New Parkview coach Clack hasn’t had a losing season, doesn’t plan one now
Parkview turned heads this spring when it hired Adam Clack as its eighth head coach. Clack is known for jumpstarting the Milton dynasty and winning that school’s first state championship in 2018 before leaving in 2021 to explore other career options.
It’s a legacy to Clack that Milton is coming off consecutive state titles under his successor, Ben Reaves Jr., who built onto Clack’s model for success.
Parkview, meanwhile, is coming off a 3-7 season and its lowest win total in 11 years.
An assistant from last year’s Parkview staff probably put everything into perspective during a recent talk with Clack.
While Clack was outlining his vision, the coach interrupted: “With all due respect, I looked at your résumé,’’ the assistant said. “You’ve never lost (had a losing season). You think you can do this?”
Clack laughed and wondered if he could, then affirmed that he genuinely did believe he could win and would make sure to hold himself accountable. Clack said he plans to turn red flags into green flags, meaning problems into solutions.
As for the players, Clack said to them in his first team meeting: “I know not a soul here.”
Clack told them he didn’t take the job because he had watched their film. He didn’t know who was on the team or their record the year before.
“I came because I believe in this paw (logo), and I believe in what it can stand for and what it does stand for,” he told them.
Clack has always had a healthy level of respect for the Panthers. He can remember wrestling in the Parkview gym as early as third grade.
Clack competed against Parkview in high school while at Winder-Barrow and was on the field, as a fan, with his football teammates from Georgia Southern when Parkview won its 45th straight game and third straight championship in 2002.
When he arrived on the football staff at West Forsyth, Clack met Dennis Stromie, a member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and one of Clack’s biggest mentors.
Stromie became West Forsyth’s athletic director when Clack was the head coach. Stromie, who spent 22 years as the Parkview wrestling coach, helped Clack get his first head coaching interview in 2014 at Parkview. Eric Godfree, a Parkview alumnus, got the Parkview job that year, while Clack was promoted later that spring to head coach at West Forsyth when coach Frank Hepler moved back to Florida.
Clack had three winning seasons at West Forsyth but was not a high-profile name statewide when he got the Milton job in 2017. It was a brilliant hire. Clack’s Milton record was 54-12 at a program that had won only two region titles in its first 65 years before Clack came.
Then in a surprise move, Clack left Milton to enter college coaching after the 2021 season. His first job was at UNC-Charlotte as an analyst. He later worked in a European professional league and recently as a football trainer and consultant in metro Atlanta.
Clack’s approach at Parkview – a program with a history of four state titles, and a state semifinal appearance as recently as 2019 – is to build the confidence of his players and rebuild the program. He has a handful of all-region players to work with.
Clack says they’ve been closing the gaps in many areas this offseason. Whether it's in the weight room, learning new schemes on both sides of the ball, or closing experience gaps, Clack says the team has made steady progress.
He wants the fans to hold him to a high standard. And if they are expecting to see what he did at Milton repeated at Parkview, Clack says, “They should expect every bit of it.”
Clack plans to bring the same style of offense that he ran at Milton. He will have multiple formations and personnel with a high tempo. He wants his players to find the fun in football again. Clack has brought the same offensive philosophy he first learned under Hepler at West Forsyth and refined at Milton. But this time, he’s fully committed to handing over play-calling duties from day one.
“For the first time in my life, I’m probably 100% delegating that (offensive responsibilities) out like I’ve always delegated the defense,” Clack said.
After four years as the defensive backs coach, Clack was promoted to offensive coordinator at West Forsyth in 2011. Hepler gave him increasing freedom as their trust grew.
When he moved to Milton in 2017 and hired Reaves, the current Milton coach, as a first-time offensive coordinator, Clack wanted to empower Reaves as Hepler had done with him, and he didn’t want to feel like he was spreading himself too thin.
“Sarkisian and Kiffin, that’s the style I like,” Clack said. “If I can bring somebody like that in, I’m comfortable letting this go so that I can put my attention to building the support for the program to securing and developing the pipeline of this program.”
Instead of naming a single offensive coordinator, Clack has opted for a collaborative approach. The teaching “transfer window” in Gwinnett County had just ended when he was hired, and schools in the county were losing teaching positions.
However, he’s been given assurances from the administration that this will be addressed.
In the meantime, he’s leaned on consultation from former East Paulding coach Chris Hirschfield. Hirschfield went 9-12 in two years at East Paulding, taking the team to the playoffs for the first time in five years in 2023.
Clack has brought in a new offensive line coach, Sean White, and made him the run-game coordinator. He kept wide receivers coach Jason Horne on staff and made him the passing game coordinator.
On defense, he promoted linebackers coach Tim Goodwell to defensive coordinator. Goodwell had only been with the program one year before his promotion.
So, maybe Clack has never had a losing season. Who cares? His players don't, or maybe they do. Clack has given them his key to success. Now it's up to them.
“I tell them all the time,” Clack said, “it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. If we do these things, the way that we’re talking about doing it, how fast will be up to you.”