The final chapter of a career that spanned just over three decades at Powell High School came to a close at the end of the school year — with athletic director Scott McKenzie retiring after 33 years in Park County School District 1.

LONG CAREER

When he first arrived in Powell, McKenzie served as an English teacher for 10th and 11th graders while serving as an assistant football coach under R. J. Kost and volunteering as a boys’ basketball coach.

In his second year, McKenzie made the move to become the freshman basketball coach under head coach Ron Laird.

After a few years, McKenzie moved up the ladder and served as a senior English teacher while continuing to participate as a football coach. He eventually became the junior varsity basketball coach, serving in that position while being a part of the PHS boys’ last state championship in 1998.

Eventually, McKenzie transitioned out of football and moved into a role coaching volleyball in the fall, continuing to add to his growing list of coaching positions.

After volleyball, he made another jump to golf which was just starting at PHS, hoping to help save a young program.

“The program was going to kind of go away,” McKenzie said. “Coach Laird talked to me since he was the AD then and I didn’t want the program to go away … I did the volunteer gig in golf. Did that for three or four years to prove its stability until it became a paid position. At that point I knew in my heart that coach Hildy (Troy Hildebrand) was truly the golf guy.”

At that time in 2001, Scott and his wife Cathy were expecting twins Karlie and Katie, which also made it easier for him to step back from the golf job.

After Laird made the move to the Wyoming High School Activities Association, McKenzie became the varsity boys head basketball coach, but only served as the head coach for two seasons before deciding to step down.

“It just wasn’t going to work because the twins were born,” McKenzie said. 

From that point forward, McKenzie bounced around coaching different levels from eighth grade to becoming an assistant coach under Hildebrand in basketball, coaching the freshman and junior varsity levels again.

After bouncing around and working as an assistant coach for the girls team, McKenzie became the varsity girls’ basketball coach in 2013.

During his tenure, McKenzie led PHS to its only girls state championship in basketball since it was sanctioned by the WHSAA in 1976, along with an impressive record of 124-59 over seven seasons.

After stepping down from the head coaching position at the end of the 2018-2019 year, McKenzie made the move to the athletic director position where he served from fall 2019 up until retirement this past May.

McKenzie was inducted into the Wyoming Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2020.

GROWING WITH THE TIMES

Throughout his career there have been significant changes to technology and schooling that McKenzie learned to adapt to throughout.

“Technology has been a key change in education,” McKenzie said. “When I first started, research papers were done with note cards and you went out and found the book in the library.”

He said that cellphones became a huge issue once he moved out of the classroom and into an instructional facilitator position, so he did not have to deal with as many pains with increased cellphone use in the classroom.

Despite all the technological advances and changes, he said the one thing that didn’t change over 33 years were the kids.

“Overall kids to me haven’t really changed,” McKenzie said. “They are still learning, making mistakes and growing from them and that’s our business. We are helping them learn of their errors and become better people.”

ATHLETIC DIRECTOR IMPACT

As an athletic director, McKenzie learned a lot about what goes into each coach’s thinking and what goes on behind the scenes of each sport.

“Getting to see every sport and what every coach does has been eye opening,” McKenzie said. “I have great respect for all of our coaches, they do a great job here in Powell. We are very fortunate to have a community that supports them and allows them to do their thing.”

He said it’s been very special to see all of the titles won by programs since he started as AD, including tennis his first year, a girls’ track three-peat alongside a boys’ title this past year, which was the first time both track programs won state championships in the same year in school history.

“There’s been a lot of prideful moments to be the AD of those guys getting those things done,” McKenzie said.

In the job of an AD, McKenzie said there are a lot of moving parts behind the scenes, and one of the most difficult but most important things is finding officials for contests.

“Finding officials is so hard — young people need to jump in there and help with that,” McKenzie said. “Finding them, making sure they stay loyal to you and show up is important.”

Alongside that, McKenzie spent time helping find volunteers for games, home tournaments and other activities that take place at PHS.

“We tried basketball and wrestling on the same night this year — they looked at us funny but I thought it was a hit,” McKenzie said. “I thought there were 200-250 more people that stayed for the wrestlers than there would have been. People became fans of wrestling that night that weren’t before.”

Another impact that came in his last year was the addition of new sports in the winter, allowing athletes to participate in indoor track or girls’ wrestling on top of already available boys’ wrestling and basketball programs.

“I’m very proud of being a part of that,” McKenzie said. “Our participation rates went up … It gives girls especially two more opportunities in the winter to do something that they didn’t before.”

He said at some point the vision is for the girls’ wrestling program to grow so much that they have their own time slot to wrestle, while competing for state titles in Casper.

He said one of the main things he’s going to miss is the competition, alongside the coaches he got to know over the years.

Behind the scenes, McKenzie said that his secretary Vicki Walsh played a huge role in  ensuring they were able to do everything they could as a school.

McKenzie said that he feels Richard Despain will carry on the traditions of PHS heading into his first year as the athletic director starting this fall.

GOING OUT TOGETHER

Calling it a career at the end of 33 years is special in multiple ways for McKenzie, who will retire alongside Laird — who is retiring from the WHSAA — who he spent a lot of time working with at PHS.

“He’s definitely put in more time than I have, but it’s neat that it’s happening,” McKenzie said. 

Another person retiring alongside McKenzie this year is his wife, which he believes is special in more than one way.

“We think we are the only couple that got hired the same year and retired the same year,” McKenzie said. 

SPECIAL AWARD

Ending out the year, McKenzie was surprised with the Friends of the Panthers Award at the Senior Awards Night in May, which is given to the No. 1 Powell Panther fan each year.

“Every year the kids give back to someone who does things above and beyond for the programs,” McKenzie said. “That’s a very special plaque.”

RETIREMENT PLANS

Heading into retirement, McKenzie plans to travel a lot while also not being a stranger to Panther athletics, as he plans to watch and support the teams.

One thing that McKenzie has always wanted to do is also part of his retirement plans.

“I’ve always wanted to be a beet truck driver,” McKenzie said. “Some of the local farmers have reached out and I will be busy this fall.”