--Headline above and story below --by Rusty Rae, a Linfielder and N-R sports editor -- from McMinnville News-Register/N-R May 30, 2017. Three photos which accompany the story are here as are three photos by Wildcatville.--
Scott Carnahan,
Linfield’s Athletic Director and head baseball coach retiring this June, is the
epitome of the Linfield way.
For more than a quarter century, he has practiced and
refined his practicum of success. Dedicating himself to the betterment of the
athletic department and the college, personifying the values of integrity, hard
work, and perseverance, Carnahan has continued the tradition of those before
him: Paul Durham, Roy Helser, Ted Wilson and Ad Rutschman.
In doing so, the athletic department has grown both in terms
of facilities, and perhaps more importantly, by the influence the department
has had on the men and women as members of the Linfield family.
Carnahan actually began his Linfield career in the fall of
1969, as a Wildcat freshman. He was recruited to play all three sports at
Linfield – football, basketball and baseball. When his father was hurt in a
serious logging accident, he moved home to help the family, enrolling at
Centralia Community College. While there, he played basketball and baseball
before returning to Linfield to finish his college career, competing in
football and baseball his junior year, and baseball his senior year.
After graduating from Linfield, Carnahan said his goal was
to coach (baseball) at the college level, but didn’t know where that might be,
noting, “Obviously, I loved the place (Linfield) when I was here as a player,”
he said.
But out of college, his career turned in a different
direction. He had a contract with the Portland Mavericks (at the princely sum
of $300 per month) – which didn’t work out – he lasted three weeks. He worked
for Evergreen Aviation for nine months before he discovered his path to
teaching and coaching. The position at Evergreen was attractive, three times
the starting pay for teaching. But in the nine months of employment with Del
Smith, he was on the road six, and that simply did not allow him time for his
wife.
“My wife Cathy and I were living in the Michelbook
Apartments. She was teaching in Yamhill-Carlton. I was on a world-wide trip
with Del and had just flown into New York. I called home only to find the
number was disconnected,” he remembers.
Frantically, he called his dad, who let him know “Cathy
moved.”
Carnahan learned his wife had taken a job in Chehalis and
Carney had been offered a job at Onalaska High School. “And by the way, you
have to be home tomorrow for teacher orientation,” his father told him, marking
the beginning of his journey as a teacher and coach.
He jumped on a redeye to Portland, where the family had left
a car for him, drove to the high school, arriving in time for the 8 a.m.
teacher orientation. He coached there for two years. When the levy failed (a
blessing in disguise, he notes), all high school sports were discontinued. So,
he moved to the Chehalis High School, where he coached for two years. He
interviewed to for head baseball coach at Big Bend Community College – and was
offered the position.
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“I told them I would get back to them. About three miles out of Moses Lake (Washington), Cathy turned to me and said, ‘If you come here, you will be coming here alone’.”
Obviously, he did not accept that position, but one at Lower
Columbia College came open. Carnahan had been the runner-up there the previous
year, and when it opened up again, he was chosen. He taught, coached baseball
and also assisted the basketball coach – Mike Polis. Mike’s son, Mickey, is now
the assistant coach for Shanan Rosenberg at Linfield. For Carnahan, life is
about relationships – and they last forever.
Fast forward six years, and Carnahan is in Arizona, driving
the team bus. As he pulls into the parking lot for a Mariners’ spring game, out
of the parking lot comes a van. It stops – and it’s none other than Ad
Rutschman, who at the time (1983) was coaching both football and baseball.
Rutschman let Carnahan know this was going to be his final
year coaching baseball, and there would be a position opening, and he should
apply for the position. Carnahan went through the interview process and that
summer was named baseball coach at Linfield.
You might assume the rest of the story is history – and so
it is – but then you’d be missing the crux of Scott Carnahan’s Linfield
adventure.
Remembers Jimmy Ray, Carnahan’s bench coach and friend of
more than 30 years, “When I came to Linfield for my visit, the grass in the
infield was crotch-high; a cat ran across the field and made a deposit on the
home plate area; when I asked where the training facilities were, coach
Rutschman smiled and told me ‘We don’t get injured here.’ And when Ray walked
through the locker area at old Riley Gymnasium and heard someone yell ‘showers’
when one of the toilets was flushed, he again asked Rutschman what was that and
Ad said, ‘Jimmy, that’s our agility drill’.”
