A Lion’s Legacy – Talking With Scott Noteboom

By Makayla Sparks

Q: How did you get into football? 

A: When I was a kid, like four or five, my mom put on a Washington Redskins game, and that was my first taste of football. And so then the Washington Redskins, and John Riggins, became my squad as a little kid. From that point on, all I wanted to do was play football. I wanted a football. My mom would buy me little toy jerseys and things like that. And so as I got older you always play in the yard with the kids and you have your friends over, and you have little like sandlot games and stuff. Lynden didn’t have a youth football program at that time, there was a break in the action or something. So in fifth grade, a friend of mine, Jason Kortlever said, “we play with a guy named Warren Wood at Meridian,” it was the Meridian Boys Club Football. Frank Bennum, who was Bobby’s dad was also one of the coaches, and so I begged my mom. And I’m like ,”Jason’s mom will even come and pick me up and bring me there every day.” My mom said, “I don’t know.” I think Dad weighed in. It was like, ‘this is what he wants to do.’ So, my mom actually let me. I went over there and got involved in that. Our first actual game was a jamboree at Ferndale High School, and like they lined you up at the 40. There’s probably a team at each end and you have four teams. The first play was an inside run, and so they handed me the ball and I saw these guys and I was like, ‘no way.’ I was always a fast kid. So I just took off for the sideline and just outran everybody. And down the sideline, I went and there we go. So the first time I touched a football in a game was a touchdown. From that point, the defense goes out. I didn’t play defense at the time. Then we had another series, so I got the ball a second time on a toss and did the exact same thing, same exact side of the field down the sideline for a touchdown. At that point, I was hooked. You’re kind of the dude on the team, and you’re automatically accepted because you’re proficient or whatever. And so that was that. So from then on, I was all in.

Q: How did you get into track and field? 

A: I think it was the fact that we would always have a field day at school, like elementary school, over at Fisher. They always had a sprint event where they line up all the kids and you run to the fence and come back. And I was always the guy. I was always the first, Dan MacPhee and I. Danny and I would always be neck and neck. And so when seventh grade came and they had track and field. I was never a good basketball player. I liked to play basketball, but I suck at it. I was never good enough to do that. With spring, I was horrible at baseball too, and couldn’t hit the ball to save my life. That was my default if I wanted to go out and do something. And for an ADHD kid it’s critical to be able to go out and do something. So that was my thing: I saw the opportunity and I wanted to do hurdles. In my very first race in seventh grade, I came out of the blocks, hit the first hurdle, mangled my knee and sprained my ankle, and got up and ran the rest of the race. I think I end up getting like third or fourth or something. But I remember Warren Pugh being like, how the heck did you do that? That was the end of the hurdles, and then from there, Danny MacPhee, he was like, “Hey, come and do sprints with me, one hundred and relay,” so from there, we started doing that, Danny and I, and Dion Terry. We just kind of created this little crew of dudes. And then at that point, it was like Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson. That was when the Olympic track and field was almost like a mainstream sport. We got into that whole thing and so that’s how I got into track field. And then I was always a couple of steps behind Danny and until we got to high school and then I had a little bit of an edge on him. That’s how I got into the track field and never looked back and loved every second of it. 

Q: Why did you pick the number nine? 

A: This is an interesting story. So I’m at the fair, the Lynden fair with Troy Otter, he was my best buddy at the time. And we went to this booth at the fair and they had you sign your name on this piece of paper and then they give you all this information based on your signature. One of the categories was your magic number. My magic number came up as nine and we were probably like fifth or sixth grade. I wanted number 21, but Jeff Dykstra had it. He was a senior and I was a junior. I had to pick a default number. And so the default was number nine and then just stayed with it. But my first choice would have been number 21 because that was my first boy’s club number at Meridian. So that was actually my second choice. But numbers grow on you. 

Q: What is it like playing at such a legacy school and knowing you’re part of kind of the beginning of that legacy? 

