About Mr. Clark

ABOUT MR. CLARK

My name is Lance Clark and this is my nineteenth year of teaching. I began my career in Elkhorn teaching third grade for four years at Manchester Elementary then moved to West Dodge Station to teach fourth grade for five years and now I am in my tenth year as a fifth-grade teacher. I also coached varsity baseball at Elkhorn High School for 11 years and eighth-grade football at Elkhorn Middle School for 7 years.                  

I graduated from Grand Island (NE) Senior High in 1986 and after working in many types of jobs (everything from firefighter to telemarketer and from human services to Anheuser-Busch delivery driver) I decided to finish my teaching degree. It was one of the best decisions of my life.

I had been working at Valmont Industries for about 5 years when I volunteered to coach a second-grade flag football team for the YMCA in Fremont. I had no idea what I was in for. Every Saturday morning for 6 weeks, I had 8-second graders to whom I needed to teach flag football. I soon realized that at 8 o’clock in the morning in late fall, it was usually cold and the grass was wet but I saw every one of those second graders out there with so much energy and excitement that one would think they were on their way to Disneyland!  I began to think about how much energy I was getting from them and how much fun I had teaching them a game they had probably seen but really had no idea how to play. This was a major step in my decision to return to college. I wanted to teach. I wanted to feel the energy of the kids and the excitement they had when they were learning. I realized that the energy and the excitement would not be there every day or even every week, but the idea that every once in a while a child will get a look on his or her face that tells you, “Wow, this is awesome!”, is enough incentive to go out and, at the very least, strive for it every day. So, in 2002, I decided to attend Midland Lutheran College (Now Midland University) in Fremont, Nebraska to finish my education. I graduated from Midland with honors in 2005. I later got my first Master's Degree in Educational Leadership from Doane University in Crete, Nebraska. I received my second master's degree in Instructional Technology from Fort Hays State University.

While at Midland, I was a full-time assistant baseball coach for the Midland Warriors for three seasons. In addition to coaching at Midland, Fremont Bergan, and Elkhorn, I coached youth baseball for 11 years and was on the Board of Directors for the Fremont Nighthawks Youth Baseball League for 8 years. After leaving the organization, I was in an advisory role as the Director of Player and Coach Development.

I am married and live in Fremont with my wife, Lisa, our dog, Oso, and three cats; Monte, Fraser, and Millie. We have four sons and two grandsons. Jourdan is married to Erica and has one son, Bentley. He is in the United States Air Force in Spokane, Washington. Austin lives in Loveland, Colorado with his wife, Jessie, and son, Eli, and works for the Fort Collins Utilities Department. Trey lives in Fremont and is an auto mechanic. Our youngest son, Gage, works as a sound engineer and musician in Nashville, Tennessee.