Such was the state of facilities at Linfield in the early
1970s. Today, thanks to Carnahan (and he would list a cast of thousands who
helped), Linfield has some of the best athletic facilities in the conference
and the baseball park remains one of the best in all of the Northwest.
Though he never expected to become athletic director,
Carnahan began working on athletic facilities when Ted Wilson Gymnasium and the
athletic offices were built. He became athletic director in 1996 when Rutschman
stepped down. Carnahan was the ideal replacement for Rutschman as he understood
the culture of the athletic department and, through his baseball coaching, the
management of facilities had already developed significant relationships within
the Linfield community. The Linfield baseball stadium is one of many examples
of the Carnahan touch.
Jim Wright Stadium and Helser Field cost the college
$200,000, but Carnahan estimates its value at a million dollars –because of the
relationships he has developed with alums, community leaders and business
owners, and the passion for simply getting things done, regardless of the
challenge. Carnahan’s charisma earned the trust of countless donors, and his
integrity found others willing to jump aboard the Linfield athletic train to
provide volunteer time and talents allowing the athletic department to lead the
conference in facilities.
Virtually every athletic venue has been upgraded, but these
upgrades are the result of Carnahan’s blue collar worth ethic and integrity.
Look no further than Linfield’s current gym and athletic offices, the swimming
pool and Rutschman Field House to see how the college’s athletic endowment has
grown.
Notes Ray, “Carney brought a healthy discontent for the
present.” In other words, Carnahan had a vision for what Linfield’s athletic
facilities could be and was able to get anyone standing nearby to jump onto
that bandwagon.
This season, he was named the Northwest Conference’s Coach
of the Year as the ‘Cats won yet another conference title, and Carnahan etched
his 600th win into the record books. He has coached the most baseball games as
a Linfield coach and also has the most wins.
Carnahan’s winning record is no surprise. One of his early
mentors, Washington State head baseball coach Bobo Brayton, told him “Pitching
and defense win games.”
Over the years, Carnahan has become a savant in the area of
developing catchers and pitchers. Particularly in the area of pitcher
development, Carnahan has been able to take talented arms and make them better,
without forcing them to change from what made them great initially.
That he’s had numerous offers from other institutions is no
secret, but his love of Linfield has kept him and Cathy in McMinnville.
Carnahan returned to Linfield as a student too late to share
the joy of the 1971 national championship the baseball team won under
Rutschman, also one of his mentors.
But when NY Yankee star third baseman, Scott Brosius, a
Linfield grad Carnahan recruited to the baseball team, came asking for a letter
of recommendation because he was interested in coaching college baseball,
Carnahan, who was besieged by the multitude of details and duties of the
athletic director position asked, “Why don’t you take the baseball position
here?”
And when Brosius led Linfield to the national championship
in 2013, it was Carnahan who groomed the pitching staff for Brosius, and who
called the pitches during those games. After eight years at Linfield. Brosius
moved on to coach professional baseball, and Carnahan was back coaching
baseball until his retirement this year.
Linfield head football coach Joe Smith, who was an assistant
baseball coach for Carnahan prior to becoming the head football coach, said of
Carnahan, “He has the ‘it’ factor. Nobody really knows what ‘it’ is, but Scott
has it. A part of what has made Scott successful is the ability to relate to
just about everyone and his absolute integrity. His handshake is his word and
people know they can trust him to do what he says he will do.”
Notes Jordan Harlow, a member of that championship team and
now assistant coach with the ‘Cats, said, “It is amazing how he interacts with
people. His success is no accident. His work behind the scenes has really been
an eye opener for me on how to be successful.
“To me, Carney represents the fabric of what has made
Linfield’s athletics great for so many years,” he added.
Somewhere, among the many mementoes he saved from his time
at Linfield, there is an aerial photo showing the Linfield athletic facilities
with the college in the background. His wife Cathy had “Carney’s vision” added
to the photo and it serves as a representation of what he has accomplished in
his years at the college.
While the facilities are certainly visual extensions of his
accomplishments, he says what he will miss most is the relationships with
coaches and students.
“It’s really more about what you’re trying to teach through
the game. Perseverance, overcoming adversity – things like that which are
really meaningful to me.
“When you see guys after they have left school who are
leading successful lives and who hold the Linfield experience close to their
hearts – those are the things that are important to me. Being able to make a
difference in the lives of student athletes who come to Linfield – that is the
thing I will hold close to my heart,” he said.
It’s the Linfield way.
