'4th and Forever' Follow-Up: Starr Scott Answers Your Questions

Starr Scott may not be an official member of the Jackrabbits, but she is a team player in every other sense of the word. As the operations manager for the Long Beach Poly football program, she has seen the players through four years of trials, tribulations, and growth. Along the way, she took Dabness Atkins into her home and provided him with the support he needed to succeed.

Jacob Irving, Starr Scott, and Dabness Atkins on May 28, 2011, at their prom party in Long Beach, Calif. (Photo courtesy of Starr Scott) 

The biggest Jackrabbits fan and mother of three spoke with Current.com's Daniela Capistrano about how things have changed for her since the show, her plans for the future, and how her relationship with Dabness changed her life.

Daniela Capistrano: What do you hope fans of the show learned by watching it?

Starr Scott: It’s a huge misconception that we have an endless supply of money and sponsors and that we pay for nothing. It’s totally opposite. We really don’t have any sponsorships and NFL players who are alumni don’t give to the program yet.

Marcedes Lewis does host a football camp for youth and is around quite a bit to lend moral support to our players. But for some reason none of our more famous alumni have made the move to financially support the program yet.

Mr. Broadus, aka Snoop Dogg, actually, is the first famous alum who stepped up this year and lent a hand. He lent his influence with Adidas and they have helped quite a bit. So I hope that (from watching the show) people see the need to help support the program.

Poly alumni and fans spread worldwide...I hope the show puts the needs of this program on their hearts.

Aside from money, overall I hope people see that this (program) is not just about X's and O's. It’s about raising kids and helping to be part of the village that raises children to be independent, self-sufficient young men.

We want them to be good people, not just NFL stars, and hopefully we contribute to that success and help shape their lives.

At home there was a lot of discussion, debate, even, at times, confusion and frustration with the recruiting process and the decisions Dabness faced. We often needed to overcome Dabness’ attitude to really get to the meat of this huge decision at times.

I was worried about the last episode where Dabness tells me he’s accepting the Air Force Academy offer, because when we shot it we tweaked it a little bit and I was worried it looked like we just pulled this decision out of our hats when in actuality it was a slow and meticulous...sometimes even hair-pulling process.

Obviously it was a big decision and I am just worried [my reaction] looks too vanilla. It was obviously a big decision for us both.

DC: How is your relationship now with Dabness?

SS: It’s interesting to me, how this experience is coming full circle and hearing Dabness talk about that -- how my relationship with him has helped him. Often as human beings we think “this is as much as I can do,” but we can always do more. I didn’t realize I could do more! I had three kids, I was a single mom and had just gotren re-married, when Dabness came into my life. I never thought I would help raise someone else’s kid...I felt I was barely raising my own, to be honest. So it is something I am not only glad I did, but I am amazed at my own ability to grow and love.

When I took Dabness to begin basic training I thought it would be great to get one of the kids out of my house, with Jacob leaving in August right behind him, but when Dabness hit the stairs to go in for processing I just fell apart. Jacob looked at me like, “What’s wrong with you?” I was sobbing. I didn’t realize until that moment how attached I was. I wasn't ready to let go yet.

I could see he was a little anxious of what was waiting for him on the other side and I wanted so badly to protect him. I was so worried about what would happen to him at basic training and how he would handle it. In some way it was like taking him to report to jail.

Before Dabness, you could have never told me I could give more -- I was at my max with my three, I just didn’t think I had anything else to give. And in some ways, this makes my bond with Dabness very different than with my kids. It’s the same protective and loving dynamic, but in another way, it’s more special, because it was a choice I made, I guess. I gave birth to my kids...they are mine, but this [relationship] is very different. To take on a teenager and bring him into your home is something I would have never imagined I could do.

(Photo courtesy of Starr Scott) 

I do have to say that my love for Jacob is what catapulted me into this whole thing, though. In the beginning, I was like “Hey, time for your friend to go home...what's going on here?” So Jacob is the real hero because he really wanted to help Dabness and it was because of my love for Jacob that I opened the door to let this happen.

Through loving someone else, you’d be surprised what you can accomplish and how you can affect others.

DC: What are your thoughts on the way that Long Beach was portrayed in the show?

SS: Long Beach is a beautiful city. The surrounding area immediately around Poly can be rough, but for the most part, my view is a little filtered. I just don’t think Long Beach is the terrible city the show makes it out to be. Especially in the first episode, all the [shots of] police... there were times when I told myself, “It’s just TV.”

DC: How do you feel now about the Long Beach Poly football program?

SS: I feel really proud of the things they portrayed about the program on the show. I know the show is about football, but the people out here know so much about these kids and their backgrounds. Someone went to school with someone’s mom, with their dad or grandpa, there’s a long history of tradition here.

We have kids who’s grandparents went here or went to school with a coach. I really do feel that the show portrays all the caring and that at Poly we truly are a family.

