Remembering Shawn Clark, the App State football coach who touched so many lives

In early 2022, I stood in a hospital room, and my phone started ringing. My wife and I had just welcomed our first child. She nuzzled his fuzzy head that Sunday evening when I felt a buzz in my pocket. Our hospital still had lingering no-visit policies thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, so we’d already FaceTimed our parents and siblings to show our little guy off.

Shawn Clark called within an hour after delivery. The then-head football coach at Appalachian State was ecstatic for me. Immediately, he wanted to know how labor went for my wife and what we had named our son. Once he learned the latter, he pointed out that I could still add a “Shawn” in there somewhere before the ink dried on the hospital paperwork.

Clark died Sunday after experiencing a medical episode earlier this month. He was 50 and in his first year as offensive line coach at the University of Central Florida. Shawn touched the lives of so many people — players, fellow coaches, fans. He would’ve touched many more with the years he deserved, I’m sure of it. I’m gutted that the world lost such an incredibly wonderful man, and just as much so for his wife and two children.

I got to know Clark during my time as the App State beat writer for the Winston-Salem Journal. When I started in 2017, he was Scott Satterfield’s co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. I knew him as an alumnus who made his way back to Boone — with stops at Kent State, Purdue and Eastern Kentucky — and a guy who absolutely loved his job. During App State’s open practices for the media, I’d always wander down the field at Kidd Brewer Stadium to the north end zone and watch him work with guys like Vic Johnson, Noah Hannon, and Colby Gossett. He was either shouting or smiling, and a lot of times, he was doing both.

Shawn was a go-to resource for my non-football mind. While I have no business teaching something like outside zone blocking today, I understand it much more because of him. He had so much knowledge, and he was happy to share it. The only thing he shared more of was love.

My friendship with him really solidified during the coaching transition from Satterfield to Eli Drinkwitz, where Shawn was one of the few assistants trying to figure out their next career steps. He responded to the job uncertainty by calling an amazing game in the 2018 New Orleans Bowl as the stand-in offensive coordinator. It was a 45-13 rout of Middle Tennessee and a statement that a proud program would remain even in the midst of uncertain change. We interviewed him after the game in the bowels of the Superdome, his son right next to him, and eventually on his lap.

The display led to Drinkwitz retaining Shawn at App State, naming him as an assistant head coach. Seeing Shawn the next time around spring practices, I found him and told him I was glad to see him back. “Me too, bud” he said, as he shook my hand and gave me an appreciative slap on the shoulder. I got used to that giant mit tapping on me as a quick hello while he ran on the field for practices.

Becoming App State’s head coach

Shawn was the Yosef statue on Boone’s River Street personified. Since coming to Boone to play for College Football Hall of Famer Jerry Moore, getting to App State had been one of the greatest privileges of his life. It’s why, when he earned the head coaching job at the end of 2019 and Drinkwitz departed, his introductory press conference featured an atmosphere unlike anything I’ll experience again. Shawn was nervous, and rightly so: he’d achieved a dream. But when he spoke passionately about his family — his wife, Jonelle, his daughter, Giana, and son, Braxton — or his former coach, those nerves fell away for a moment.

As much as he loved being a coach, he cherished being a husband and father. When he found out that my wife and I were expecting a baby, he began checking in with me and talking about various parts of fatherhood. I needed him more than I realized — I was so nervous to be a dad. Frankly, I was scared of all the things I didn’t know (and honestly, I still am). But he whittled down those unknowns for me with moments of guidance or funny stories — like when one of his children’s photo shoot outfits got ruined thanks to a dirty diaper and a doorway jumper because their dad got a little too distracted by an impromptu film session.

When layoffs at the Winston-Salem Journal forced me to cover more programs, meaning I was less of a presence around App State, Shawn regularly checked in with me. He also started a “Where’s Ethan?” schtick at press conferences. I was always ready for Shawn to make me laugh.

I left my beat writing job shortly after my son was born. I wanted to be a present dad, and the idea of traveling at the time just didn’t sit well with me. Shawn was one of a few exemplary dads for me — he never compromised time with his family for anything. I wasn’t going to either. We’d stayed in touch decently — at least as well as I could as a new dad and, eventually, a father of two. I graduated from App State in 2013, and after the few years it took to get out of my beat-reporting mindset, I could finally root as an alum and fan again. But I never stopped rooting for Shawn. I texted or talked with him occasionally after that, and when I saw him, we’d immediately pick right back up. No one wanted and loved being the App State football coach like he did, and no one will again.

Some favorite memories of Shawn Clark

I have two special memories of Shawn that I want you to have, too. The first is from his introductory App State press conference, when he broke down while looking at his family from the podium. “In 2004, we laid in bed and talked about this — to become the head coach at Appalachian State, and it is here,” he said to his wife before turning back to the room. “And I can’t wait to be your coach.” He then smiled and laughed after making eye contact with some former offensive linemen — he’d lost a bet with his players and, because he cried, he owed them a steak dinner.

The second is from a snowy day in Boone, where I was on the sidelines watching players acclimate to the temperature during Shawn’s first set of spring practices as a head coach. To my right in my peripheries came a figure — it was a skipping Shawn Clark. He bounded like a jolly giant onto the field in a thick jacket and long pants. I’m shocked he was that covered — when I close my eyes and see him, he’s in shorts and a haggard-looking App State hoodie.

I have videos of both those moments, and I’ve watched them often during the past couple of days. I think I’ll show them to my children tonight and tell them a little about Daddy’s friend, Shawn.

The world has lost an amazing man. I’ll miss him dearly. And I so badly want to shake my head and come out of this fog to see a buzzing phone with his name on the screen again. Spread a little love on behalf of Shawn today. That’s what he would’ve been doing.

Ethan Joyce is a tech reporter for the Sports Business Journal. He is an eight-time honoree of the Associated Press Sports Editors national sports writing contest and was recognized in the 2024 installment of the “This Year’s Best Sports Writing” book series.

This story was originally published September 23, 2025 at 1:06 PM.