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Archive: Sig Taus in The News
Scott Schwartz
Reprinted from UCA Football Program September 4, 2004
Receiver finds his home on the sidelines
Scott Schwartz is the only person to have played on one national championship team and coached on another for the University of Central Arkansas. "That would probably be my proudest accomplishment," said Schwartz, 37, now starting his third season rebuilding the Greenbrier High School program. "Not many people get a chance to do that."
This UCA alumnus knows where his loyalties lie. "A lot of times on Saturday we're working, but I do like to go out and watch the Bears when I can," he said. "People say, 'Let's go to the Razorback game, to Fayetteville.' I say, 'Man, that's not where I got my degree.'"
Schwartz arrived in Conway 19 years ago as an all-state quarterback from Carlisle. The connection to UCA was through then-coach Harold Horton, who had coached with Schwartz's father, David, at Bald Knob in the early 1960s. The families stayed in touch and Schwartz remembers Horton arriving to go duck hunting bearing as a gift Ron Calcagni's Razorback jersey from the late 1970s. "He told me when I was big enough to fill it out, he'd come back to get me, and he did," Schwartz said.
By the time Schwartz graduated from high school in 1984, Horton's Bears had tied Carson-Newman for the NAIA National Championship the previous fall. As a true freshman, Schwartz lettered holding for Curtis Burrow on extra points and field goals. He caught one pass that year, he remembered; the Bears tied Hillsdale for the national title in '85. He redshirted in 1986, then played split end in '87, '88 and '89. He earned All-Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference honors as a senior and was all set to graduate with a degree in political science with plans of going to law school. But David Schwartz was diagnosed with cancer, and Scott changed his life's path during what would have been his last semester. "I started looking around at the people who'd had the most influence on my life, and that was my dad and Coach Horton, who had both coached," he said. "I really thought that was what I wanted to do. I thought I wanted to make the same impact on other people they had had on me."
David Schwartz died two weeks after his son graduated with a bachelor of science degree with a double major in political science and history. Scott went back to school to get his coaching endorsement. Mike Isom, who had replaced Horton after he returned to the University of Arkansas in 1991, hired him as a graduate assistant while he finished that and, later, his master's degree in secondary administration. Schwartz spent a year teaching and volunteer coaching at Conway High with Kenny Smith, but Isom hired him at UCA in 1993. "At that time, I really wanted to try coaching on the college level," he said. "I took that job at Conway teaching because I didn't want to get very far away. I was hoping there'd be an opportunity to come back." For three years, he coached quarterbacks and running backs. For two more, he coached the secondary, but then decided on another life change. "Coaching in college is not a real secure job," he said. "There's a little more security in high school. Jami (his wife, now physical education teacher at Sallie Cone Elementary) and I liked living in Conway. "At that time, I thought I wanted to be a head high school coach and I started thinking who would be one of the best to learn under. I thought coach Smith would be someone I'd try to pattern my head coaching after." He jumped at the opportunity to return to CHS as an assistant, spending four years as defensive line coach before taking another step.
The Greenbrier job opened in 2002. Schwartz remembered talking with Smith, who had become a father figure to him, about his future. "I had always told him I'd really like to be a head coach when he thought I was ready," Schwartz said. "When Greenbrier came open, he said, 'You're ready if this is what you want to do.' "There's a lot of untapped potential up there. The community was always very supportive of all their athletic programs. It was a really good opportunity for a guy who didn't have any head coaching experience to try and rebuild a once-proud deal."
Smith said it was time, but that he hated to lose him. "He's like a son to me, like my own child," Smith said. "We've had a lot of fun on the football field, the practice field, the golf course. But he's got all the characteristics it takes to be a good coach - intelligence, dedication to the game, his work ethic, motivation." The football Panthers had been 1-9 four years in a row. Schwartz remembered interviews with school board members asking how long it would take to get the Panthers competitive. He told them immediately. "I told them, 'I've been around people that know how to win football games,'" he said. "'There's a right way and a wrong way to do it.' Well, we went 1-9 that year, but we lost two games by three points and nobody blew us out." Last year, the Panthers finished a surprising 5-5, tied for third with Morrilton and Alma in the AAAA-West but lost on the tiebreaker for an almost unheard of trip to the playoffs. The highlight was a win over perennial power Alma. "At the end of the year, people were coming up and telling us what a great job we'd done, but I was still disappointed," Schwartz said. "I thought there were one or two more ball games that we'd had a chance to win and probably should have won and had a winning record." As he continues his accomplishments, Schwartz said his outlook was changing with age. "As much fun as I had playing football, I get more excited watching the guys I've taught, the people I've had an influence on," he said.
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