Travis Clark is about to start his 11th year teaching and coaching at Trinity High School in Euless.
The boys and girls wrestling coach for the Trojans will have a busy start to the school year as he competitions for himself lined up in August, September and October.
Yeah, there is no slowing down the recently-turned 42-year-old who competes in grappling.
He will head to Las Vegas for the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation Black Belt Gi World Champions from Aug 29-31.
Clark will be in the Master 3 Division with about 30 other top-level guys from across the world, he said. He will be going for the black belt title, one of the few major titles he hasn’t accomplished yet.
Then, he will be back in Vegas on Sept. 21 and will be on the Marine Corps team for the Desert Duals, a military fundraiser at the UFC Apex.
The military veteran, who was part of the Iraq invasion in 2003, will join veterans, reservists and active duty members of the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force in a Brazilian Jiu-jitsu tournament.
Finally, he will represent Team USA in the United World Wrestling finals in Astana, Kazakhstan from Oct. 7-12. He will be doing the veteran-level Gi and NoGi tournaments, as well as the Senior Level Gi Tournament.
He went to Kazakhstan in 2017 and came home with two veteran titles and third place in the senior-level division. In 2022, he went to Belgrade, Serbia for another UWW event.
He said most of his competition will be in their 20s but he’s still grinding.
“Just the fact that I’m still doing it … the fact that I can show these kids that if you just keep grinding keep pushing you know that anything’s possible,” said Clark, who is a Blackbelt in NoGi. “I think it makes my job easier in a sense where they have nothing to complain about because they see me doing it, they see me out there grinding. I think it really shows it takes a lot of work in order to get to that next level.”
All of where he is now started after he moved from Ohio to Texas. He was doing jiu-jitsu when he got hurt and focused on his teaching job at Fort Worth ISD — where he was for five years with stops at Dunbar and Paschal.
He started training fighters and that took him to work at All-American MMA and BJJ in Keller.
“I fell in love with the environment and the atmosphere they’ve developed here,” he said. “It’s kind of like what we look for in wrestling, how wrestling is a close community … that’s kind of what they built here at All-American.”
Eventually, Clark got into doing local MMA/BJJ tournaments and then it rolled from there.
His list of accomplishments for himself is pretty lengthy and started back in high school at Findlay, Ohio, where he was a two-time state qualifier.
Instead of going to college out of high school and pursuing a football scholarship he joined the Marines.
“Wrestling was just something I did for fun and to stay in shape,” he said.
After Iraqi, he earned a spot on the USMC All Greco-Roman team in 2004-05 and was a two-time senior national All-American for the Marines.
Then, after the military he went to Division II University of Findlay in his hometown.
He was a three-time D-II Academic All-American and was an All-American in 2007 and 2009 for the Oilers.
His last year in college was one for the memory books. Clark was going for this master’s degree but his financial aid ran out, so he ended up being a 27-year-old defensive lineman for the college.
He also was a student teacher and wrestled and took eighth though he beat the national champion in his weight class three times that season.
The competitive nature in his 20s has carried into his 30s and now 40s.
“It’s in my blood; I’ve been competing for so many years now that every time I saw I’m going to retire and I’m, ‘oh, I’ll get one last run,” Clark said. It’s always chasing that next big thing and I can’t sit at home. I can’t rest. I’m always trying to do something.”
His list of accomplishments in recent years include:
- USA Wrestling Senior Greco-Roman all-American
- 2018 USA Wrestling Masters Greco-Roman National Champion
- 2018 USA Wrestling Masters Freestyle All-American, 3rd place
- 2021 IBJJF Master NoGi Blackbelt World Champion
- 2021 IBJFF Masters NoGi Blackbelt Pan American champion
- 7x Grappling/BJJ World Champion
- 4x Grappling/BJJ World medalist
- 3x IBJFF NoGi Pan American Champion
- Fight to Win Masters Blackbelt Gi Champion
- 2017 and 2021 USA Grappling World Team Member
From the Mat to Coaching
When it comes to coaching, Clark is pretty good too. He was inducted into the Texas High School Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame this past February. He’s guided Trinity to a state championship in 6A in 2020 and a pair of UIL 6A runners-up finishes and two THSWCA 6A Dual State Championships.
His girls’ program at Trinity has won seven district titles, while the boys have won two. He’s been a Coach of the Year 16 times in his career and has sent 77 wrestlers to state (55 girls) and has more than 30 athletes who signed national letters of intent to wrestle at the next level.
At the state and national level, he’s won USA Wrestling folkstyle and freestyle titles coaching Team Texas in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Clark credits All-American owner Rocky Budri for the success of the wrestlers in the area, especially girls youth wrestlers in his club.
“He’s generous enough to open the doors for these girls,” he said. “He doesn’t ask for nothing in return. All he wants is a safe space for these girls to come in and train so a lot of our success as a wrestling club is due to what he allows us to come in here and do so. That goes back to that family environment, that family atmosphere that we’ve created here because all the members are great.”
Clark has started Clark Grappling, where he teaches judo, No Gi, Gi, Greco-Roman, folkstyle and freestyle.
He teaches classes throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area and even has gotten interest from clubs throughout the state.
“Being able to give back; I bring a lot of my wrestlers in to mentor these young female athletes or male athletes,” Clark said. “Just being able to tie it all together. Going back to that family atmosphere … just a sense of belonging.”
