Inductees

As a student at Los Gatos High School, Scott was a member of the 1969 team that won the CIF Central Coast Section Championship and some of the best wrestling teams in the school’s long history. He played football at San Diego State University but did no collegiate wrestling because the program was dropped in 1971.

Scott was IFC Champion in 1972 and 1973 for intramural wrestling for his fraternity. He was the Pacific Coast Athletic Association’s Scholar Athlete of the Year in 1974 while on the football team. He returned to Los Gatos HS as the Head Coach of wrestling in from 1988-1994, 2001-2005 and in 2011, and he developed a winning wrestling program again. His teams finished second or third in the CCS from 2001-05. He served as assistant high school coach or junior high school coach during the interim seasons — keeping wrestling alive in two middle schools.

As Head Coach, his Los Gatos HS teams have won five league dual meet championships while compiling a dual meet record of 108 wins and 53 losses. They have also won 10 regional tournaments and six league tournament championships with 21 league champions, 100 Section qualifiers, 28 Section placers, 14 State qualifiers and 5 State medalists. Scott taught his wrestlers to win with grace and humility or to lose with style and dignity. He was named a finalist for Stanford University based non-profit Positive Coaching Alliance’s coveted Double-Goal Coach Award for positive impact on young athletes. The first goal is winning, and the second goal is teaching life lessons through sports.

Downs earned a Santa Clara County Teacher Recognition Award in 1993, and he was the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District’s teacher of the Year in 1994. Scott received a California Legislative Assembly Certificate of Appreciation in 1994, and he was an inductee into the Just for Youth/Youth Mentors Hall of Fame the same year. Scott is retired from coaching, but he was a member of USA Wrestling for many years while running a freestyle youth team