Morgan Clark built an exciting future in field hockey for herself and her team before and during the fall season at Dallas.
Clark secured a Division I scholarship offer with her offseason play and made a verbal commitment to Temple University.
During the season, the junior center back led an improving defense that turned in late-season performances which give the Mountaineers more hope for brighter times in the years ahead.
Clark projects as a likely midfielder on the college level, but she has already shown the versatility to play any position during time with two high school teams.
“Whatever position the coach wants me to play, I’m willing to play,” Clark said.
Clark started much of the time as a two-year letter-winner at Holy Redeemer where she played forward as a freshman, then right back and left midfield as a sophomore.
“This year at Dallas, I had the opportunity to play center defense,” Clark said. “That was a good position for me, I thought.”
Dallas went 6-4 and tied Tunkhannock for second place in Division 2 of the Wyoming Valley Conference despite playing as many as five freshmen at a time.
The Mountaineers gave unbeaten division champion and eventual state semifinalist Crestwood its toughest game of the conference season, 1-0, then pushed WVC Division 4 champion Wyoming Seminary in the District 2 quarterfinal in another 1-0 loss to end the season.
“Morgan’s stick skills are very good,” Dallas coach Kiley Fisher said. “She’s the type of player who, when you’re correcting her on something, she wants to try it right then and there to make sure she has it down.
“She really loves the sport and encompasses everything that a coach would want out of a player.”
Fisher put that effort to work as the last line of defense, other than the goalkeeper, on a young and promising team.
“I’m very pleased with the way our season came out,” Fisher said. “With no seniors this year, and have such a young team – I had five freshmen all starting or seeing playing time at the same time.
“To have such a young group come up and see playing time, I haven’t seen that in my years of coaching. Usually, you have one or two coming up at a time.”
Clark has developed her game while playing in national-level tournaments, including indoor events, with the Pottstown-based X-calibur club team. She is impressed by the early performance of her younger high school teammates.
“We were a very strong team despite being so young,” Clark said. “I’m proud of the girls on the team. We had 11 freshmen.
“They were very good players and I’m really looking forward to next season.”
