Accountability, mental toughness and serving others: Classic alumni turned Green Beret shares lasting message with all-stars

BELLVILLE — Twenty-five years ago, Scott Sellers sat in the same seat as the 44th News Journal All-Star Classic players did during Thursday night's annual banquet ceremony at Der Dutchman.

And 25 years ago, he had no clue about the direction of his life or what virtues would guide him through the next phase as he prepared to play the final high school basketball game of his career and move on to whatever came next.

Sellers, a 1998 Clear Fork graduate, scored 1,110 points in his high school career for the Colts. He played in the News Journal All-Star classic in 1998 scoring 12 points He has since moved on to become head girls basketball coach at his alma mater where he has completely flipped around the program turning it from perennial single-digit wins to championship expectations in just three years. In 2021-22, he led the Colts to a 21-5 record matching the program record for most wins in a season with the 1988 team and lead it to a district championship game appearance. He earned Northwest District Coach of the Year honors in Division II as those 21 wins were more than the previous three years combined.

But it was what he did after high school and before he became a successful coach that had him standing in front of more than 100 people at Thursday night's News Journal All-Star Classic Banquet. Sellers served his country as an Army Special Forces Green Beret from 2003-2008. He was the best of the best among military special forces, but if Sellers would have gone back and asked himself what he was capable of when he sat at his own News Journal All-Star Banquet, he would've been the first to say, not becoming a Green Beret.

"I sat here 25 years ago where these kids are sitting right now," Sellers said. "I came across this quote that says, 'Leaders aren't born, they are made and are made just like anything else, through hard work.' I started thinking, what didn't I know when I sat in those seats 25 years ago vs what I know now that has helped me get to where I am today?"

And that was the start of a memorable message for the 23 players in the 44th News Journal All-Star Classic, who sat attentively as Sellers addressed the crowd.

"When I attended my banquet, I wasn't a great leader, but I wanted to think back about what I picked up over the last 25 years that has helped me in life and it is really three things, accountability, mental toughness and serving others," Sellers said.

It was those three things that have guided him through life and some of the toughest situations anyone has ever been in, from military missions to guiding a basketball team through a long season with the whole purpose of making sure his players achieve personal and team goals.

Sellers shared a story from his deployment in Mid-August of 2006 when he was in Baghdad. He shared details of some of the intense situations he faced and some real-life realizations he had to come to terms with while on deployment. He shared a specific time when his team was assigned a dangerous mission that ended with success, but when he returned, the captain at the time admitted that what happened shouldn't have happened and took complete responsibility for the danger everyone was put in because of his error.

"In reality, it was actually our fault," Sellers said. "People were in the wrong spot because of us but our captain took responsibility for everything. It was the first time I saw something like that. From that day on, I knew I would follow that guy anywhere because of what he did for us.

"This story applies because these all-stars are going to make mistakes in their lives. But what I learned, was when I was the guy sitting where they are back then, I would have been the guy who stood up right away and said it wasn't my fault. That isn't on me. But now, I embrace accountability because that is what my captain did for our group and me."

Mental Toughness can be developed

This year's group of News Journal All-Star Classic all-stars is made up of 17 All-Ohioans, only nine were basketball all-staters. Two players, Isaac Blair of South Central and Aaron Gannon of Mount Gilead, own state championship medals. Blair was a member of the 4x400 state championship team and Gannon helped his team win a state title in cross country.

Many are going on to college to play sports, others will go to earn their degrees and some will enter right into the workforce having already developed a skilled trade.

But they all have one thing in common and they all have proven they have mental toughness.

"Mental toughness is something all of these all-stars have," Sellers said. "These guys are here for a reason. They got up early, stayed late, outworked everybody and just displayed mental toughness by doing all of those things. They also displayed mental toughness by withstanding criticism and coaching. They had to be able to be told they weren't the best or weren't giving their best effort and that was something I seriously struggled with as a high school athlete."

That all changed when he got into the selection portion of the course to become a special forces member. He spent 18 months in the Special Forces Qualification Course. In the first 28 days, usually, half of the class drops out for various reasons and after those 28 days, Sellers was moved into small unit tactics for seven weeks and then there are even more stages to complete that take even more time and each step gets tougher and tougher.

By the end of it all, there were 140 guys who started the course and only 13 remained. Sellers was one of those 13.

"I am a 5-foot-9 no one from Butler, Ohio and people ask me how I did it and I think a lot of what pushed me through was things I learned while I was competing in high school sports," Sellers said. "And that part that I struggled with as far as taking criticism and being told you aren't great at things, I found myself getting a lot better. I turned into a guy who just said, 'yes sir, it won't happen again sir.' And that was because of the mental toughness that is developed and it is something these all-stars who may struggle with that criticism can develop on their own."

Serving others could be in all-stars' futures

Sellers wrapped up by challenging the all-stars to serve others. As an Army Special Forces member, he trained and fought with some of the best people he will ever imagine. He recalled the second in command of his 94-man SWAT team and the guy had the ability to stand in front of 94 men and those men did whatever he asked them to do. Sellers saw one guy command the respect of 93 others and it was an eye-opening experience.

And it was there that he learned the value of serving others. And that is one of the most important things he took with him when it came to coaching.

"I tell the parents in every parent meeting every single year, I have three goals, I want to love these kids more than any coach they have ever played for, I want to work harder for them than any coach they have ever played for and I want to make an impact on their lives to the point that they invite me to their wedding," Sellers said. "If I could do these things, I know I have succeeded for these kids. The all-stars in that room, have coaches who feel the same about them. Those coaches want to serve those kids and bring them up as the next group of successful athletes."

With the amount of talent across multiple sports in this year's all-star class, Sellers sees many future coaches, teachers and leaders.

"These all-starts are here for a reason," Sellers said. "Every single one of them are in a better place than where I started. They are bigger, faster and stronger, but what they are going to be faced with is what are they willing to do to take that next step. For me, it was accountability, mental toughness and serving others. At some point, I am guessing some of them will be coaching in the future. And I hope they realize that the kids that end up playing for them will mean more to them than their coaches mean to them now."

And who knows, maybe in 25 years, this year's all-star class will look back on the things they learned that took them to a successful life and thank those three key attributes for it all.

jfurr@gannett.com

740-244-9934

Twitter: @JakeFurr11

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Accountability, mental toughness and serving others: Classic alumni turned Green Beret shares lasting message with all-stars