Hitting coach Doug Clark is in his first season with the WooSox after two seasons in Portland.

For the Massachusetts native, working for the hometown team is a dream come true after a standout career at Springfield Central High School.

"I just remember the motivation to be an athlete, a student athlete, at the biggest high school in the city and trying to make the teams and hopefully get a scholarship,” he said.

Clark went on from Central originally to play football at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst but ended up playing on the diamond for the Minutemen. 

"I had played some baseball in the summer with some friends in the Legion leagues and I had done pretty well,” he said. “One of my friends who was playing at UMass tempted me to walk on. Walked into Coach (Mike) Stone's office and asked if I could walk on. With the blessing of (football) Coach (Mike) Hodges I walked on during the spring workouts and just kept making the cut and making the cut. I just remember that day when I was pulled into the office and Coach Stone said, 'listen, you're going to be on the flight to Rice University and you made a Division I baseball team.’"

In his current role as WooSox hitting coach, Clark said he feels a tremendous amount of pride seeing players he's coached get their first major league hit.

"I'm a guidance counselor, right?” he said. “These guys are...you have the talent but there has to be a will and that's the one thing that I want them to understand. Talent is one thing but the will to go up there and the will to stay up there, the will to stay consistent about the things we're asking them to do is going to give you success in this game, and that's the one thing I believe I bring to a clubhouse, one thing I bring to a coaching staff."