Longtime Brimfield basketball coach says this time he’s leaving for good
By NICK VLAHOS
For The Weekly Post
BRIMFIELD – Scott Carlson is retiring again. This time, it appears he means it.
Last week, Carlson told his players and Brimfield administrators he will not return for a 29th season as boys basketball head coach. The fourth season of Carlson’s second stint in that job ended earlier this month with Brimfield advancing to a Class 1A sectional semifinal.
“I’ve asked a few other coaches, who were also at it for a long time, how they knew it was time to retire, and the only response I got was ‘You just know,’” Carlson, 64, said in a statement to The Weekly Post.
“I’m going to greatly miss being around my players and coaches. I’m going to miss planning a practice and conducting it. I will miss the competition, the victories and the celebrations with my team. But it is time.”
Carlson finished with an overall record of 568-258, including 73-53 since his return in 2022-23 following a one-season hiatus. He also retired in 2021 from teaching. Carlson’s teams won seven regional titles, three sectional titles and the 2015 1A state championship.
The Brimfield School Board is expected to consider Carlson’s resignation when it meets in April, according to Superintendent Chad Jones. Coaching assignments for 2026-27 probably will be up for approval in May.
Carlson recommended one of his assistant coaches, James Sams, succeed him. The current Brimfield-Elmwood baseball head coach, Sams has spent the past two seasons on Carlson’s staff.
“He came to Brimfield with the idea that one day he’d be the varsity basketball coach. I like what I’ve seen,” Carlson said during a telephone interview.
Carlson said game preparation and pregame nerves were factors in his second departure.
“I actually enjoyed going to games to scout and I appreciated being able to collect box scores in the paper to gather more information on opponents. For the time, that was being thorough,” Carlson wrote.
“Today I can watch just about every game (on the internet) and since I feel like I need to be thorough, I find myself watching hours of game film. Hard to believe, but I liked all the driving more. … I think as I have gotten older, I have grown more tired of the stresses of the job that mainly I put on myself.”
Carlson was at Brimfield 32 years before his sabbatical. Before he became head coach, in 1997, Carlson spent eight years assisting his two immediate predecessors, Dan Sullivan and Mike Bonczyk.
Retired Brimfield Athletics Director Kevin Kreiter, who spent 24 years as Carlson’s assistant, was head coach in 2021-22. Carlson assisted him but didn’t sit on the Brimfield bench during games.
Carlson said his years with Kreiter, his tutelage under Sullivan and the friendships he formed with peers, former players and community members were among many highlights in his career. It included three years of coaching in Maryland, one in Georgia and one at Woodhull AlWood, his alma mater (1979).
That graduation year was when Brimfield advanced to the Class A Elite Eight, led by future Bradley University player Eddie Mathews. Carlson recalled watching him and the Indians win a sectional championship that season.
“I actually became a Brimfield fan,” said Carlson, who followed the team to the state finals in Champaign. “Since I drove by Brimfield a lot on (Interstate) 74, when I decided I was going to be a teacher and coach, I used to think in my mind, ‘I’d like to teach and coach at Brimfield someday.’
“I give thanks to God for landing me at Brimfield.”
