A characteristic that every coach seeks, but rarely finds, from
his/her athletes is consistency. When it came to Scott Meech,
though, Steve Moore never had to worry about that.
Meech was a model of consistency with the Fighting Scots’
basketball team, earning a starting role as a freshman power
forward as well as all-North Coast Athletic Conference honors in
1991-92, and he never relinquished that spot in the starting lineup
or on the All-NCAC Team throughout his career.
Upon first coming to Wooster, the 6-5, 210-pound Meech joined a
very experienced squad, but still managed to work his way into a
starter via his tenacious defense, maturity, and versatility to
score at the basket and outside, according to Moore. That season,
Meech effectively played his role, averaging 9.4 points and 5.3
rebounds, while being part of a team that went 26-3, including a
school-record 22-game winning streak, and won the NCAC
championship.
Meech became more assertive in the years to follow, putting up
12.9 points and 5.5 boards per game as a sophomore and career-highs
in scoring (15.8 ppg) and rebounding (6.6 rpg) as a junior. Despite
individual honors (honorable mention all-NCAC in 1992-93 and
first-team all-NCAC in 1993-94) and another appearance in the NCAA
Tournament, Meech found himself somewhat disappointed as the Scots
were not meeting their high standards with modest 21-7 and 18-8
records and a lack of conference titles.
In 1994-95, Meech and a special group of seniors, including
current assistant coach Doug Cline, whom Meech credits for a great
deal of his success, set out to atone for the previous seasons, and
they did just that. With Meech serving as the top scorer (14.1
ppg), Wooster reeled off a mid-season 19-game win streak en route
to the NCAC championship. The Scots also won the NCAC Tournament
and a first-round game in the NCAA tourney before settling for a
26-3 record, which matched a program-best at the time. For his
efforts, Meech, who also averaged 6.2 rebounds, notched a second
first-team all-NCAC mention and second-team all-Great Lakes
District honors.
Meech, the second from Wooster to be a four-time all-NCAC player,
ended up with 1,453 career points, currently No. 9 on the
Scots’ scoring list, and 657 rebounds, and he was well
rounded, adding 247 assists and 111 steals while starting every
game (112). Perhaps Meech’s most impressive statistic was a
.592 field-goal percentage as many of those shots came from
the outside.
“Scott had an outstanding career. I think the team’s
record during those four years (91-21) and the NCAA appearances
(three) attest to that,” commented Moore. “His overall
statistics show him to be an all-around player, and show him to be
one of the top players to play at Wooster.”
Academically, Meech was equally impressive, albeit not quite as
consistent when it came to choosing a major. He was dead-set on
chemistry when he enrolled at Wooster and was labeled as “one
of the best first-year students he’d ever had,” by the
late Dr. Ted Williams, a legendary professor on campus. However,
Meech discovered a love for math classes as a freshman and became a
mathematics major, graduating with honors in that discipline and
receiving a prestigious NCAA postgraduate scholarship.
Meech now imparts his fondness for education and math, as a
teacher in that subject at nearby Smithville High School. He lives
in Smithville with wife Lorah and their three children –
Sarah (5), Luke (3), and Aaron (infant) – and stays involved
with a local church and as a youth sports coach.
