Raise your hand if you weren’t coached at some point in your youth sports life by Colin Scoggins.

Anybody?

We didn’t think so.

Scoggins was an incredible local coach who coached boys, girls, you name the sport, he did it in the city of Nashua. His last main gig was as an assistant football coach at Nashua High School South, and he retired from that at the end of the 2021 season.

We sat down on the rocks above the Fran Tate track and talked with him at length, He had a lot of stories to tell, but make no mistake about it – he was all about the kids. And winning.

Scoggins unfortunately had to spend a good chunk of his retirement battling cancer, and it finally claimed his life over a week ago. We first heard of his illness when his stepdaugher, Nashua High School North girls volleyball coach Cassandra Desfosses, talked after a big win last fall that the team did a video call with Scoggins while he was waiting for treatment in the ER. The players all felt a bond with Scoggins, for certain, and he wasn’t even their coach then.

Desfosses wrote a glowing tribute to Scoggins, and it is in his obituary. A must read. And if Colin’s last name sounds familiar, he’s he brother of longtime Lowell Sun sportswriter Chaz Scoggins, who covered the Red Sox as well as the Lowell Spinners.

All are gathering this weekend to say farewell to a guy who coachd the Elks, PAL, he coached city travel basketball, he coached…everything and everyone.

Scoggins was a competitor. A power lifter as well, working out and competing for local gyms.

And make no mistake — when Scoggins coached or lifted, he wanted to win. Period.

It wasn’t the same on the South sideline when he retired from coaching in 2021, but that’s the nature of the beast. It wasn’t easy for Scoggins to call it a coaching day, but he was looking forward to the time off. When he wasn’t coaching, Scoggins was at local games watching the kids he had coached who were playing for somebody else. He’d have all sorts of great info, connecting dots for certain athletes and was full of information. It was always great to see Scoggins sitting in the stands, because he’d always tell you something you didn’t know.

But think about it. Think about how hard it is to find good coaches, or hold on to them – from the high school level down to the youth level, all the levels that Colin Scoggins coached. The city needs about a hundred more like him. But it was fortunate to have the one it had. Just think of the hours, the commitment.

The late Colin Scoggins looks on from the sidelines in his final season as a Nashua South football assistant back in 2021. (Telegraph file photo by TOM KING)

We hope he was able to enjoy some of that time after coaching, despite the health battle he waged. A couple of weeks ago in a social media post Scoggins said he was prepared for the short time he had. But no one, when they heard the news, was prepared – especially those who played for him in all the sports and teams he coached.

We’ve lost some good ones in the area over the years, and we’ll lose more.

But make no mistake about it, Colin Scoggins touched so many athletes’ lives in all ways positive.

And that is a fabulous legacy to leave behind. No one will remember any won-loss record, but the high number of athletes he coached.

So try to remember your favorite Colin Scoggins story, and if you’re a coach today, tell it to your players.

The memory of Colin Scoggins will then be alive forever.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on X, formerly known as twitter, @Telegraph _TomK.