L-R: Doug Himes, Jennifer Clark Junker and Michael Langley have court vision.

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    But don’t take that to mean Junker warms the bench; she has her own skills on the court. She has evolved from player to coach of the nearly 40-year-old company since her teen years helping her dad, the late John F. Clark, install auditorium and gymnasium seating, and has recruited a team of players to assist her.

Doug Himes and Michael Langley remember when they came to the company as rookies out of college, and their first impressions of the formidable Clark, whom they admired as a gregarious, technology-savvy mentor. Himes, who hails from a sporting goods family, remembers his first school project, and marvels how much he has learned, and Langley recalls how proud he was to help win his first school contract with the company (back then, it totaled $2,000).

As the company has grown, the three have grown with it, and have their own brand of high school memories.

“We’ve done every school you can imagine in Texas,” Junker says. “It’s fun to drive around and say, ‘We did that!’”

And the game keeps going into overtime for the trio.

“Once you get in the business, it’s hard to get out,” Himes says.

Dallas-based educational facility specialists, the John F. Clark Company distributes and installs a range of athletic equipment and seating, and also offers complete interior overhauls. –mjm