Coach Scott is my earliest and strongest basketball influence.  Coach Scott was an honorable man - one who didn't use technical fouls to try to influence games, didn't resort to harsh language to motivate his players, played by the rules, and showed sportsmanship.  I can't tell you much about his coaching career before or after Holcomb, but he coached the Holcomb High School Hornets from 1974 to 1980.  When he came in 1974, he established a Little League Basketball season.  When the first group of children who had grown up through Coach Scott's system reached junior high (my class), they proceeded to go undefeated for their junior high years.  Their (our) first year of junior varsity, the only year I played, they (we) captured the conference championship.   The unfortunate thing is that Coach Scott had been forced to step down before that year, and I never got to play for him, and he never got to coach the first group of kids through his Little League program.

Coach Scott is the first person to show me that basketball is a thinking man's game.  During my junior high years, I was allowed to keep books for the High School teams, and in doing so, I learned much of the strategy that goes on behind the games.  Coach Scott taught me the real game of basketball.

Coach Scott believed in discipline.  Players receiving technical fouls were relegated to the bench, regardless of skill level.  Starters receiving technical fouls also forfeited their starting position the next game.  Sportsmanship and playing fair were more important to Coach Scott than winning was.

I credit Coach Scott with the fundamentals of the player that I have become, and I am proud to say that he was on hand to witness my "career" game against Southland.  (He was there to watch his son, Gary, but he got to see me, too.)   My greatest regret in basketball is that I never got to use my skills for Coach Scott.

Surrounded by individualistic players, guards lacking either speed or mental toughness, and players who redefined apathy, Coach Scott took a pounding his final year as Holcomb's coach.  The junior varsity team did well, but the A-Team, viewed as "promising" by the Holcomb parents, played poorly, often due to the indifference of the players toward Coach Scott.  Sportsmanship awards were no longer good enough, and Coach Scott stepped down quietly.

Coach Scott was also instrumental in a Little League Baseball program during the summer.  Again, the players showed the benefits of learning at an early age, and Holcomb became a baseball power to be reckoned with in the 1-A division under coaches that followed Coach Scott.  But I have always thought of Coach Scott primarily as a basketball coach.

So, Coach, thanks for taking the time to teach a player who never started a game, never hit a shot from the field in a high school game, never had a game-winning point, steal, rebound, or assist, never had a game to be remembered, and never played a game for you.  Despite the obvious lack of basketball accomplishments, I think you'd feel that I turned out into exactly what you were hoping for - a person who realizes it's more important to be a good person than a good basketball player.

This page last updated 11/13/2006 .