For Chartavius Scott, football has become another way to serve.
A United States Air Force veteran and former high school defensive coordinator, Coach Scott has built his coaching journey around preparation, accountability, relationships, and developing the people behind the players. Today, that journey has taken him to Bethany College in West Virginia, where he serves as the defensive line position coach.
Scott’s path into coaching began in 2021 when a friend who had recently become a defensive coordinator asked him to help coach linebackers at Odyssey Institute for Advanced and International Studies in Buckeye, Arizona. What started as an opportunity to help young athletes quickly became something much bigger.
Over the next several seasons, Scott coached linebackers, tight ends, and running backs before eventually becoming the varsity defensive coordinator. At the same time, he continued investing in younger athletes, serving as a middle school defensive coordinator for three seasons.
Along the way, Scott discovered that knowing football and knowing how to coach football are two very different things.
Coaching required him to become a better teacher, communicator, listener, and leader. Every player learned differently. Every player responded differently. And the more Scott coached, the more he understood that his responsibility was not simply to design the best scheme on a whiteboard—it was to put his players in positions where they could succeed.
That philosophy has roots in his six years of service in the United States Air Force. The discipline, preparation, accountability, attention to detail, teamwork, and adaptability Scott developed in uniform now influence how he approaches the game. Just as importantly, his military experience taught him that effective leadership requires people to understand the mission rather than simply follow orders.
Through Soldiers To Sidelines, Scott found a way to connect his military experience with his aspirations in football.
The organization introduced him to coaches with experience at some of the highest levels of the game, expanded his professional network, and helped create opportunities as he pursued the transition from high school to college football. That journey ultimately led him to Bethany College.
And Scott isn’t finished.
His aspirations include continuing to advance through college football, becoming a collegiate defensive coordinator and eventually a head coach, with the ultimate goal of earning an opportunity to coach at the Division I and NFL levels. He understands there are steps between where he stands today and where he wants to go—and he’s prepared to take them.
In this month’s Soldier Coach of the Month Q&A, Coach Scott shares how the Air Force shaped his approach to leadership, why understanding the “why” matters to his players, how Soldiers To Sidelines helped open doors in his coaching career, and why he believes his coaching story is only beginning.
Q&A with Coach Chartavius Scott
STS: How long have you been coaching?
Coach Scott:
I have been coaching for six years.
STS: Tell your story about how and why you got into coaching. How has coaching impacted you as a person?
Coach Scott:
Football has been part of my life for a long time. I played the game, loved the game, then eventually found my way back to football through coaching. What started as an opportunity to help young men grew into something much bigger for me.
A friend of mine had just taken a position as the defensive coordinator and asked me to help him coach linebackers. I was incredibly excited about the opportunity and started my coaching career in 2021 at the Odyssey Institute for Advanced and International Studies, a charter high school in Buckeye, Arizona.
While there, I coached varsity linebackers, tight ends, and running backs for two seasons. In my third-year coaching varsity football, I became the defensive coordinator and served in that role for three seasons. I believe in developing players at different levels. During my first three years coaching at Odyssey, I also coached football at the middle school and served as the defensive coordinator for three seasons as well.
Once I started coaching, I realized I had found something that gave me a sense of purpose. I enjoy the strategy of football—studying tendencies, building schemes, teaching technique, then watching a player take something we worked on during the week and execute it on Friday and Saturday. What keeps me coaching, though, is the relationship with the players.
Coaching has forced me to grow as a person. Every player learns differently. Every player does not respond to the same type of motivation. I have learned that knowing football does not automatically mean you know how to coach football. Coaching requires you to teach, communicate, listen, adjust, hold people accountable, and earn their trust.
One of the biggest principles I have developed is that my responsibility as a coach is to put my players in the best position to succeed. There are things I will not ask a player to do simply because they look good on a whiteboard. If my players cannot execute something successfully, especially against the opponent we are playing that week, I need another answer.
That philosophy has changed how I look at leadership outside of football too.
STS: How has your military experience influenced you as a coach?
Coach Scott:
I served six years in the United States Air Force, and my military experience has influenced almost every part of how I coach.
The military taught me discipline, preparation, accountability, attention to detail, teamwork, adaptability, and the importance of understanding your role within a larger mission. Those principles translate directly to football.
Preparation matters to me. Details matter to me. Knowing why you are doing something matters to me.
At the same time, my experience has taught me that leadership cannot simply be about giving orders. People need to understand the mission. That is why I spend time explaining the “why” to my players. I want them to understand why we are aligned a certain way, why we are attacking a particular protection, or why a technique gives them an advantage.
My military background even shows up in some of my football terminology. I have used aircraft and military concepts in naming pressures because those things are part of who I am.
Most importantly, the Air Force taught me that everyone has a responsibility to the person beside them. Football works the same way. Eleven people have individual assignments, but those assignments must work together for the defense to succeed.
STS: How has Soldiers To Sidelines impacted your life?
Coach Scott:
Soldiers To Sidelines has had a major impact on my coaching journey because they helped me see that my military experience and my coaching aspirations did not have to exist as two separate chapters of my life.
