, including his wife of 33 years, Lauren, his 5 adult children - Denis, Kristi, Nicky, Casey, and Jodie and his 10 grandchildren.  Watching this younger generation play the game he loved for decades keeps him busy and smiling knowing that those grandchildren are as happy playing as he was coaching.