BELLVILLE – You’ve heard the saying: Not all heroes wear capes.
Some wear police, firefighter and nurse uniforms. But one wears a No. 61 Clear Fork Colts (Bellville, Ohio) football jersey.
Clear Fork sophomore Zac Clark is a hero. No doubt about it. Over the weekend, Clark was outside working in the flower beds with his mother, Lora. He looked over and noticed his neighbor working under his Volkswagen and didn’t think anything of it. Probably just doing a routine oil change. No big deal.
Until he heard a loud bang and screaming from his neighbor’s wife. The car had slipped off the jack stand and was crushing the man’s chest.
“I turned around and saw him struggling,” Clark said. “Instincts kicked in and I just ran over there, and I just thought I had to get the car off him. I did get it off him a little bit and his wife and my mom pulled him out from under it. Next thing you know he got rushed to the hospital. It was crazy.”
Clark ran over and actually lifted the car off his neighbor’s chest. Pure adrenaline carried him over and saved the man’s life who is now back home resting comfortably. Doctors later told him he would have died had Clark not helped him out.
But for a 16-year old kid to not blink or panic and instead run over and help his neighbor is astonishing.
“I have always wanted to be a firefighter and help people out,” Clark said. “The first thing that came to my mind was to get over there, do what I can do and do anything I can to help.”
Clear Fork coach Dave Carroll, who posted the event on his team’s Facebook page, heard his phone ring with Clark on the other line just minutes after everything happened. Clark was still out of breath explaining to his coach what happened and Carroll was shell-shocked just thinking if the man was OK and if Clark himself was OK.
“I felt really cool because, I believe, I was the first person he called after it all happened,” Carroll said. “We have a young man here on our football team that exemplifies everything you talk about as a football coach. You always want players with courage and strength and does the right thing and doesn’t hesitate when you are called to duty. He did all those things. That is just awesome.”
More than awesome. Carroll called Clark a “real-life hero” in the Facebook post which has been viewed more than 20,000 times. Being called a hero isn’t something Clark is used to just yet.
“It is crazy to think about honestly,” Clark said. “But it is all about people helping people. The adrenaline kicked in, I got the car up a little bit and we got him out.”
