Former Eagle Valley High School teacher Dave Scott affected countless lives over his career
Longtime educator was a man ahead of his time
Courtesy photo
It’s hard to measure Dave Scott’s impact on the Eagle Valley High School community, but it was vast.
Former student Derrick Wiemer was a student, a football and basketball player for Scott in the 1980s.
“Next to my father, he was the most impactful man in my life,” Wiemer said, adding that every young man needs a figure like that in his life.
Wiemer recalled that Scott would let his football and basketball players know when they’d done well, and when they’d fallen short, and he’d do it in front of the rest of the team.
“Sometimes that development’s painful,” Wiemer said.
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But that mentorship went beyond the classroom, the hardwood and the playing field. As a young father, Scott often brought his young children, Blake and Mariah, to practice. That means his mentorship showed his students and athletes the examples of what it means to be a good husband and father.
Scott, as a basketball coach, did something no one else has done at Eagle Valley. He led the 1985 team to an undefeated season and a state championship.
“That group of players has really stuck together,” former colleague Todd Potestio said. “Dave was their everything.”
Ahead of his time
Potestio, then a young teacher, had the unenviable task of following Scott as the school’s head basketball coach in 1993.
Like so many in the valley, Cindy Ramunno grew up with Scott and his wife, Susan, as teachers and became friends as she grew into adulthood.
“He was my favorite all-time teacher,” Ramunno said, adding that his teaching style is “what education should be.”
Scott was years ahead of his time.
Eagle Valley was one of the first schools anywhere to have a “bio building,” a facility dedicated to hydroponics and aquaponics, where students grew vegetables and raised fish for sale to local markets and restaurants. He brought the school’s business students into the operation to teach them how to market the produce to local businesses.
“I don’t think people appreciated it,” Ramunno said, adding that if someone did the same things now, that teacher would be praised for bringing sustainability practices to students.
Scott also noticed some of his students were interested in aviation, so he worked with the Eagle Valley Regional Airport to bring flight simulators into the school to create a ground school. This was in an era when technology was laughably primitive compared to today. That program produced a handful of pilots.
And those skills stuck with his students.
He impacted hundreds
Potestio, now a developer in the Denver area, said he can think of at least three of Scott’s former students who today are multi-millionaires thanks to skills they started developing under Scott’s mentorship.
That mentorship affected “hundreds of kids,” Potestio said. And many of those kids have remained in contact with the Scotts.
One of those former students, Heidi McCollum, is now the District Attorney for the 5th Judicial District. McCollum, the daughter of longtime Eagle Valley teacher George McCollum, in 2022 donated a kidney to Scott.
Susan said that kidney was functioning perfectly even as the rest of her husband’s systems continued to fail.
Dozens of local residents have kept in contact with the Scotts over the years, helping as they’re able, with many visiting the ranch.
Susan recalled that as his former students learned the couple was staying this winter at their off-grid ranch up Gypsum Creek, some would come to chop and haul wood to make sure the couple was warm and comfortable.
“It’s almost overwhelming,” Susan said.
Others would come just to visit.
“Every week we’d have students and athletes sitting at our table,” Susan said. “They were so connected to him.”
Potestio said he’s still on text message string with about 20 former students. He marvels at “the love they have for that man” and his family.
Through it all, Scott remained humble about his accomplishments, Ramunno said, while still maintaining a deep love for the community.
“He leaves many legacies,” she said, noting that he and Susan “raised two kind, incredible kids. From his many legacies, his kids are his best legacy.”
With her husband of 46 years gone only a few days, Susan is still processing the loss of her life’s partner.
“Dave was very committed to his family and his children,” Susan said. He set the way for both of them … And we miss him already!”
