TUKWILA, Wash. — Seattle Sounders interim head coach Brian Schmetzer vividly remembers the first time he saw Zach Scott.
Schmetzer was sitting with current Sounders FC Academy head coach Dick McCormick and former Sounders forward Chance Fry watching open tryouts for the USL Sounders at the small field of Memorial Stadium in 2002.
The quality of play wasn’t too strong and there were a ton of balls played in the air. Without fail, one particular player won every header that came his way.
“Chance looks up at me and goes, ‘You gotta sign that guy just because he wins every single header,’" Schmetzer said. “So we said, ‘OK, we’re gonna sign him.’”
Nearly 350 matches later spanning two divisions in a 15-year career, Scott, the man who won all those headers at a semi-pro open tryout, would eventually earn the moniker, “Mr. Sounder.”
“Zach has grown up on his own, he’s a strong man, he has a great family,” Schmetzer said Thursday, after Scott announced he will retire at the end of the current season. “His values were certainly in place far before I ever entered the picture. His training habits, his sacrifices for the team, those are the things that stuck out in my mind. I was never a great player, so I did whatever it took to help the team win. I think Zach is along that mode.”
Scott was and is as hardworking a player as they come, and his leadership is something Schmetzer will miss the most when Scott leaves after his 15th season with the club. The way he holds the group together, despite playing in only 12 matches this season, is not an easily replaceable attribute.
But it’s to be expected from a man who always put the team first and did what it took to win, headers and all.
“I think he was always determined to prove to himself and to others that he belonged, that he could actually play and play at a high level,” Schmetzer said.
He's done just that.
