The Dalhousie Tigers - Dalhousie University

Al Scott came to Dalhousie in 1979 as head coach of the men’s volleyball team following a very successful five-year coaching career at the University of Victoria.

A graduate of the University of Calgary’s physical education program, Scott played varsity hockey for the Dinos before moving on to complete a Master of Science degree at the University of Oregon. A physical education teacher in British Columbia, Scott coached a multitude of sports before honing in on volleyball. As the British Columbian provincial team coach, he led them to two gold medals at the Canada Games.

In his 20 years as head coach, Scott moved the Tigers to the top of the conference winning 19 Atlantic conference championships during that span. He led them to the national championship 20 consecutive seasons, winning bronze in 1981-82, 1993-94, 1994-95 and a silver medal in 1996-97.

A five-time Dalhousie coach of the year, Al was selected volleyball coach of the year a remarkable 15 times by the AUAA (now AUS) and was the CIAU (now U SPORTS) coach of the year in 1988-89.

Under his guidance, Scott groomed a multitude of players to individual success. He had 65 AUS all-stars, 15 AUS MVPs, 16 AUS championship MVPs and 24 U SPORTS all-Canadians. Eight of those players went on to have success with the junior and senior national teams.

Scott believed that success could be achieved through hard work and preparation. He instilled the importance of those attributes in his players to help them succeed on and off the court. Known for his attention to detail, Scott never left much left chance in preparing for a match. His attention to detail wasn't just limited to team preparation as he was meticulous in running all aspects of the program. Whether it was fundraising, recruiting or organizing trips, he always put a lot of time into positioning the program to be highly successful.

“Al was the most prepared coach I've ever had,” says former player, all-Canadian Brian Rourke. “He would have us fill out detailed scouting reports on upcoming opponents and then we would watch film on them all. We would go through rotation after rotation in our little hotel rooms trying to gain an advantage over our opponents.”

“Playing for Al helped me to be ready for whatever came my way during my volleyball years and for life after,” Rourke continues.

Current Dalhousie men’s volleyball coach Dan Ota spent four years as an assistant coach with Scott and relished the experience. “It's a rare opportunity to be mentored by one of the most successful coaches in our sport's history, says Ota. “I especially benefited from the amount of responsibility that Al gave me during my time as an assistant coach. Not many coaches would have trusted their assistant to have such a high degree of influence on their team, but if not for that, my transition to the head coach role would have been much more difficult to manage.”

A master coach, Scott served on Volleyball Canada’s coach review board and was president of the CIAU men’s and women’s volleyball association for four years. He was also a guest coach with Canada’s senior national men’s team for six summers and led team Nova Scotia’s Canada Games boys volleyball team to a consolation final win in 1987.

He was the driving force behind the growth of Dalhousie’s annual high school volleyball tournament, making it one of the largest in Canada. Scott also established the Jeff Bredin Memorial Scholarship and co-ed volleyball tournament fundraiser, in honour of the former Tigers player.

During his time as head coach of the Tigers men’s volleyball program, Al also held a joint appointment with what is now known as the School of Health and Human Performance at Dalhousie. His primary area of focus as a faculty member was in teaching methodology for future physical education teachers, before leading the sport management course when the physical education program ended in 1996.

Scott took on the role of athletic director at the end of the 1998-99 season before retiring in 2009. As director, he had a number of accomplishments including starting the annual academic all-Canadian luncheon, creating full-time coaching positions and gender balance amongst Dalhousie’s teams by moving women’s hockey to varsity status.