Landon Clark may be the new Head Coach for the Niangua Cardinals Baseball team, but this isn’t his first go-around with Baseball. “I coach with a youth travel ball organization, and the owner of the organization let me know that there was this opportunity…” explained Coach Clark, who had been actively looking for the opportunity to take his coaching to the next level, i.e., high school baseball.
Coach Clark was hired at the end of the 2025-2026 school year and had the opportunity to meet the team before summer break. “I gave an interview, met some of the kids, and we’ve been practicing throughout the summer on occasion…now we are kicking into practices, and we’ve got our first couple games coming up.”
The job as head Baseball Coach is the perfect role for Clark, who has a solid background in the game. “I played High School baseball at Hillcrest in Springfield-I played four years of varsity, I played travel ball pretty much all my life, I had some college interest but ended up not playing college ball,” shared Clark, who holds a degree in business from Evangel University along with his baseball coaching experience. “The past three or four years I’ve been doing personal training for baseball, and I’ve been coaching for about four years now.”
Though not teaching at Niangua High School, Clark is invested in the boys and the baseball team. “We have fourteen on the roster; it’s a pretty young group of guys…there are four freshmen and four sophomores that are comprising a large bit of our talent…they will contribute a lot…the younger group of guys has a little bit more experience,” Clark explained of his team, who played their first tournament in Conway on August 27, 2026.
And for anyone wondering what exactly is “fall baseball,”-Clark explained, “Fall ball is a little bit more exhibition, I would say. They are less focused on winning and more on development in the fall. Fall is more of a practice….”
When asked if there were any players to keep an eye on, Clark shared there are a few: “Josh Dixon-he is a Sophomore; he’s a bigger guy; he will definitely throw a lot of innings and hit in the top part of the lineup. Weston Bouvia-he is a Freshman, and Colton Kirksey-he is a sophomore. They are probably going to be a big part of the pitching rotation, eating up a lot of innings, and they will both probably hit in the top part of the lineup. The other one is Avin Hamilton-he’s a Senior; he is going to be a really important outfielder, hitting leadoff or the three-hole. He will be super important for our offense and our defense.”
Clark is coming into this fall ball season ready to use the games as a way to boost his team's confidence and help them find their competitive edge. “I know last year they had nine games where they didn’t score any runs; I want to teach them to find a way on base…and strategic placement of players to score a few runs and be competitive in games.”
“I’m super excited to get the season started and start playing some baseball-I think that’s when they are going to grow the most-when they are playing,” shared Clark.
