By Halle Parker

Special to The Farmville Herald

A scoreboard can say a lot. On Jan. 28, it told Prince Edward County High School fans that their boys varsity basketball team pulled out a 59-57 victory in a rescheduled game against Amelia County.

Not only did this improve Prince Edward’s season record, but it had an even more meaningful impact.

For James Scott, the boys varsity head coach, the two-point victory pushed him to a career milestone — 500 wins. The milestone is one that is extremely rare. Scott is the only coach in this area to win that many games in one sport.

After coaching in the same high school for 35 years and helping countless teams develop, Scott achieved a new standard, one you can only reach once.

PECHS is the only home he knows as a coach; it gave him his first coaching job. Having such a lengthy career, Scott has made many memories with his boys. He will remember feeling “the thrill of victory” after the game on Jan. 28, he said. 

“I had never experienced that before,” said Scott, recalling the emotions immediately following his 500th win.

Scott shared the moment with this year’s team, who expressed their pride and happiness for their coach.

“They (the team) said, ‘Congratulations, coach.’ Some of them gave me a hug; some of them were a little emotional,” he said.

He considered it a success for both himself and the team. The milestone was theirs as well.

“I talked to them about it, I said this is a great moment for us, for you because when you get older and you’re in like your eighties, they can’t take that away from you and I’ll probably be dead but you’ll share those moments with your son … your grandson,” said Scott.

Five hundred games span a long period of time. One of Scott’s most memorable moments came from the 1980s.

“All of them (his moments) are great, but the one where we went 20-0 regular season then we competed for the final four for the first time, it was quite an exciting moment,” he said.

There was a lot of buildup entering the Amelia game after the snow fell hard the weekend before the game. Nevertheless, friends of Scott texted and emailed him, knowing the victory approached.

When asked if they were even more excited than him, he laughed.

“Yes,” he said. “Does that sound bad?”

Since that night, Scott has led his team to four other wins making his win record 504. The PECHS team competed in the James River District championship game on Monday night against Bluestone. They will begin conference play on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Farmville. Their opponent has yet to be determined.