Sarah Clarke (Flanagan)

Sarah Clarke in college at Concordia University

When I was in second grade, I went to the big cat basketball camp here at Capo for a week to learn basketball skills. I walked in and started shooting around trying to warm-up before camp started. We got into squads and I saw who my coach was going to be. We were a squad of girls and our coach was named Sarah Flanagan. The head coach, Brian Mulligan, said that she was on Varsity and she was a junior in high school. He also said this was her first time working the camp and she got to work with all the girls. After that, she worked the camp for another year and went off to college. When I saw her the next time, she was working at Capo as an English teacher and assistant basketball coach. Two years later, she was appointed head basketball coach of the girl’s team at Capo. I would enjoy this job because basketball is something I love and getting to coach it would be one of the greatest things to happen to me.

Sarah Clarke coaching in 2007-2008 Season

The career of basketball coaches is pretty self explanatory. They coach the game of basketball. They hold practices weekly, if not daily, and teach players skills, fundamentals, and in Mrs. Clarke’s way, life. Each practice we increase our learning ability in the game and learn to understand the game of basketball better. The education for a basketball coach isn’t very hard. Administrators try to find coaches who at least have an idea of what basketball is about. In Sarah’s life, she played in high school and played basketball in college at Concordia University. She has a very good idea of how the game is played which is what makes her such a great coach. Basketball coaches often make about $30,000 a year.

There were many things that inspired Mrs. Clarke to become a teacher and a coach. She had certain teachers and coaches that really instilled life changing ways in her life. She teaches and coaches because she wants to be used by God to cherish young people so that in turn they can find what they were meant for. She feels she is called to teach and coach. In high school, Sarah played three years of varsity basketball. She was also involved in the fellowship of Christian athletes. In high school, she had a great coach that taught her a lot about life. She loved playing basketball, and after she finished in college, she began to coach. First at Irvine high school, then at Capo.

Mrs. Clarke does a lot to contribute to society. She works with young people every day. She feels as though being a teacher is an extremely important responsibility. High school students are at a place where their lives and behaviors are shaped before they enter the rest of their lives and become who they choose to be. Being a good influence and teaching basic principles is her way of contributing to the world. She obviously does a lot in society.

There are many choices that could lead me to become a high school girl’s basketball coach in the near future. First, I would like to make it out of high school. I would like to go to college and maybe play basketball there. I would like to start my career somewhere I can just focus on work and at the end of the day, go to the high school and coach girls in the game of basketball. In doing so, I would hope that I could inspire girls the way my hero, Mrs. Sarah Clarke has done for so many.