蘑菇视频

May 7, 2024 By Rob Burchianti 4 min read

REPUBLIC – Scott “Skooter” Roebuck has poured his heart and soul into Brownsville Area High School athletics for more than three decades.

He’s worn the hat of baseball coach, football coach and athletic director and the past two seasons he’s taken on all three roles while also teaching full time.

As the 2023-24 school year comes to a close, Roebuck decided it would be his last at Brownsville.

That decision was made during this past winter.

“Probably a couple months back, right around Christmas time,” Roebuck said following a Falcons baseball game against Laurel Highlands at Doug Dascenzo Field that was suspended due to rain after four innings with the Mustangs ahead 4-0.

The workload of it all became too much to handle, according to Roebuck, who is in his 33rd year at the school.

“The full-time teaching and everything else, it’s really unsustainable,” Roebuck said. “It’s 14-16 hours some days. To be honest with you, I’m just tired. I’ve been doing it for so long.

“It’s a lot of time away from home. I’m coaching two teams, and athletic director, and I’m still teaching a full-time schedule and that makes it tough to get things done the way they should be done. So I just thought it was time.”

He admitted he pondered extending his stay at Brownsville but in the end opted against it.

“I thought about going back and maybe teaching one more year but I’m a sucker so I know if they asked me to coach something I probably would or if they asked me to hold on to the A.D. for one more year I probably would,” Roebuck said.

“I’m retiring from everything. Cutting the cord.”

Roebuck, who is a 1983 Brownsville graduate, took over the Falcons football team before the 2022 season, its first as an independent program after leaving the WPIAL. He’s in his second stint as Brownsville’s athletic director.

Roebuck is best known as the Falcons longtime highly successful baseball coach.

Roebuck was a two-sport star (football and baseball) at Brownsville who went on to have a stellar career on the diamond for California University of Pa. He was a three-year starter as a catcher/first baseman who batted .330 during his time with the Vulcans. He would go on to be inducted into the Cal U sports Hall of Fame.

After graduating from California, Roebuck eventually landed a teaching job at Brownsville and took over as head coach of the Falcons baseball team.

It wound up being a very fruitful endeavor.

Roebuck has won 322 games in his 31 years as Brownsville baseball coach, which includes the 2020 season that was wiped out by covid. His teams have qualified for the playoffs 22 times and won 11 section titles and the 2018 WPIAL Class AAA championship.

Roebuck pointed to that 2018 team and his 1999 squad that won a section title but fell to Waynesburg Central in the WPIAL final and the PIAA semifinals in extra innings, both by one run, as his most memorable teams.

“Absolutely, the WPIAL champion team is special because we had come so close so many times but that one finally did it,” Roebuck said. “And the ’99 team was unbelievable. That team just had a bunch of kids that could flat-out play. Those two teams are definitely standouts.”

Brownsville has two games remaining on its schedule – at Beth-Center on Thursday and a home game against Uniontown on Friday – along with the completion of the LH game if it can be fit in, and as the final days of his final season draws near Roebuck can’t help but glance back.

“As we’re getting close to the end of the season I’m starting to reflect back on it all. Seeing some of the kids that have come through here coming to these games … it’s starting to hit me a little bit,” Roebuck said.

While he recalls fondly his two greatest teams, Roebuck takes joy in seeing his many former players from any of his past squads.

“I can’t remember the guy’s name but I was at a coach’s clinic when I was a young guy, I think I was still in college, and he said as a coach especially in high school you measure success by what walks out the high school doors on graduation,” Roebuck said.

“I mean you want to teach the game and you want to win games but I think if you put it in that perspective, it’s about the kids. When you see them go through and leave the program as quality kids, that means more than anything.”