Fauquier football coach Mark Scott resigns

After four seasons as Fauquier High’s head football coach, Mark Scott resigned Wednesday.

Scott said he wants to spend more time with his daughters Cassidy, 5, and Seneca, 3, and his wife Johanna.

“The time commitment is the big thing,” Scott said. Football “draws from the time I get to spend with them. That was it: What is more important, spending time with these [football] kids or spending time with my own kids?”

“As tough a decision as it was,” he said, “I feel like it was the right decision.”

Scott will remain a math teacher at Fauquier and a distance coach for the track and field team, but he won't likely remain involved with the football program.

“We’re going to miss him. I thought he did an outstanding job,” Creasy said. “He was a great role model for the kids….We wish him the best.”

Scott leaves Fauquier’s head position with a 25-17 record, 0-2 in the playoffs. The Fauquier Falcons went 5-6 last season and finished fourth in the Evergreen District. They lost to Kettle Run in the quarterfinals of the Group AA Region II Division 3 playoffs, 42-0.

In 2010, Fauquier lost to Liberty, 49-7, in the playoff quarterfinals, one week after losing to Liberty, 27-21, in triple overtime of a regular season finale that determined the regular season district championship.

“It would have been nice to say we had a playoff win and a district championship, but that’s not why I got into coaching,” Scott said. “I got into it to work with the kids.”

“I don’t care about the wins and losses,” he said. “You hope the kids have learned some lessons…Hopefully they had a positive experience.”

Fauquier went 8-3 in 2010 and finished second in the Evergreen. It went 5-5 in 2009 as the Evergreen runner-up. In 2008, it finished 7-3 and fourth in the Cedar Run District.

A Lottsville, Pa. native, Scott began his coaching career at Central High in Woodstock, where he served as an assistant for three seasons under head coach Greg Hatfield. Scott then followed Hatfield to Fauquier in 2005 and served as the Falcons’ offensive coordinator for three seasons before becoming Fauquier’s head coach in 2008 when Hatfield left for Eastern View.

Scott gathered his Fauquier players Wednesday afternoon to tell them of his decision to step down.

“There was maybe a little bit of shock,” he said. “They weren’t expecting me to say what I said. But they didn’t get up and storm out on me. They sat and listened. I got a lot of hugs and handshakes when it was all done.”

Creasy hopes to find a new head coach in the next five weeks, he said, and will consider current Fauquier assistant coaches who apply.

“We’ll advertise the position and see who’s out there and applying,” he said.

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