Hooray for Coaches Day is presented by Family Dental Centre. We are profiling Scott Tuttle or “Tut”.
58-year-old Tuttle has been a youth fastball and softball coach locally and beyond for 35 years, saying he first got involved in softball when he was 5 and then at 18 joined Cobourg Minor Softball and then joined some house leagues, rep teams and in 1999 got involved in Team Ontario until 2013.
He’s a says he loves snooker – adding, “Softball and fastball in summer; snooker in winter”.
Tuttle loves seeing the young kids develop over a season – seeing the major progress from beginning to end.
He was born and raised in Cobourg and says it’s important to him to support locally by coaching.
One of the biggest challenges for him has been working with elite to club athletes, coaching both at the same time, all the while trying not give the club athletes “information overload” – but adds, seeing these kids succeed when it comes to “crunch time” is what it’s all about.
His advice if you want to get involved: take lots of courses and try to implement these practices with your young athletes.
He recently got a Cobourg Civic Award for ‘Contribution to Local Sport’, but says that his biggest accomplishment has to be the four Gold Medals with Team Ontario from 2001-09, as well as working with elite athletes and coaches, and working with the Cobourg Bulls as they got a Bronze Medal and the Silver Medal at Tavistock.
He says one of the most memorable moments was going to a Canada Sports Hall of Fame Dinner in Toronto about three or four years ago and seeing all the trophy’s there and having his picture taken with the Stanley Cup. He really loved seeing those being awarded that night, especially the Paralympian’s and he said, with a tear in his eye, he’s never felt so proud to be Canadian as he did that night.
Over the years many people have continued to inspire him but he got quite emotional when he spoke about one person in particular – Gill Reid, who was his
mentor and unfortunately passed away in 2007. He is who got him involved in Team Ontario – he thanks him for making him a better coach and person and was honoured to have him be part of his life.
Click below to hear our complete interview with Scott Tuttle.
