This year’s inductees to the Rockdale High School Athletic Hall of Honor are two former Division I athletes that also happened to roam the halls of RHS.
One made multiple trips to the state track meet before becoming a Horned Frog and pole vaulting at Texas Christian University. The other caught the eye of numerous college football scouts before landing not too far from TCU at Texas Tech University. That former RHS student is now a Tennessee Titan in the National Football League. To learn more about the newest additions to the Hall of Honor, read what the Reporter’s Editor Emeritus Bill Cooke had to say: Leslie Starnes Leslie Starnes, RHS Class of 2006, is a shining example of the old saying that “dynamite comes in small packages!”
Never measuring over 5 feet in height, Starnes’ prowess as a pole vaulter earned medals at the UIL state track and field meet (Class 3A) in Austin all four years of her high school career as a Lady Tiger, including silver medals her sophomore, junior and senior seasons. As a senior she earned accolades as one of the top girl vaulters in Texas, regardless of classification, and as one of the 12 best nationally.
That earned her a track and field scholarship to Texas Christian University in Fort Worth where she continued her winning ways.
She set school records at Rockdale High with a personal best of 12-feet, 5-inches, plus a school record in the 100-meter dash of 11.78. Then she set a TCU record in the vault for the Horned Frogs (12-3).
Vaulting demands a skill set involving many things— speed down the runway, upper body strength, leg strength and spring, excellent timing and body control. For Starnes, it all started with open tryouts in the seventh grade at Rockdale Junior High School.
“I was screaming while running down the runway after seeing a few of my classmates fall off the pit,” she said. “Everybody was scared the first try and I was too.” That fear quickly disappeared. She won the event at the junior high district meet that year and was hooked. “It ended up being fun and it was something that just came naturally,” she said.
Starnes also played basketball for the Lady Tigers for four years, tennis for a couple of years, golf for two years, was a cheerleader and served on the student council.
It was on the track where she made the most contributions. Her coach, Amy Brodbeck, utilized her athleticism in multi events as Starnes ran the 200-meter dash and on two relay teams. Her senior year, she switched from the 200 to the 100 and placed second at regional, qualifying for state, where she placed fifth in the 100 in addition to her third con- secutive second place in the pole vault. “She gave us at least 20 points at every meet her senior year and qualified for four events at regional,” Coach Brodbeck said.
Starnes won Lady Tiger track team MVP honors four straight years, and she was Academic All-State all four years.
She is now a registered nurse.
Le’Raven Clark A 2011 RHS graduate, Le’Raven Clark was a fouryear, two-way starter at tackle for the Tigers and earned all-district honors on both offense and defense (District 23-3A) as a junior and senior, and All-State honors and Under Armor High School All-American honors as a senior. He helped lead Coach Jeff Miller’s Tigers to four straight trips into the state playoffs.
Also excelling in basketball and track, he twice earned regional medals in the shot put and discus and advanced to the state meet in discus as a senior.
A four-star recruit, Clark had a brilliant career as a Texas Tech Red Raider offensive lineman. After red-shirting his first season (2011), he started all 51 games (never missing one) over the next four seasons. He earned All-Big 12 Conference honors, All-American honors, was a team captain as a senior and was selected for the 2016 Senior Bowl. In each of his last three seasons, he was on the watch lists for the Outland Trophy (outstanding lineman) and Lombardi Award (outstanding lineman or linebacker). Some year-by-year highlights: 2012—(Red-shirt freshman), started all 13 games at right guard, named Freshman All-American by Football Writers of America and by Scout.com, and All-Big 12 mention by ESPN, Dallas Morning News, Phil Steele, and also Academic All-Big 12.
2013—(Sophomore), started all 13 games at left tackle and dominated on the offensive line in the Red Raiders’ 37-23 Holiday Bowl upset of 14th-ranked Arizona State, not allowing a sack. Named to ESPN Big 12 All-Bowl Team, and earned All-Big 12 honors from Associated Press, FOX Sports, Phil Steele, Athlon and others.
2014—(Junior), started all 12 games at left tackle, paved way for Tech’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 1998 (DeAndre Washington). Clark earned 2nd-team All-American honors from USA Today and 1st-team All-Big 12 honors by Associated Press.
2015—(Senior), now a team captain, Clark again started every game and lived a lineman’s dream, scoring a touchdown against Oklahoma State on a batted pass which he grabbed and ran 8 yards into the end zone. He also ran for a 2-point conversion against Kansas. He anchored a Tech line that allowed only 27 sacks over four seasons. Other pre-season and post-season honors included 2nd-team All-American honors from CBS Sports, plus 1st-team All-Big 12 honors from conference coaches, Associated Press, ESPN, Waco Tribune, San Antonio Express News and others.
At the time of this 2022 induction, the 6-foot, 5-inch, 311-pound Clark was in his seventh season in the National Football League. Drafted by Indianapolis in 2016, he spent six seasons with the Colts. He played in 8 games (3 starts) as a rookie and played in 47 games as a Colt. On May of 2021, Clark signed with the Philadelphia Eagles but now plays with the Tennessee Titans, who he signed with earlier this month.
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