It wasn't the Bob Scott that Hilltoppers football players have come to know and respect over the past two-plus decades.

For the past 20 seasons as head coach, and four years prior as an assistant, the 53-year-old Scott has been the stern, always in charge, always in control leader of the Los Alamos High School program.

On Thursday morning, however, as he sat in front of a computer monitor to type out the official letter of resignation that he had decided on several weeks prior, he was surprised with what he saw.

"When I was typing it up, my hands were shaking like crazy," Scott said. "It was just two sentences long. I don't know why I was so nervous, but I was."

Scott had been throwing around the notion of retiring for years and finally told
his team before its Oct. 23 District 2AAAA game against Bernalillo that this would be his final season. But until it was in writing, it just didn't seem real.

"To think about what he was able to accomplish there for so long in one place, it was pretty special," said Capital High head football coach Stephen Castille, who played for Scott in Los Alamos. "I hope people appreciate that."

Scott, who plans to teach physical education at the high school at least one more year before becoming eligible for retirement as a teacher, posted a 124-97 career record at
Los Alamos, won five district titles and led the Hilltoppers to the playoffs nine times.

His team went 4-6 this season (3-1 in district) and missed out on the state playoffs.

After 30 years of coaching — he also coached six years in Nebraska before becoming an assistant at Los Alamos — Scott said it was simply time to refocus some priorities.

"I don't know if people realize the time commitment coaching takes and I don't know if I always spent as much time as I should have with my kids," Scott said. "Now, as my third granddaughter is due any day now, I'm looking forward to spending more time with my family. I'm going to miss it, but now we can go visit family. We can go camping. We can go goofing. I'm excited."

Los Alamos athletic director Vicki Nelms will post and advertise the coaching vacancy.

"It was (Thursday) afternoon when I got around to opening the letter of resignation and I haven't talked to anybody about it," Nelms said. "I don't know how fast we'll move. We're just going to keep our options open."

While she feels the job is an attractive one, the school faces the dilemma of not having a teaching vacancy at the moment to offer.

Nelms, who said her focus Friday was on her school's volleyball team competing in the Class AAAA state tournament in Rio Rancho (the Hilltoppers lost in the quarterfinals), said she isn't worried about having to sell the football program to potential candidates.

"I think we have a lot of great kids," Nelms said. "They are hard-working, they enjoy their sports, but they are very academic and take their school work importantly, too. I think they'll find a supportive community and the fact that they like our teams to do well wherever they go."

For Scott, that was the very reason leaving was so hard to do.

"I've worked with some great people," Scott said. "The kids have been great and the coaches I've spent so much time with — (assistant coach) Don Reid has actually been here longer than I have — it's been something I'd never give back. All that made it very difficult, but it was time to move on."

Contact Geoff Grammer at ggrammer@sfnewmexican or 986-3060.com. Read his blog
at grammerschoolblog.com.