Scott Peach ensures the Peach coaching tree continues to grow in Arlington

Forgive the man if his voice breaks, or a tear or two wells up, and it’s no reason to feel awkward.

“I’m a crier,” he said. “I cry a lot.”

Especially when the subject is Scott Peach’s dad, Eddy.

“Friday (Nov. 8), I sat in this chair and I bawled my eyes out,” Scott Peach, the head football coach at Arlington High said in his office of the day his team faced Arlington Lamar. “My mom had sent me a text that said, ‘Your father and I have been proud of you since the day you’ve been born’ and that just struck a nerve. I got down to my knees and just cried. I had not cried like that since ...”

Since about this time one year ago; it has been just under one year since Scott, his family and thousands others, mourned the death of one of the most successful men in the history of Texas football, former Arlington Lamar coach Eddy Peach.

Eddy Peach died on Dec. 15, 2017. He was 76.

Although Scott’s mother never wanted their son to pursue her husband’s profession, Scott has continued his father’s multi-decade legacy of coaching and impacting kids at the grass roots level. And winning.

“Every opportunity I get to talk about him and honor his legacy, I do it,” he said. “I love it. Is it hard? Yeah, it can be hard.”

Talking about the deceased is one way to keep them alive.

Scott’s original desire to deliberately deviate from his father’s path didn’t take after he graduated from Baylor, and as a result the Peach tree continues in Arlington. The tree grows, and thrives, just not at Lamar.

Despite some interest on the part of Arlington ISD officials for Scott to leave Arlington High for Lamar when his dad retired in February of 2010, the son has stayed at the first job that gave the then kid a chance.

This season, Arlington High finished with a perfect regular season record for the first time since 1988. Scott Peach was awarded the 2018 Eddy Peach AISD Coach of the Year trophy, which currently sits in his office.

The Colts won their bi-district playoff game against Weatherford, and will play Amarillo Tascosa on at 5 p.m. on Friday in Wichita Falls.

By any measure, Arlington has had a great season. By any measure, Scott Peach has developed into a wonderful high school coach since he was hired as a 28-year-old much to the anxiety of many in the community.

And by any measure, Scott Peach, cannot waste his time trying to catch his dad. Dad won 309 games in a career that spanned 39 years, and impacted more lives than anyone could plausibly quantify.

Eddy Peach was the first coach in Texas high school football to win 300 games at the state’s highest level.

Scott is wise enough to know he may will likely never catch his dad, but emulating him is equally an intelligent decision.

Like his dad, Scott’s entire family is built around Arlington. His wife works as an assistant athletic director at AISD, and the proximity and the schedules allow them to spend time with their two children, Cooper (12) and Campbell (9).

When Eddy was alive, he was able to attend his grandson’s football practices, and just spend even more time with his family.

“The hardest part of his death was we really had a special relationship and had become peers those last few years,” Scott Peach said. “One of the real blessings of my life is to be the head football coach at Arlington High and not Arlington Lamar. There is nothing against Lamar and that community, but that was dad’s school.

“I was originally disappointed that I could not coach with dad because Arlington has the nepotism clause, in the end it worked for the best because it was, ‘Coach Scott Peach’ and it was mine.”

No one quite believed the son until his dad retired from Lamar in 2010. Eddy Peach became the head coach at Lamar when the school opened in 1970, and the idea of the son succeeding the father was appealing. It was just not appealing to the son.

It’s too early to suggest Scott Peach is to Arlington High what Eddy Peach was to Arlington Lamar. That may never happen, and it does not much matter. Scott will have to remain at Arlington High for only two more decades to write that, and win at a similar pace as his dad.

Scott won his 100th game this season. Only 200 more to go and he’s there.

Scott does not need to win 200 more games to be a success, or to be his dad’s equal. Scott Peach is a winning Texas high school football coach who impacts his community, provides for his family, and can see and spend time with his two kids.

That’s a fantastic life, and one that his father would have been most proud.