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But Scott made news of a different sort last weekend, when he won a bronze medal in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the 2006 USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships held in Charlotte. His time in the Saturday race, 11 minutes and 31 seconds, surpassed the All-America standard by 14 seconds.
“I have been fortunate enough to experience some success with my running, but nothing on a national level like this,” Scott said. “This is probably my biggest achievement [as a runner]. When you win a race, you might be beating a weak field, but that All-American standard is set. You have to hit your time to make that status. I hope it’s not the last time I do it.”
Scott, 42, has been racing since he was 15 years old. He starred at Carolina and never expects to lose his passion for competitive running. He has won at least one race ever since 1986, the year he graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and does not appear to be slowing down.
“This is my 28th year of competitive running and I plan to do it another 28 years if not 38 or 48,” Scott said.
Born in High Point, Scott moved to Jamestown with his family when he was 8. In the ninth grade at Jamestown Junior High School the teenager began what would be his life’s passion, even though he was only 4-feet, 10 inches tall.
“At first, I was adequate at best in track,” Scott remembered. “I was too short for basketball (He was the last person cut from the team out of 78 tryouts.), too small for football and didn’t want a baseball thrown at me. But I still wanted that ‘atta-boy’ from my buddies and the attention of the girls.”
The next year at Ragsdale High School, the sophomore had grown to 5-foot-2 inches in height and was recognized by the coach as being the most improved player on the track team.
“My buddies were covering more ground than I was because they had longer legs, so I’d take a long stride,” Scott said. “As I grew, the long stride became comfortable.”
By the time Scott graduated from Ragsdale, he had grown in height to five-foot, seven inches. As he competed against larger high schools in the area, he failed to make the sectionals. Since he was headed for Carolina, he figured he wouldn’t be good enough to run track at that ACC school and didn’t even plan to try out for the track team as a walk-on. But soon after his arrival in Chapel Hill, a new friend encouraged him to go out for track anyway.
“On the first day of practice, the team went on an eight mile run,” Scott said. “Those guys were so far ahead of me, I had to knock on doors to find my directions back to campus. I knew that if I was going to do this that I would have to buckle down.”
Scott, indeed, did buckle down and by his sophomore year at Carolina earned a letter in track. He put on 15 pounds of muscle the first six weeks of that school year as he and his fellow Tar Heels ran 10-12 miles a day, four-to-five days a week.
“I’d see those millionaire basketball players, like Kelvin Bryant and Walter Davis, coming back to campus and busting their butts,” Scott said. “Their work ethic rubbed off on me.”
Besides returning alumni, Scott was inspired by athletes in other sports, some of whom he befriended. Two whom he mentioned were Jack Nicklaus Jr. on the golf team and baseball player B.J. Surhoff, who wound up being Major League Baseball’s top draft choice in 1985. Surhoff has enjoyed a long, fruitful career in The Show.
Inspired by the talent around him, Scott became an inspiration himself. He earned the accolades of his track coach when he placed seventh in the state in a 600-yard race and when he ran a half-mile in one minute and 57 seconds. He improved his half-mile to one minute, 52.7 seconds at Florida State.
Despite his improvement on the field, Scott was sick a lot at Carolina. Finally, this was determined to be caused by infected tonsils his senior year.
“That’s when I said it was time to get on with my life,” said Scott, who earned a degree in journalism.
His first full-time job was with the Harnett County News in Lillington. He moved to the Dunn Daily Record before going to law school at Campbell University.
“I knew I was missing the running when I did a seven-mile run the night before an exam,” Scott said.
Scott returned to Jamestown and returned to journalism with the Jamestown News. He also went back to his high school alma mater as a volunteer coach with the Ragsdale track team. Later, he started Scott Advertising, a venture that led to the offer to take his current position as tourism director in Thomasville, which he began on March 30, 2000.
“It’s been fun,” Scott said of his job. “Even though the manufacturing seems to be going, I’ve seen the city grow. Downtown has started to become revitalized, and we’ve added a couple of hotels, some chain restaurants.”
Among other accomplishments, Scott is proud of the 20-foot jersey of Carolina Panthers fullback Brad Hoover that he had made and draped over the Big Chair, earning Thomasville some national attention as the Panthers were about to play in the Super Bowl. And Scott is also proud of his running.
“I’ve run in about every nook and cranny in North Carolina,” he said.
Scott has run in quite a few other states, including Massachusetts.
“In 1996 I ran in what people think is the largest [in-person] spectator sporting event in the history of the world, the 100th anniversary of the Boston Marathon,” he said. “I’ve done six marathons, but I’m not really a marathoner. I’m a miler or a half-miler.”
Nevertheless, Scott likes variety and challenges. In last week’s Masters, which showcased 43 world champions and 10 Olympians, he also entered the pentathlon, which involves long jump, javelin throw, 200-meter dash, discus throw and 1500 meter run. He pulled a leg muscle in this event, but still finished fifth. His injured leg made him questionable for the steeplechase, making his bronze medal and All-America status even more remarkable.
Scott tends to run competitively about 30 weekends a year. Standing slightly over five-foot, nine-inches tall and weighing a little over 140, he is able to get his heartbeat rate over 215, allowing himself more oxygen to his muscles than most runners. He estimates he’s won about 200 races with his foot-speed.
“My goal at this point, is to win the overall race because if somebody passes me, I still can win in the 40-and-over category,” he said.
Scott enjoys winning so much that his 3-year-old son is named Win, which is short for Winfield. Win enjoys running along with his dad and, at the age of 2, won the Fastest Kid in Town race in Greensboro last year. Scott’s wife Marcia is also supportive of his running and usually accompanies him on his races, organizing his running gear and cheering him on.
“I think running is great for young people, particularly those in high school,” Scott said. “In this society where everyone wants instant gratification, this is a way of doing it. You run hard for four or five days and you’ll see that you did better than you did the week before.”
Staff Writer Kevin Reid can be reached at 472-9500, ext. 230, or reid@tvilletimes.com.