Scott Carroll
There was a time when Scott Carroll worked in ink.
Once he shifted career paths, Carroll stamped his mark on youth athletics in his native Cleveland, Tennessee.
Now, after more than three decades’ service to public education, including an enduring run as Cleveland Middle School’s athletics director, Carroll has been honored as a Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association Distinguished Service Award winner for the 2025-26 academic year.
It’s a drastic change from his own playing career being ended due to injury at then-Carson-Newman College and going to work for his father, the late Ralph Carroll, at Carroll Printing.
“This is truly an honor, because I’ve just been blessed to work with great coaches, be around great kids, teach and be a part of a great school system,” Carroll, also CMS assistant principal, said. “I get to work with kids every day, and that’s the main reason I do it.
“One, I think it keeps me young. I can retire at any time, I’ve got 33 years in, but I just love being around the kids and think that’s what it’s all about. I have a passion for Cleveland, Cleveland schools and have been a Blue Raider my whole life. I want to see it continue to grow and get better.”
Such a proclamation is no insignificant endeavor for Carroll, who already has helped serve a foundational role in Tennessee’s dawn of officially recognized middle school state championships and overseen a half-dozen TMSAA state titles at Cleveland.
Cleveland has claimed championships in softball, track, twice in wrestling and two in basketball – one apiece for boys and girls.
Heady stuff on a path that almost didn’t happen after Carroll’s truncated Carson-Newman career and has its origins in youth-league sports in the Cleveland area.
“I went back to work at dad’s printing company and started coaching Little League. I had a friend who needed help coaching the football team,” said Carroll, quick to praise the support of his wife, Melinda, and noting his father’s service in World War II. “I said, ‘All right, I’m not doing anything.’ When his son aged out, I took over that Little League football team, then added baseball. But my dad was always my inspiration.
“He said, ‘This is what you love, go back to school, get your degree and do it.’ Donnie Yates was my mentor in athletics. He got me hired, one of my former teachers was principal at Cleveland Middle at the time, and he said I hope you’ve changed a lot since high school. I said, ‘Well, I’ve grown up a lot.”
The proof is in a decorated career: athletics director for 31 years, nearly 35 years helping coach football, a quarter-century with Cleveland High School’s baseball program and another decade with wrestling.
Too, Cleveland Middle School has grown from offering four sports to now fielding more than 20 teams.
“I would hope kind of my legacy with TIAAA and TSSAA is that I’ve tried to emphasize middle school sports, because they deserve as much recognition as the high schools,” Carroll said.
TSSAA proudly salutes Scott Carroll for his more than three decades of dedication to education-based athletics and student-athletes.
