Santa Margarita Catholic High School is pleased to announce the hiring of Jed Clark as the new Head Wrestling Coach. Clark has a tremendous coaching resume, including stints as an assistant coach at Cal State Fullerton, an associate coach of the Trojan Wrestling Club at the University of Southern California, the Head Coach of the Carolina Wrestling Club at the University of South Carolina, an assistant coach at Santa Ana College, an assistant coach at Neosho County Community College, and most recently at Lakeside High School in Lake Elsinore where he served as the Head Boys and Girls coach since 2013. While at Lakeside, Clark’s wrestling teams set multiple school records, including the most dual meet wins in a season (19), most CIF qualifiers (10), most CIF placers (4), and the highest team finish in the Sunbelt League. Coach Clark also led his girls team to a CIF Academic Team Championship during the 2015 – 2016 season. Coach Clark also served as a National Teams assistant for USA Wrestling at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado during the summer of 2002. Coach Clark has familiar ties to the Orange County area as well, having served as an assistant football coach at Corona del Mar in the late 90’s, as well as an assistant wrestling coach at Costa Mesa High School, and the Head wrestling coach at Orange High School. While at Orange High School Coach Clark led his team to its highest CIF placing in six years.
Coach Clark earned his bachelors and master’s degrees in physical education from Cal State Dominguez Hills, as well as his single subject teaching credential. Coach Clark also earned his adapted physical education specialist credential from Cal State Long Beach as well as his administrative credential from Cal State San Marcos. In addition to coaching, he has taught physical education at the high school and college level. While at Lakeside High School Coach Clark was awarded the Golden Apple Award for being selected as the March 2015 Teacher of the Month and he was also a Teacher of the Year Finalist for the 2017 – 2018 school year. Coach can be reached at clarkj@smhs.org.