Petition seeks to honor Boonsboro athletic educator

Dwight Scott has coached thousands of Boonsboro High School track and field athletes over the past five decades.

Now, hundreds of Boonsboro High students and staff members have signed a petition that would ensure future track and field athletes at the southern Washington County school will remember Scott long after he stops coaching.


A petition to name the school’s track and field complex “Scott Field” was presented to the Washington County Board of Education Tuesday night.

Principal Peggy Pugh said 773 students and staffers signed the petition, but she thinks thousands of people would have signed if the community had been polled. At least two-thirds of the school’s population is required to sign such a petition for it to be presented to the board, Pugh said.

The board voted 6-0 to accept the petition. Board member Justin Hartings was absent.

The naming request will be posted on the school system’s website, at www.wcps.k12.md.us, for 30 days to allow for public response. The board will then vote on June 21 whether to grant final approval for the name change.

School Board President Wayne Ridenour, who coached basketball and baseball at Boonsboro High, said nothing meant more to Scott than success at Boonsboro High no matter which athletic team it was.

“He was my mentor. He is my hero,” Ridenour said.

Board member Paul Bailey said it was an honor to make the motion to accept the petition.

“I had the distinct privilege of having lunch with him every day for four years,” said Bailey, who was assistant principal at Boonsboro High from 1966 to 1970.

A physical education teacher and coach, Scott worked for the school system from 1959 to 1996. During his career, he coached track and field, football and cross country.

He continued to serve as a volunteer coach for the Boonsboro Warriors track and field team until he had to take a break in April when he had heart surgery, according to Pugh and resident George Messner.

Scott has supported fundraising efforts to improve the high school’s athletic facilities dating back to 1962 when the school got stadium lights. Donations paid back the $30,000 loan from the school system for the lights, Pugh said.