Butch Clark wanted to be a sports writer.

As a student at Montgomery County High School in the early 1970s, he helped cover the varsity program for the Montgomery Standard and Mexico Ledger.

“It was a free ticket to a game I was already going to,” he says with a laugh. “It was hard to pass up.”

He watched Montgomery County Head Coach Bill Ballew — a Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame member — and junior varsity coach Jim Snell.

Somewhere between watching practices and sitting in on halftime speeches, he got the coaching itch.

Four decades later, Clark is stepping away from the game.

He announced his retirement from Liberty Christian after 11 seasons at the school.

His career record of 401-142 was good enough to have the gym named after him.

He didn’t believe such a thing was possible 40 years ago at Andrews Air Force Base.

A few years after high school, Clark joined the Air Force and worked for a medical squadron on the base.

His supervisor had a 14-year-old son who played on a base team that needed a coach, and Clark was offered the job.

“He told me If I coached his boy, I could have as much time off as I wanted,” Clark remembers. “So that sounded like a pretty good deal.”

In what would become a pattern, Clark guided the team to a league championship.

He left the Air Force and began a career in sales.

“It’s preparation for life,” he said of the military. “Would I do it again? Probably not. Do I regret doing it? Probably not. It helps you grow up.”

Clark grew up and stayed around the game, helping out at Montgomery County for the next 25 years.

He coached the boys and girls varsity summer teams, helped out with camps and worked with middle school players.

In 1998, he became the first head coach for the Warrenton Christian girls program.

A year later, he took over the boys program.

“When I accepted the boys’ job on the spot, the athletic director told me to pray on it,” Clark recalls. “I said that I have. He asked me when I started praying, and I said, ‘During the first practice with the girls.’ ”

Clark coached his son, Aaron, his first year with the boys team at Warrenton Christian.

He coached at the school for seven years, winning four state championships.

He remembers his final team at Warrenton Christian fondly.

The 2004-2005 team featured Dane Brumagin, who eventually played at University of Missouri-Kansas City.

“I think they maxed-out on their potential more than any other team I’ve had,” he says. “It was nice having a guy like Dane who you know would be on every single night. It really made my job easier.”

Reaching one’s potential is something Clark talks about often.

“I like to see if they lived up to what God blessed them with,” he says, recalling former player Jake Keller.

According to Clark, Keller, “didn’t have a speck of basketball ability, but he worked hard and became our best defender.”

Keller started on the 2006-2007 Liberty Christian team that won a state title.

“Brendan Dickson was a similar player this year,” he points out. “Kids like that just work hard, and it’s great to see that as a coach.”

Dickson started at guard for the Eagles this season.

“He’s been everything to us,” Dickson said. “He’s meant way more to us than a basketball coach, but he’s been a great coach, too.”

Clark won a pair of state titles at Liberty Christian, but he is quick to point out the tough losses.

The Eagles lost in overtime of the state championship game the last two seasons.

“It’s been fun, though,” Clark says of the last 11 years. “The kids are what I’ll remember most. I don’t feel old, but I realized I could have coached my current players’ grandparents back in ’75, so that does make you feel a little old.”

Clark, who lives in Montgomery City, will continue working in sales while spending more time with his wife, Barbara.

He doesn’t plan on coaching again, but it won’t keep him from the gym with his namesake.

“There’s no way in the world I’ll be at home and not here during a game,” he says. “I’m ready to sit in the stands and second-guess the coach like everyone else.”