Tyler Clarke Senior Profile

DURHAM, N.C. - GoDuke.com recently sat down with Tyler Clarke for his senior profile. Clarke is a multi-event specialist from Clackamas, Ore. He discusses his favorite book, why he chose Duke, and his plans after graduation, plus much more.

GD: What is your favorite professional team?
TC: I am a huge fan of the Portland Trailblazers and am excited to become a season-ticket holder when I graduate.

GD: What is your favorite movie?
TC: I love “Friday Night Lights” because it really brings me back to my days playing high school football and reminds me of my high school glory days.

GD: What's your favorite book?
TC: I recently finished reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a story about growing up and falling in love and living life and I think those are all important things a college student goes through.

GD: Describe your SportsCenter moment.
TC: My sophomore year I was competing in the decathlon at the ACC Championships, which is the biggest meet of the year for me. My parents and grandfather flew in and I had done very well on the first day of my competition. On the second day, the pole vault is the eighth event, and I missed my first two attempts at my opening height. Because of the nature of the decathlon, which is 10 events over two days, if I had missed my final attempt I would have essentially been out of the competition despite having a great first seven events. I stepped up to the runway knowing the success of my season was on the line and I cleared the bar by a lot. It was definitely the most nerve-wracking moment of my career.

GD: What's your favorite food?
TC: I eat a second dinner of spaghetti probably three times a week, but I don't just boil the water and throw the pasta in, I like to grill up some onions, some peppers, olive oil, salami and other good stuff ? it's great.

GD: Do you have any pregame rituals?
TC: Before the first decathlon of the year, I invite my fellow decathletes over to my apartment for a spaghetti dinner so we can relax and carbo-load the night before the meet.

GD: Are you superstitious, and if so, describe why.
TC: I'm not sure if revealing my superstitions is bad luck, but I will tell you that when I take off my warm-ups before any event in the decathlon, I like to make sure that all of my clothes are touching each other and none of them are stranded. I'm a fairly neat person in real life so maybe this superstition stems from my neatness.

GD: What's your best non-athletic talent?
TC: I tape and play “Jeopardy” with a group of three friends a couple of times a week. They won't admit it but I usually mop the floor with them, but that's not my real talent. We like to play Final Jeopardy by guessing the answer just from seeing the category, not from seeing the clue, and I'm successful about five percent of the time which I'm fairly proud of. We call getting a successful answer just from the category a “hole-in-one” and it's a great feeling.

GD: What would the perfect end to your athletic career look like?
TC: I've had my perfect end playing on loop in my brain for the past three years and it really keeps me going every day at practice, but to tell you would be to spoil the fun.

GD: Why did you choose to attend Duke?
TC: Duke was an easy choice for me when I looked at schools that were going to let me compete with the best athletically as well as academically.

Tyler Clarke Senior Profile

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Tyler Clarke

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Tyler Clarke Senior Profile

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