RALEIGH -- As a 6-foot-7 high school junior, Josh Scott held your average teenage NBA dreams. Big dunks. Beautiful cars. Bel Air mansions.
A talented player, he even tattooed an orange basketball on his right shoulder. But Scott, built on the slender side, forgot to add five-hour workouts and a gym-rat mentality to his visions. In 2006, he enrolled as a player at Polk Community College in his hometown of Winter Haven, Fla., though soon found himself averaging four minutes per game. He resisted his coaches and grew recalcitrant.
"His heart was not into basketball," his father, Robert Scott, said.
Deep down, Scott agreed. What he didn't know is that he had the heart for track and field. He discovered that later, at St. Augustine's College, where he's now a champion sprinter with a readjusted attitude, recalibrated work ethic and more realistic professional goals.
Last month, Scott was voted the NCAA Division II national male indoor track athlete of the year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
He won NCAA indoor titles in the 200 and 400 meters for the second straight year. He did so in times - 20.91 seconds and 46.05, respectively - that set national championship records.
He is the first sprinter to repeat as the Division II 200-meter indoor champion.
On Saturday, he repeated as champion in the 200 and 400 meters at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association conference outdoor championships. He pushed through windy conditions to run 21.15 in the 200 and 47.08 in the 400.
As the senior enters the outdoor season, Scott has positioned himself to earn a shot at making the U.S. national team. His personal best in the 400 is 45.02 set as a sophomore. He stands in a long line of superior 400-meter runners - world champion Bershawn Jackson among them - to train under former U.S. Olympic coach George Williams.
The Falcons, Williams said, have had at least 12 quarter-milers who have dipped below the 44-second mark.
"We expect [Scott] to go the same way," he said.
For some time at Polk, Scott seemed headed nowhere.
"I was hard-headed," he said.
He removed himself from the situation before things completely imploded, returning home to his parents.
Focusing the call
Robert Scott, a club track and field coach, had tried to convince his son that his true talent would be on the track.
That gift was evident at Winter Haven High School, where Scott finished as the 400-meters runner-up in the state championships three years in a row. "I just couldn't rip myself away from basketball," he said.
Back home, Scott received a call from his sister, Deborah Scott, a member of the St. Aug's track team. She informed him that the team was coming to Florida for a meet. His father suggested he enter unattached.
Scott, pumping skinny elbows and knees, won the regional 200 event. That compelled Williams to offer him a place on the team.
Scott enrolled at St. Aug's with a clear intent to remain humble. He learned quickly that Williams wouldn't tolerate foolishness.
"If you don't come out here and do what you got to do, he's going to send you home," Scott said. "Plain and simple. If you're on your stuff ... in the weight room ... you're going to be successful."
Scott received some devastating news that also put life into perspective and motivated him to shift his focus. His mother, Elizabeth, died in March 2007 after a bout with Sarcoidosis - an inflammatory disease that can attack any organ in the body. It attacked her brain.
"That's what really hit home and made me buckle down," he said. "I started doing what I had to do and take track more serious. I knew it was there, but I was scared to develop myself."
Not everyone's race
At St. Aug's, the pathway has remained clear for Scott.
He has met opportunity with dedication. "He has no choice," Robert Scott said.
Williams said Scott has matured and done what he has asked in terms of workouts. He's not one to hold hands or tailor discipline.
"I don't offer anybody anything, I just give them practice," Williams said. "I just tell them, 'This is the workout.' No winners, no losers, but choosers. It's your choice to do the workout or your choice not to do it. Those who choose, they are successful."
Observers who have watched Scott run his signature race say he's a student of the 400.
"He actually runs the 400 meters the right way," Bowie State coach Michelle Latimer said. "He gets out, he maintains. When he gets to that point on the track, he opens up and he's gone. And he runs so relaxed and smooth. You don't see him fighting to finish his race."
The 400 is called the "longest sprint" by runners, a brutal test of endurance and speed. It's not for everyone.
"I don't think everyone can step on the track and be a quarter-miler," Latimer said. "They may try to be one, but you have to have that heart. ... You're going to fight and it's going to hurt all the way to the end of that race."
Scott embraces pain. He's been mentally prepared by his father, a former member of the U.S. 82nd Airborne.
"It's a race you have to throw yourself into," Scott said. "You have to make yourself like it. I like challenges. The 400 is the biggest challenge. It's the longest sprint. And it fits my height."
Can't hide height
Height is one thing Scott can not run from.
With his tall frame and broad shoulders, it's no surprise people automatically consider him a basketball player.
"First time I met Josh, I thought he was a basketball player," St. Aug's senior Steve Simeus said. "I was like, 'What the heck is this guy doing out here? He a high jumper?' Naw, this man's a true sprinter. He's a world-class athlete."
During the indoor championships last month, announcers referred to him as America's Usain Bolt - the 6-foot-4 Olympic gold medalist from Jamaica.
While not in the same league as Bolt, the world's fastest sprinter, the point hit home with Scott. His explosive starts, prompted by a violent swing of his long arms, are particularly interesting to those who might think a tall athlete would struggle out of the blocks.
But his lanky frame has not limited his starts, with him serving as the leadoff leg on the school's 4x100-meter team. Scott's long stride receives the most analysis, though, with observers noting his leg turnover and velocity.
It's the same even stride whether in the 200, 400 or as a member of the Falcons' national indoor champion 4x400-meter team, where he runs the anchor leg.
"He's the force that brings us together," St. Aug's sophomore Jason Boyd said. "He's the fastest leg we've got. ... We put him in some predicaments some times. He bails us out."
Others are taking notice.
"That guy can run against anybody," Charlotte track and field assistant coach Tim Vaught said. "It doesn't matter Division I or Division II. He can run against anybody in the country. In part, maybe in the world."
Scott, a sports management major, hopes that is true, but he would love to reach the winner's podium.
"Times tell you the potential," Williams said. "You run 45.2 - all you need to be is in the 44s. He's only a hundred-tenths of a second off. He has that potential."
His heart is no longer questioned.
