ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 27, 1996 TAG: 9603270009
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
JASON CLARKE says being the Roanoke Express' enforcer is ``just a job,'' but his mother wouldn't mind if he found another profession.
The hockey game barely was three minutes old and Donna Clarke's baby boy was at it again.
She had just settled into her Roanoke Civic Center seat, where she had a clear view of her son pumping his right fist repeatedly into the head of a Mobile Mysticks player. Ten minutes later, she watched him skate off the ice to his regular seat in the penalty box after his offers to fight another player went unrequited. After another fight and another trip to the sin bin for roughing, the first period mercifully ended.
Just another night at the hockey rink when you're the mother of Jason Clarke, the renowned tough guy for the East Coast Hockey League's Roanoke Express.
``She has to get up and leave the rink or go outside for a quick cigarette to ease her nerves,'' Clarke said. ``She knows [fighting] is part of the game, but she doesn't want to see me get hurt. She used to tell me that I should be a tennis player. `There's no contact in tennis,' she'd tell me. `It's never too late to change.'''
Sometimes Clarke does things only a mother could love ... and some things even his mother can't love.
Like the time he fought Richmond's Trevor Senn - perhaps Clarke's chief antagonist - just as the puck dropped to open Game 4 of last year's Riley Cup playoff quarterfinal series.
Or the time a year ago when he battled the Greensboro Monarchs' Doug Evans and Mark Desantis at center ice at the same time. It was a singular event, one that cemented his place in the hearts of the Roanoke faithful.
Then there was the time recently when he received a misconduct penalty for going after a player on the South Carolina bench during a shootout.
It begs the question: Where does he get this aggressiveness?
``He's been this way since the day he was born,'' Donna Clarke said. ``His dad really likes it [when Jason fights]. He's always yelling, `Hit him! Hit him!' I'm always afraid he'll get hurt. I used to watch Jason playing at Niagara Falls [in junior hockey], and when he'd fight, Mother was out the side door. Time for a cigarette break.''
Clarke has seen plenty of doors open for him on the ice, especially doors to the penalty box. His pugilistic punishings have made him a folk hero to Roanoke hockey fans.
Two weeks ago, when he missed three games because of a suspension and watched the games from the stands, fans lined up in the civic center aisles to get his autograph, jamming walkways, stairways and exits to the concourse in the process. On ``Jason Clarke Poster Night,'' some fans waited as long as an hour to get him to sign their poster.
The ovations Clarke receives when his name is announced before a game are surpassed only by the cheers that greet him as he skates to the penalty box after another on-ice boxing match. To legions of Express fans, he is the good guy who rides into town to save folks from the bad guys.
``It's like the cowboys,'' Clarke said. ``The good guys wear white hats, the bad guys wear black.''
Clarke, though, wears a black helmet instead of a white Stetson. It fits, because he's more of a hockey antihero - the good guy, perhaps, but not always virtuous or squeaky clean. He has been cheered and jeered in Roanoke. Jeered two years ago when he played for the Charlotte Checkers and had to take on then-Express strongman Dave ``Moose'' Morissette, cheered since the day he put on Roanoke's green and red. Clarke has thrilled the fans, taken up for his teammates and occasionally confounded his coach and the team's management.
``I just enjoy playing for myself and the fans,'' he said. ``Hopefully, I bring excitement to the game. I hope they don't come just to see me fight. I hope they come to see me score some goals.''
Certainly, it doesn't hurt when Clarke scores some goals. After scoring 11 last season while accumulating a league-record 467 penalty minutes, Clarke made it a point to score more goals and finished the 1995-96 regular season with 20.
``I knew I couldn't do that by spending 500 minutes in the penalty box,'' he said.
He didn't. He spent only 491 minutes off the ice for various infractions.
Clarke didn't score a goal in Roanoke's final 17 regular-season games - three of which he missed because of a suspension for fighting - but he did establish a team record by registering at least one penalty in 23 consecutive games to end the season.
Sometimes Clarke's propensity to take what could be considered a ``bad'' penalty rankles coach Frank Anzalone.
There was such an occasion against Charlotte a few weeks ago when Clarke fell on top of Checkers wing Phil Berger, a longtime scourge of Roanoke fans. While the action moved to the other zone, Clarke remained atop Berger and bounced Berger's head on the ice several times, drawing an interference penalty.
The fans loved it. Except, perhaps, for Clarke's mother, who happened to be in the stands that night. Anzalone didn't care for it too much, either.
``Sometimes it's hard to hear the crowd applaud and not get caught up in it,'' Anzalone said. ``I like him better when he does his job and plays good hockey. In his defense, he's got to watch his back. Clarkie's a guy who, if he moves his feet, he can be effective. You won't find any guy at any level who does what he does and can play the body like he can.''
Clarke would like to play at a higher level. In tryouts with American Hockey League teams, he was told he needed to improve his skating and scoring. Maintaining his aggressive demeanor also would be a plus.
Clarke, who hails from Cobourg, Ontario, didn't become a fighter until his junior hockey days, although his association with the brutal side of hockey goes back to his teen-age years. His defining moment was getting the autograph of his hero, Toronto Maple Leafs tough guy Wendel Clark.
Clarke wears No.17 in honor of his hero and tries to play like him. In turn, Clarke has become a fan favorite in Roanoke, except to those who despise the fighting that takes place in professional hockey.
``I go to schools a lot to talk to kids, and when they ask me why I fight, I tell 'em it's just a job,'' he said. ``I don't have a normal 9-to-5 job like everyone else. I tell 'em I'd appreciate if they didn't go out and do that outside of hockey. It's just a job. They shouldn't be out fighting in the street.''
It's the kind of sentiment even a mother could love.
LENGTH: Long : 118 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Roanoke's Jason Clarke (left),by CNBfighting South Carolina's Carl LeBlanc on March 9, scored 20 goals
this season despite spending 491 minutes in the penalty box. color.