Video Transcript
My name is Shawn Clark from Potsdam New York and I left lock for the Colorado XOs.
So I’ve been playing football my entire life, since I was five years old. It’s been you know, it was my first love as a sport. I went on to college and got a full ride to play at Monmouth University, where I played tight end for five years.
We won a conference championship. We’re nationally ranked for the first time in program history. Is very, very cool to be a part of that.
And, you know, following college, I had a tryout with the Indianapolis Colts. I was there for a week and then had another opportunity in the Spring League down in San Antonio, Texas. So I’ve had a few opportunities in football and just, you know.
Are you going to have to redo that? So I got into golf my summer of my freshman year at college, after my first year, there was a bunch of the guys were there for the summer, we had to stay and train, and a bunch of them played and I had never played before. So they’re like, come out, come out. And, you know, it’s just more frustrating at first, obviously, is a hard game. And I just kind of fell in love with it because, you know, it’s it challenges you and it’s not something you can just, you know, be good at right away. So I started playing five years ago, six years ago now.
So for me, golf, I think that right away I liked it because I wasn’t good at it. And I like to be good at everything I do or try to be at least. And so I think I was so frustrated that I couldn’t hit the ball, you know, for the first two years I played, you know, it was just kind of almost like a second love for me.
And come out and just try to be able to hit a golf ball and, you know, go out and play with the guys.
So that’s a good question. During the summer, I play almost daily, if I can, after I’m training during the week, though, especially during season, once or twice a week, just to get out and enjoy myself. I like to let it fly with the driver. I can hit it far, but probably my most consistent is my seven iron.So I’d say my seven
my two golf partners right now, or Mike Betty, my roommate, and Dan Stone. We grew up together in Pots, so we have a little crew that we like to go out with weekly.
Well, Dan and I would say our neck and neck Betty is also catching up to us. Because he beat us last time, so I’d say we have we have a three way tie going. And I’d like to see a couple of other guys play as well.So that’s up for debate.
I’d say just mentally, it’s a mentally challenging game in golf. You know, you can hit so many bad shots and lose your focus. And rugby, you’re just so mentally tired and, you know, you can lose focus and, you know, make plays or make mistakes and, you know, so hand in hand, you know, they go together. It’s it’s a mental battle and it’s like more of a mental toughness thing than anything.
My lowest round as of right now as an eighty one and I shot that this summer, actually this past couple of weeks.
So the recruiting for the XOS came from the spring league. I was out there playing. And Peter Pask actually reached out to me via DM on Twitter and just took a couple of days to respond to him. And you know, I didn’t really know what the opportunity was. They flew me out here and I just got a chance to look at it.
And, you know, I think, I loved it enough to give it a try. That is so challenging. It’s like no other sport I’ve ever played. You know, it’s hard, football is hard. But here it’s 80 minutes of just work. And I think that’s the hardest. You know, the why I love it so much is because it challenges you every single day you’re out there.
Yeah, I would have to say the first Nola game, just getting out there and getting the ball in the hands for the first time. And, you know, just feeling what it’s like to play actually was that first game made me fall in love with it right away. It’s just it made you work hard. It was tiring. It was you know, you had to make quick decisions and, you know, right away it was just something that, you know, I knew I was going to like.