They helped connect them.
Through Soldiers To Sidelines, I have been exposed to coaches who have worked at some of the highest levels of football. I have had opportunities to learn from people such as Rod Marinelli, Gregg Williams, Jerod Kruse, Harrison Bernstein, and other coaches throughout the profession. Those experiences expanded what I believed was possible.
Harrison Bernstein once told me, “You’re always interviewing. This conversation is an interview.” That stuck with me because coaching is a relationship business. Someone is always watching how you communicate, how you prepare, how you treat people, and how seriously you take your profession.
Soldiers To Sidelines also helped create opportunities for me. Their network played a role in my transition from high school football into college football at Bethany College.
For a veteran trying to break into a profession where relationships matter so much, having an organization willing to teach you, connect you, advocate for you, and tell you the truth about the profession has meant a lot to me.
STS: Describe a coaching interaction with a player or group of players that has a special place in your heart.
Coach Scott:
Some of the moments that mean the most to me happened with my players at Odyssey Institute.
We were building something. We were teaching young men how to play aggressive, disciplined defense, but we were also teaching them how to prepare.
I watched players begin recognizing formations, understanding tendencies, communicating with each other, then playing faster because they understood what they were seeing.
There was a game we lost 21–13 where our defense scored both of our touchdowns. Obviously, I wanted to win the game. What stayed with me was watching those kids continue fighting and seeing them take ownership of what we had taught them.
Those moments reminded me why I coach.
The statistics matter. Wins matter. Championships matter. I am competitive, so those things will always matter to me. Yet there is something different about watching a young man gain confidence because he prepared for something, recognized it during a game, then made the play.
I know that feeling stays with the player. It stays with the coach too.
STS: What are your aspirations in coaching?
Coach Scott:
My aspirations are high.
I want to coach at the highest levels of football—Division I and the NFL.
My journey has already taken me from high school football, where I served as a defensive coordinator, into college football at Bethany College. I currently coach the defensive line, which gives me another opportunity to grow, learn the college game, recruit, develop players, and prove myself at this level.
My goal is to continue moving through college football, become a defensive coordinator again at the college level, then eventually become a head coach. I also want the opportunity to coach in the NFL.
I understand there are steps between where I am today and where I want to go. I am willing to take those steps.
I want people to eventually look at my career and see someone who earned every opportunity through preparation, relationships, development of players, and results.
I believe I can become an elite football coach. Now my responsibility is to keep doing the work required to prove it.
STS: What was the most difficult challenge you have experienced in coaching, and what have you learned from that experience?
Coach Scott:
One of the hardest parts of coaching has been learning how to operate in environments where personalities, communication styles, philosophies, and expectations do not always align.
Football is emotional. Coaches are competitive. We spend enormous amounts of time preparing, and everyone believes strongly in what they are teaching.
I have experienced situations where I disagreed with decisions, communication, or how something was handled. Earlier in my coaching career, I might have focused more on whether I was right.
I have learned to ask a different question: What does the team need from me right now?
Sometimes leadership means speaking. Sometimes leadership means listening. Sometimes leadership means handling something privately instead of reacting publicly.
I have also learned that I cannot control another coach, player, official, administrator, or opponent. I control my preparation, my response, my relationships with my players, and the standard I bring every day.
That lesson has made me a better coach.
STS: Is there anything else you can share with us about your coaching story?
Coach Scott:
My coaching story is still being written.
I entered this profession later than some coaches. I already had a military career, a professional career, leadership experience, and a family before I started seriously pursuing this path.
I see that as part of what makes my story different.
I know what responsibility looks like outside of football. I know what service looks like. I know what leadership looks like when people’s livelihoods depend on decisions. I also understand what it means to start again and be willing to learn.
I went from coaching high school football in Arizona to pursuing college opportunities, attending clinics, building relationships, studying the game, joining Soldiers To Sidelines, interviewing with college coaches, then eventually getting an opportunity at Bethany College in West Virginia.
I have driven long distances, worked another career while coaching, sacrificed time, studied film late at night, then continued learning because I believe there is somewhere I am supposed to go in this profession.
Football has given me another way to serve. The uniform changed, however the responsibility to develop people did not.
I want my players to become better football players and better men from my coaching, mentoring, and guidance. More importantly, years after their last game, I want them to know Coach Scott cared about them, demanded something from them, taught them something, and helped prepare them for whatever came next.
That is the coaching career I am trying to build.
The Uniform Changed. The Mission Didn’t.
Chartavius Scott’s path has already taken him from the United States Air Force to high school football in Arizona and now to the college sidelines at Bethany College.
Where it leads next remains to be written.
But the purpose behind that journey is already clear. Scott wants to develop football players, build better men, and continue earning every opportunity through preparation, relationships, and results.
As he put it himself, “The uniform changed, however the responsibility to develop people did not.”
Soldiers To Sidelines is proud to recognize Chartavius Scott as our September 2026 Soldier Coach of the Month.