A: I think just the planets aligned at the right time. And I was there as a junior at the same time Curt Kramme came in. That’s just a timing thing. So we had a coach, hall of fame coach Rollie DeKoster, who the field is named after and he did his thing and then he retired. And then there was an assistant coach named Ross Boice that came in and filled in for him. And Ross, I don’t think he was very fond of me, didn’t like my playing style. And so under Ross Boice, I wasn’t going to play. That was my freshman and sophomore year. Then they brought in Curt Kramme to replace him, and Curt was a blank slate and he didn’t care what your name was. His policy was the best players play. And so that previous spring, Dion and Danny MacPhee and Bill Sires and I were sophomores. Well, Bill was a junior. We had won the 4×100 relay state title, and so he knew he had some speed. I think he used that as a baseline and said, “Okay, if you got a little bit of toughness, we’re just going to run this power I. We’re going to sweep the ball and do that. So if you’ve got some speed, you’ll automatically be successful.” And everything just kind of worked out. And then that was the beginning of the Curt Kramme era. I was just lucky to be on the ground floor of that and to work with Curt in that capacity and then work under him as an assistant coach. I’ll think about that sometimes, especially since Curt has passed. I’ll get tears of overwhelming joy, like an overwhelming sense of joy that comes over. I was just lucky that way.  

Q: How does how you were coached compare to how you coach? 

A: The first thing is, I coach the defensive line, and it’s a different ball game. I was never a defensive lineman, same thing, I was never a jumper in track and field. Coaching jumps is a whole different thing. I think the game has changed so much. When we played it wasn’t quite three yards and a cloud of dust, but it wasn’t too far off. We would just grind out games. Our games back then were 12-7, 10-8, and 25-20. And so it was a whole brand of football that was completely different. I honestly don’t really remember too much about how I was coached in high school, except for the first time, Curt got this big screen TV and we would watch film and we would analyze every play. That was brand new to me. It was cool because as a running back, you don’t watch your plays. Through that, I became a student of the game. That was like the first little bits of learning the fine-tuning of technique and things like that. And then going through college, you learn the science of it. Rob Smith made us take coaching football, it was a class that we had to take. So then you learn that aspect of coaching. When I got my teacher certificate, Tim Metz called me and he said, “We want you to come coach the eighth-grade team.” And so that was Josh Kraght, Zach Vis, and all those boys. The timing was perfect. And so I was those boys’ eighth-grade coach, and I took what I learned at Western. I started with a power-I, and then we morphed it into a hybrid spread. And I wasn’t even in correspondence with Curt at the time. I just did what Rob was doing at Western. And so we were doing bubbles and we would open things up. So then when Curt brought me on as an assistant coach at the high school, I said, “Coach, I don’t know anything about D-line.” And he says, “Don’t worry about it, Scotty. If you can build and maintain relationships with kids, the action of X’s and O’s parts will take care of themselves.” And then I sat down with Blake Witman. Blake sat me down at Woods Coffee where they would banter and he said, “Okay, here’s what you need to do.” And he laid it all out. And so that was my initial education on moving from the offensive point of view to the defensive point of view. You kind of pick things up as you go and then you learn the nuances. And Kurt would always say, “Ccoach one kid, at least one kid, every play.” That was a simple instruction. But it’s so effective. You see a lot of coaches, they go kind of on autopilot to where it’s like, ‘okay, good job.’ That’s the autopilot of coaching. Blake VanDalen carries that out too, you want to give a kid specific instruction. So over time and experience, you get better and better and you know what to look for and all of that.  

Q:  What coaches have impacted you the most? 

