Gaudet Gym Renamed in Coach Clark’s Honor

 

A dedication ceremony honor­ing the late Middleton High athlet­ic coach Barry Clark was held Feb. 9 following a wrestling match at Gaudet Middle School.

Wrestlers from Middletown, Mt. Pleasant, East Greenwich and Pil­grim High filled the mats at atten­tion and the stands were packed with fans.

“We are honored and full of gratitude that the Gaudet Mid­dle School gymnasium will be re­named the Barry W. Clark Gymnasi­um,” Clark’s daughter, Lisa O’Brien, told Newport This Week.

In one corner was a montage of collages of Clark’s teams, stars, vic­tories, and even a 1980s wrestling couplet that served as the team’s corny, but catchy motto, “Apple pie and Middletown High.”

After dozens of matches were completed, the ceremony began with remarks from fellow coach Bill Seiple, followed by Clark’s three children, Lisa O’Brien, David Clark and Megan Tyson, plus town coun­cilor Dennis Turano and others.

Although athletic director Karen Massaro did not know Clark well, she quickly learned of his charac­ter. “What I did learn in my short time is he was an amazing person,” she said. “He loved his family and had great pride as an Islander.”

The Gaudet Middle School gym­nasium was filled with athletes, educators and friends to honor the late Barry W. Clark. His children also attended, (L-R) Lisa O’Brien, Megan Tyson and David Clark.

“This has been in the works for a while. We are very pleased we are able to get the ceremony in … This is very well-deserved,” Bill Seiple, a fellow coach of Clark’s, said before the ceremony.

“The gym being renamed is very apropos, because Barry built a wrestling program in that gym from scratch. There was no wres­tling in Middletown,” he said. “In a very short time, he had his first championship under his belt and he was garnering state champi­onships and generating All-State wrestlers along the way.

“But never once did he waiver from his principles, and his kids would say the same thing. His prin­ciples were based on his family principles and his Marine service. If you didn’t adhere to them, you didn’t participate or play. He was a hard coach, and by hard, I mean tough. He made you work. Tough, but very supportive of the kids all the way through their lives. He was the kind of coach every kid should have.”

Fellow coach Bill Seiple and Mid­dletown councilor Dennis Turano were among the speakers. (Photos by Meri Keller)

The Middletown Alumni Asso­ciation put out an invitation for all previous high school wrestlers and other athletes who were coached by Clark to attend.

Clark, a Middletown resident and decades-long public-school educator, died after a lengthy battle with cancer in 2018. He was a 1963 graduate of Middletown High, and began coaching in 1969.

Three years later he began the Middletown High wrestling pro­gram and coached the sport, along with football, for 30 years. He then coached track and field for 12 years and golf for five. But he is most not­ed as a wrestling coach, compiling a 305-102-5 record, including in­structing 22 All-State wrestlers and 15 state champions.

His other teams won numerous conference and state titles as well. He was inducted into the Middle­town Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014, was named to the Rhode Island Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame, was the Rhode Island Coach of the Year in 1980, and was Golf Coach of the Year in the Commonwealth Coast Conference when at Salve Regina University.

 

Clark retired as director of K-12 health and physical education of Middletown Public Schools.

He proudly served in the re­serves of the U.S. Marine Corps. He was activated into service in 1991 for Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He retired in 1995 with the rank of Lt. Col.

Clark and his wife, Mary, were dedicated educators in the Mid­dletown school district for many years. She taught at Forest Ave­nue and Aquidneck Elementary schools, retiring in 2009.

A ceremony was planned in 2020, but three days after the School Committee voted to re­name the Gaudet Middle School gymnasium after her late husband, Mary was killed in a single car ac­cident on the Newport Pell Bridge. Because of COVID-19, the ceremo­ny was postponed to this week.