Coaches

Clovis “Toby” Scott

Year Inducted: 1991

Category: Coaches

Schools / Organizations:
Georgetown High School
Chester, Ridge Farm, Oblong, Milford and St. Anne High Schools

Biography: Toby Scott retired after 40 years of teaching and administrative work, along with 26 seasons of coaching at six different high schools. Scott’s coaching stops were at Chester, Ridge Farm, Oblong, Milford and St. Anne before ending his career at Georgetown. Scott’s varsity record was 391-203. He enjoyed immediate success at Georgetown in the 1954-1955 season by taking the school to its first ever Sweet Sixteen. But the accomplishment was nothing new for Scott. Success had found him at two prior stops, Ridge Farm and St. Anne. “I think the best thing that stands out is in three or four of those jobs, I turned things around,” Scott says. “When I went to St. Anne (1947-1954) they had gone .500 or less and had never won any championship. The philosophy in the community was the program couldn’t be turned around. Scott promptly  won 20 or more in five of the seven years that he spent at the school southeast of Kankakee. Four of five of Scott’s last Georgetown teams were 20 game winners also. Scott said he handled players differently. “I felt you had to believe in them and have their respect,” Scott says. Scott was lured out of retirement twice. In 1974, the Georgetown School Board asked Toby to take over the team in the middle of the season and remain the next year. In 1987 after Georgetown and Ridge Farm consolidated, Don Hackler asked Toby to be his assistant coach, which Scott was from 1987-89. Scott and his wife Flor have four children and six grandchildren.