A: Curt Kramme, that’s going to be the huge one but also Blake. Frank Bennum and Warren Wood were fantastic coaches over from Meridian Meridian Boys Club. And then I played for Eric Petersen as a middle schooler, and then I played for Mark Mathias, who was our woodshop teacher as an eighth-grader, and he was a pretty good coach. Then I hit the jackpot. I went to freshman football and then I got Jim Taubenheim and Terry Kaemingk, two absolutely “lights out” human beings. Taubenheim gave me the juice part of it. It’s because he was always just so enthusiastic and he had so much energy. He spread the love of the game. And then when Curt came in, he was a huge influence. Ed Bomber was another one and they all have their different flavor. So you take bits and pieces of all these different coaches. And then I went to Washington State and I got to work with Mike Price, who was a player’s coach and enjoyed him and how he taught and how he approached the game. then I had a running backs coach who was Buzz Preston, who was also a huge influence. Then there was also another guy, Payam Saadat. I played with him at WSU and then he came as a grad assistant at Western. And he was also a huge influence known. Then at Western, David Shaw (current Stanford head coach) was there and he was the tight ends and fullbacks coach, he was just a young grad assistant at the time, but he was also an influence. And then Rob Smith at Western. you’re around him all the time. All of these guys can create this quick conglomerate that you remember bits and pieces of things that they all did. And then you take that with you and you implement it in your own flavor.  

Q: What lessons that you learned in football from coaching and playing have stuck with you over the years? 

A: Everything. It’s an analogy to life, right? It just teaches so many things. The biggest one, though, is that you’re working for something bigger than yourself. This aspect of team which plays out into every other thing in your life. We come in here, and as teachers you work with other teachers, you work with the kids and it’s the school as a whole. You’re a component of that school. Like a football team, you’re a component of the team. So, that’s probably the most valuable thing. And then just the hard work part that Curt was, Curt was by the book. You showed up on time. There was no such thing as being late. Those are lessons for life. You work hard, you’re accountable. You watch film of your plays. He always said, “the eye in the sky never lies.” If you took a play off, he saw it, and he called you out on it, and that reinforced the things that my dad was showing me at the time. Being a dairy farmer kid, a dad is kind of the hardcore hard line. Curt was in a lot of ways the same way. Blake has the same mentality, he always tells the boys, we’re not creating football players, we’re creating young men. Young men and women. There are just so many correlations and connections between the game of football or any sport for that matter, and how you operate as a responsible adult and as an advocate for people and as a teammate. And like Blake always says, it makes you a better father, makes you a better husband, makes you a better friend. It makes you a better everything. So if you can stick to those values, and then having those examples, having those Blake Vandalens in your life, having those Curt Krammes in your life. Those are important things because not only are they instilling that stuff in you, but you also see that example. Like my dad and my grandpa. It all reinforces itself.  

Q: What do you remember from the state championships you’ve been a part of? 

