West Carroll in Savanna names new head football coach

SAVANNA – Teo Clark is the new football coach of the West Carroll Thunder.

Clark takes over for Matt Leitzen, who left to take over at Stockton after a 24-25 record and three playoff trips in five seasons with West Carroll High.

It will be Clark's first head coaching job. He has been an assistant, first at Cherokee High in Cherokee, Alabama, and then the past 7 years at Desoto Central in Southaven, Mississippi, near Memphis.

"The biggest thing right now is wanting to get up there and get started with the kids," he said. "Since we're 9 hours away, I'm trying to do all we can here to get up that way, so I'm really excited about the opportunity and looking forward to get started."

He hasn't had a chance to talk to any of his players, either by video conferencing or in person, but he has been able to put some of his coaching staff together.

Clark grew up in Alabama, a small town called Double Springs in the northern part of the state, and later walked on with Mike Shula's Crimson Tide, backing up Brodie Croyle at quarterback for a year before switching both schools and sides of the ball, transferring to North Alabama to play defensive back.

At Desoto Central, he coached in one of Mississippi's tougher Class 6A districts, facing 2019 state champion Oxford and 2018 state champion Horn Lake.

He will see more of the same moving into the NUIC.

"When I put in for the job, I made sure to do my research, and just looking, there's so many competitive schools," Clark said. "Coach Leitzen has done a tremendous job of getting West Carroll very competitive. The whole area, from what I've observed, has a solid football tradition, and I just want to make sure I can build on what he's been able to do."

His goals are to get the most out of the kids, get them to do things the right way, and get them to focus not just on football, but on growing as people.

"It is football and coaches are measured off wins and losses, but I think any solid football program you'll see the player development that goes along with that," he said. "Just seeing the growth of those kids maturing into young men and hopefully down the road see their success when they're done playing high school football. I know there's been several players go on to college football from some of the schools in the area. That's another great thing is being able to provide an opportunity to extend their education."

Clark started playing football when he was five years old, and has been on or beside a football field almost constantly since then. Each step of the way has been a learning experience, from coaches he's coached alongside to the players themselves to going to coaching clinics.

"There's so many different avenues that go along with the job and making sure you're coaching football, but there's so much more involved," he said. "You have to work for the community, get the community involved, get the kids involved. It takes everybody. Finding ways, whether it's youth league or doing things for the community, any possible thing that I learned is what made me want to go for this position."

Clark will be the drivers ed teacher. His wife, Amanda, is also a teacher and they have three kids: Troy, Julie and Layla.