The VMI athletic department named Zack Scott ’89 as interim director of track and field and cross-country in September 2021.—Photo courtesy VMI Keydets.
Three weeks after being named associate head track and field and cross-country coach, VMI’s Zack Scott ’89 has been named the interim director of track and field and cross-country. The VMI athletic department announced the position in late September 2021.
The announcement comes in the wake of the retirement of Darrin Webb, which was effective Oct. 3. Webb served 27 years on the track and field coaching staff, including director of track and field and cross-country for the past 13 years.
Scott recently concluded his 17th season at the Institute. His primary duties include working with the throwers, oversight of strength training, securing meet day officials and volunteers for indoor home meets, recruiting for all events, and serving as the interim working with the cross-country teams.
Scott has had six athletes qualify for the NCAA East Regional Championships, and a combined 31 make the IC4A/ECAC meets. His athletes have also won 12 conference titles and 28 all-conference honors.
Scott has been involved with recruiting and coaching several of VMI’s top track and field athletes in program history, including five-time conference champion Mildred Cooper ’05, the first woman elected into the VMI Athletics Hall of Fame.
Other significant accomplishments from Scott since 2004 include:
• Coached walk-on Chris Brandriff ’06, javelin record holder/2x Penn Relay runner-up and VMI athletic department Three-Legged Stool recipient
• Recruited female triple jump record holder Jasmine Hariston ’12
• Recruited Indoor and Outdoor female pole vault record holder Jennifer Sing ’12 from the Summer Transition Program
• Recruited Big South Woman Athlete of the Decade Kate (Collins) Noll ’13
• Recruited and Coached last female Big South Conference champion Renee Reives ’15 (shot put) and current discus record holder
• Recruited and coached conference Female Freshman of the Year Mary Grace Lemon ’14 (Big South Conference discus champion) and current hammer record holder
• Recruited and coached Indoor and Outdoor Thrower of the Year Jordan White ’14
• Recruited female long jump record holder Bria Anderson ’18
Selected as the 2007 Emerging Elite Coach by USA Track and Field, Scott has many coaching certifications: USATF Level 2 jumps coach, USATF Level 3 throws coach, an IAAF Level 5 certification, and a USTFCCCA NCAA Advanced Certified Strength and Conditioning coach.
Scott began coaching in 1996 as an assistant football and track coach at James W. Robinson Secondary in Fairfax, Virginia. While Scott was on staff, the school won a pair of state titles on the gridiron, and Scott coached Steve Huntzinger, a top 8 Virginia all-time thrower. Huntzinger was a seven-time state champion, a three-time high school All-American and runner-up in the shot put at the Nike Indoor Classic as a senior. Scott also ran speed and agility camps during the summer and aided in developing one of Virginia’s top powerlifting programs, Best of the Best.
In high school, Scott was a nationally ranked top 25 high school shot putter and discus thrower at Mount Vernon High School, where he is in the school’s Hall of Fame.
As a student-athlete at VMI, he was a member of two Southern Conference championship teams and an All-Southern Conference thrower in the shot, discus, and hammer.
Scott graduated from the Institute with a degree in international studies, and before returning to VMI, worked nine years as a defense contractor specializing in intelligence operations.
Scott is a U.S. Marine Corps Gulf War veteran. He has also been a VMI Keydet Club Flying Squad member for nearly a decade and served as a cadet counselor and now adult supervisor for the College Orientation Workshop program at VMI for more than a decade. He resides in Lexington.
Editor’s Note: This article was first published at vmikeydets.com.
