Celebration of life service for former West Rowan coach Scott Young is Sunday

Longtime West Rowan High football Scott Young has died from complications from a heart transplant. Young was 45.

A special memorial service to celebrate Young’s life will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. at West Rowan’s football stadium.

Young built an N.C. 3A football powerhouse at West Rowan High School in Mount Ulla, a town about 50 miles northwest of uptown Charlotte. In 17 seasons at West Rowan, Young’s teams were 172-54 with nine conference championships and four N.C. western regional championships. The Falcons won three state titles in a row from 2008-10.

Young, who was an assistant at Statesville High this season, is survived by his wife Dianne, sons Bryant and Brody and daughter Ally.

“It’s a sad, sad day in the profession,” Vance High coach Aaron Brand told the Observer. “I was texting with coach last Wednesday and he was wishing us good luck in the playoffs and telling us how good a job we’ve done this season, and I was relaying the same message to him.”

Brand, who moved to North Carolina from Virginia, said Young was one of the first coaches to welcome him and had kept in close contaact.

“My prayers go out to his family and especially his kids,” Brand said. “The whole coaching community is sad. Scott was a great, great man. He got to see his son (Bryant) play the whole time in high school and when it was over, it was almost like he was just tired.”

In 2015, Young had open heart surgery, later resigning his football job at West Rowan. In May 2016, Young had a heart transplant, shortly after he was hired to become football coach at Independence.

Young never coached the Patriots but had been coaching as an assistant at Statesville High, where his son Bryant was a senior quarterback. In Bryant Young’s final regular-season game, he threw for 307 yards and four touchdowns as Statesville beat West Rowan 34-24.

After the game, Bryant Young told the Salisbury Post: “A lot of that was for him. He’s given me everything I’ve needed to further my career. He’s a great man and a great coach.”

Statesville lost 48-0 to Southwest Guilford in the first round of the playoffs last Friday. Dianne Young posted photos of the family after the game on social media.

Scott Young’s final original social media post was Saturday, when he celebrated an undefeated youth football season with his son Brody.

Social media response was heavy, including a post from Young’s oldest son, Bryant, and from a former star player, KP Parks, who went to Virginia

This story was originally published November 15, 2017 at 9:41 AM with the headline "Celebration of life service for former West Rowan coach Scott Young is Sunday."