A: As a player, the biggest thing is how that senior class, like Chad Baar and Colby Jones, and Tim Hanson, how those guys took me under their wing because I was younger. I was lucky. I got to be a part of that group. That was a pretty special time for me because I got to be like an honorary senior that year. And to be with that group, that was always the group coming up. They were always good at all sports. That was my biggest memory of the ‘91 championship. And the fact we faced adversity. We lost our last two games of the regular season, we lost to Nooksack by a point and then we got smoked by Lynden Christian that last game. Then we went into the playoffs and we had to take the long route. After we got out of our league, we just started manhandling teams. That playoff run was so much fun. I remember walking into the locker room each week and hanging up our helmets on the hanger and saying, here we go. We’ve got another week of football. And it just kept going and kept going. Then you’ve got the big semifinal game against LC. They had beat us and so overcoming that. That was a big celebration. Then, that last game, getting to play in the Kingdome, that was such a special treat. It was so cool. I got interviewed by Linda Cohn. It was kind of surreal. Being a coach was interesting. I was coaching the eighth-graders in 2008. A buddy of mine went down to watch the game and that just blew my mind, the Prosser triple overtime game. At that point, I asked Curt, “I know I’m coaching middle school, but can I come out and help you and be part of this?” And he was like, sure. So the 2009 championship, I wasn’t officially a high school coach, I didn’t have an official role but I was allowed to be on the sideline, talk to the boys, and council them up. The following year, they needed a d-line coach. In 2010, they brought me on as the d-line coach. Then 2011 was kind of a surprise. Being a brand new coach and going through a three-peat like that and just getting that sense. After that 2013 year, which I thought was also a surprise, I wasn’t expecting to win that game. Then at that point, you almost expect it. But life throws you curveballs because we went through an era where it was more of a grind. Then Curt passed away and Blake took over. We continued to make it to the playoffs and we played Hockinson in 2019. The losses, Woolley in ‘14 and Hockinson in ‘19, were just as important because you learn and you never get that taste out of your mouth. This last year was completely different from any other year, it had its own flavor. The way the team progressed and the way the whole thing came together was so unique and unlike anything I had ever expected. At the same time, we were going through the flooding. I live in Sumas, so I was missing practices because I couldn’t get out of my house. We would be watching film and Blake would get off the phone and be like, “the boys want to know if there’s anything they could do to help you.” Stuff like that is so cool. And each year, you get to know the boys a little bit better, you develop better relationships, and you’re more of a mentor. I am older now, I have a little more experience. I’ve raised a kid. It continues to evolve and each championship has its own flavor. But that feeling never gets old. I remember looking at Curt, after the 2011 championship, Kyle Hanson scored, we were on victory defense and Curt looks at me, and says, “Some people live their whole lives and never get to feel this feeling.” And I never forgot that. It was the coolest thing that any could have said to me, and he’s right. You go through an emotional rollercoaster, but when you win it all, even like this last fall, that was one of the most emotionally charging feelings I’ve ever had. That’s why you coach. You’re happy for the other coaches, like Zach Vis, that was his first coaching championship. And for Blake, all the hard work, that’s what makes it worth it. You see these guys grinding day in and day out and you want it so bad for them. Watching that whole thing come together was so special. It was awesome.  

Q: Who is someone who reminded you of you when you played?

A: Luke Christianson. He was a way better running back than I was. But as far as mentality, I was never the smartest kid and neither was Luke, he’ll tell you that. We were both just kind of knuckleheads. Trent Postma, another one. I think Trent was better than I was, but same farm kid mentality. Steven DiLorenzo is another good one.  

Q: How did you get into coaching long jump and triple jump? 

A: When I first got into teaching, they needed middle school coaches. So I coached the eighth grade football and when winter came, they needed a middle school track coach. I did that whole gig and at a certain point, Ed Bomber was coaching the jumps. Ed wanted to switch to middle school and Ed talked to me and was like, “what would you think of a swap?” And I was like, “I would love that!” I had always wanted coach my two sports. So I pitched it to Lane Hutchins, and he was down for it. I think it was 2011, we made the swap. I was supposed to coach jumps, however, our throws coach, Julie South, her brother got sick and she had to go to the east coast to care for him. So I got to coach throws that year and I worked with Pete Kaligis’ dad, which was awesome. I got to learn a lot from him. I also learned a lot from Tim Carlson. Then Julie’s brother got better and she was able to come back. So I switched over to the jumps, that was 2012 or ‘13. I asked Lane, “What I’m supposed to do, I don’t know anything about jumps.” And he told me, the same thing as Curt, to just worry about the relationships, build the relationships and the jumping will come. I trusted it and it was great advice. He gave me a bunch of videos and said to study them. Then over time and experience and seeing the real thing, you get better at evaluating kids’ performances. Now I am at the point where I’m still learning a ton but you get to a point where you can see things in real-time. I feel like I’m still progressing. I was talking to John Knudsen, down at Bellingham about that, am I getting better each year or am I reliving the same year? So that’s Curt’s coach a kid every play, that simple principle. You continue to try to get better, find ways to get better, to better evaluate kids. Till the day you die, you still want to be learning and trying to become a better coach, a better teacher, a better husband, a better brother, a better dad, all that. It all ties in together.