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VFW 7764 presents check to NTMS track
NTMS Track Team and VFW
Front row l-r:  Coa Corbett, Harmony Davis, Alleigh Gibson, Carlee Trim, Jamyia Farmer, Carmin Carroway, Eli Debevec. Second row l-r: Coach Odyr Spurgeon, Wayne Campbell, Gene Williams, Coach Brock Scott, Ronnie McCall, Peyton Defoe, Coach Ann Smith, Hampton Brown, Bill Kulick. Back row l-r: Reverend William Prince, Joe Boyett, John Brazel, Don Bentley, Ronnie Thomas, Earl Boyett

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7764 presented a check for $2,426. to Coach Brock Scott on Monday, March 14, 2022, to be used to support the North Tattnall Middle School (NTMS) track team.  The check represented profits from the chicken dinner fundraiser two weeks ago.

  “Traditionally, track is a sport that does not generate a lot of revenue, and we appreciate the efforts of Post 7764 to help us develop a good boys and girls track program at NTMS,” Coach Scott said.

Brock Scott is walking down the well-worn path created by his locally famous father, the late Coach Danny Scott.  Danny Scott began the development of successful boys track and field teams at Reidsville High School in the early 1970s and had a state championship team at RHS in 1976.   

Coach Scott had numerous region championships and state runner-up teams in the 1970s and 80s, and he later worked with Coach William Hall to bring home a state track championship in 1995 at Tattnall County High School. 

Coach Danny Scott understood that track was a vital underpinning for championship football teams.  In football, basketball, and baseball, footspeed is essential, and he worked tirelessly at coaching technique and form to improve speed.  At Reidsville, he turned out sprinters like Gwain Durden, Glen Andrews, Ronald Stanfield, Willie Henry Smith, LeRoy Eason, Donnell Anthony, Emory Bacon, James Smith, Vernie Anthony, Warnell Anthony, James Anthony, Monty Sharpe, Everette Sharpe, Mark Butler, LaRonda McKinnon, and Eddie Johnson who went on to become outstanding running backs, receivers, linebackers and defensive linemen.  He established his “fat boy relay teams’ which consisted of shot putters and discus throwers that he challenged to outrun the “skinny boys” in the 400 and 1600 meter races. It was a specific program designed to increase footspeed among offensive, defensive linemen and linebackers which anyone who watched the Georgia-Alabama National Championship football game can appreciate. In football, basketball, and baseball, speed is essential.

He always told his track sprinters that “college football coaches are thick as hair on a dog’s back” at state track meets.  

“If it comes down to you and someone else competing for a football scholarship, they will select the fastest man,” he often said. “Coaches want speed.”

Coach Brock Scott understands that too.  

“He was a member of the ‘fat boy 400-meter relay team’ that finished second in sub-region competition at RHS in 1990.  The ‘fat boy 1,600-meter relay team’ finished fourth in sub-region competition the same year.  Brock ran a 4.65 second forty yard dash at the University of Georgia football camp in 1989 (hand held time), and his foot speed helped him get a football scholarship at Georgia Southern. 

Like his father, Brock understands that the fundamentals in sprinting, hurdling, high jump, pole vault, long jump and triple jump cannot be learned too early. 

“We are trying to build a middle school program that can impact athletics at Tattnall County High School,” he said.  “It’s expensive and track doesn’t draw crowds like football and basketball. We have a long way to go.”

Additionally, track and baseball provides athletic activities in the spring that give students something to do and can help keep them out of trouble.

Current needs include a landing pad and crossbar (right now they are using PVC bar for high jump and pole vault), hurdles and uniforms.  

“My father and his students built the first RHS hurdles in 1975 in his industrial arts shop, but I don’t have that skill,” he said.

During the VFW chicken dinner fundraiser, Terry Carter, a former football and baseball player at RHS in the late 1970s and early 80s who owns Carter Insurance in Savannah, donated $200 to the cause.  “I didn’t run track,” Terry said, “But I know what Coach Scott did for so many young people in Tattnall County.  I want to help support the program.” 

Donations to the program are welcomed.  Checks can be made out to North Tattnall Middle School Track team and sent to NTMS Track, at PO Box 369 in Reidsville.