Former King’s Fork High School football star Chuck Clark is beginning to grab the spotlight at Virginia Tech, just in time for that spotlight to hit the national stage with Monday’s opener against No. 1-ranked Ohio State University.

Is As a junior for the Hokies, Clark is establishing himself as a star defensive back at a school that is establishing itself as a maker of stars in that position.

“He’s been invaluable from the standpoint that Chuck can do so many things,” said Hokies defensive secondary coach Torrian Gray. “We’re asking him to do a lot of things from a positional standpoint. He can play anywhere back there in the secondary, and this is the first year he’s actually going to play both safety spots. So, he can go play the nickel spot or he can go play the cornerback spot. He means a lot to us.”

In his sophomore season, Clark played in all 13 games, made 11 starts and finished third on the team with 73 tackles. He recorded 8.5 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, one interception, 11 pass breakups and six quarterback hurries.

“It was OK,” was his modest assessment of the season. “I feel like I have a lot of room to improve.”

As pleased as Gray has been with Clark’s play, he anticipates that improvement this season.

“I expect him to take it to a level that he hasn’t taken it to yet,” Gray said. “I plan for him to have a big-time season, an all-conference type season. He’s on the brink of that, and I expect him to really explode on to the scene and kind of carve out a name for himself. He has that type of ability, and he has that type of work ethic, so I expect him to take that type of leap.”

King’s Fork High School coach Joe Jones is excited to see Clark earning the spotlight.

“I think it’s very (well-deserved),” he said. “First of all, he was great young man, just a great person that also happened to be an excellent football player. I think if you talked to anyone who was around him at King’s Fork High School, I think that’s what they’d say about him.”

Jones felts so strongly about Clark that he told Virginia Tech coaches when Clark was a freshman there that he would be a team captain one day.

Though he is only a junior this year, Clark has proven his high school coach right.

“Only being a junior speaks even more highly of how much they think of him, but not only the coaches, his teammates,” Jones said.

Clark said he has not felt much pressure from the high expectations.

“I’m prepared for it, being the fact that the past couple seasons I’ve had older guys who’ve gone on to play in the NFL,” he said, noting he has been able to learn from those former teammates how to prepare himself for games.

Clark and the Hokies begin their 2015 season on Monday at home against Ohio State University, the defending national champions.

“We’ve got a good opponent, it’s going to be a real big game, and we’re looking forward to it,” Clark said. “We’re just ready to play some football.”