I think the person I feel bad for on the show is Emmanuel, because it’s got to be hard to be a teenage boy, a player on the team and the coach's son. I am sure it was not easy on Mondays at Poly listening to kids talk about not just him, but his dad too. My heart broke for him at times.

Margarita Lara said it best though....Lara is the coach on the field and in the car on the way home, he’s dad. But I think the show does a good job of showing that. I hope Emmanuel knows that nothing people said was personal...it was just FOOTBALL...and fans want to win...period!

DC: What should viewers know about Coach Lara?

SS: About Coach Lara and Emmanuel... I think overall, when you see Coach Lara change the quarterback on the show and people cried favoritism or whatever...that was not the case at all. He’s going to do that this year and Emmanuel isn’t even playing quarterback.

Coach Lara himself gets a little anxious at times when kids aren't performing like he knows they can and he will pull a kid out and replace him. Some people may see this as a negative or a positive, but it’s just an opinion on his coaching. I wouldn’t judge someone’s coaching but I do hope that people see that what he did was fair based on both Chaiyse's and Emmanuel's performances.

Choosing who plays is not like track, where you run against the clock and the fastest person wins. Football is based on a lot of things that the coaches see in practice; who shows up, who participates, etc. There’s a lot of things that go into it.

I hope that the [audience] sees that Coach Lara is very fair and HE WANTS TO WIN JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! He did not baby his son or LET anyone play just because their name started with an L.

DC: What's next for you?

SS: I’m still the football operations manager, so that involves a lot: Uniform orders, organizing fundraisers, making sure kids are enrolled in school and finish their paperwork, scheduling physicals, and more. Believe it or not, Coach Lara did all that I do on his own for years. This is my fifth year with the team.

Before, I always volunteered in my kids schools from kindergarten on, so when Jacob came to play football at Poly I thought it was going to be this well-oiled machine. But it was so unorganized; I didn’t know when games were, who the coach was, and that was just the freshman team. So I joined the Booster Club and the PTA, and gradually I just did football.

So much needed to be done and it has been a process of my learning and Coach and I trusting one another for the betterment of this program...for these kids. After Coach Lara and I got to know each other, we built a certain level of trust, which took some time. But the experiences I’ve had here are invaluable, you could have never told me that this was something I would want to do -- I am actually interested in doing it now on the college level.

I’m going to go back to school in January to take classes in sports management and marketing. In the immediate future, I’m going to watch Dabness graduate from basic training on Aug. 3 and take Jacob to check in to his dorm and begin school at San Jose State in mid-August.

 Hannah Irving (Starr's Daughter) and Starr Scott at Jacob and Dabness' prom party on May 28, 2011 in Long Beach, California (Photo credit: Christopher Scott)

I will end that trip with an hour's drive to San Francisco State to hit Costco with my daughter, Hannah, and her three roommates...then it is a six-and-a-half-hour drive back to a home with NO CHILDREN!

It’s funny, a few new students have come in to register for football who say, “So, where did they all end up going to school?” I forget sometimes that the show is airing and I’m surprised by how many people watch it. It is cute how kids come and look at the basic training pictures on my wall of Dab, or the cap-and-gown picture of the boys together on my desk and they look at it in awe like they are celebrities.

It always takes me a minute to realize they are watching "4th and Forever" and that is why they are excited to see my two little bums on my desk.

Beyond Poly football, I’m excited about turning one of my kids' room into a closet! Yes, he entire room is going to be my retail getaway! Complete with dressing table and room for 65 pairs of shoes!!!

DC: How has your Poly experience influenced you off the field?

SS: I always told my kids that the beauty of college is that you can learn more about the world and broaden your horizon...get out of your box -- your own world can feel so limited, especially when you only see a few types of careers.

I never would have imagined, from my box, all the jobs that you can do behind the scenes to support the big picture. Now, I would love to be a football manager, especially for a school like Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo...beach and mountains and football! Who could ask for more?

Being involved at Poly, I have appreciated the diversity of the people and how they work together. That has been a huge gift. I am very proud that my children had that experience. It’s kind of contagious and it’s something you want more of. I’d love to work somewhere where I have some of that same diversity.

DC: What was your favorite moment of the season?

SS: When we lost the final game... It hit me, as I saw one of the players crying, that I started doing this when these kids were freshmen. They are all kind of like my kids. Just to see how sad they were -- that was hard for me. I didn’t realize it was going to be so emotional. So it wasn't a favorite moment, but it was a momentous one, for sure.

I don’t know if this was captured on the show, but before every game, Dabness would walk over to where I stood on the bench to give me a hug. I could never hear what he said because it was always so loud, but he was always very sweet -- but he doesn’t show a lot of his tender side.

I didn’t think he was so tender at the time, but now I’m picking up pieces of it through his letters from basic training. He is a really a very sensitive kid with a tough exterior.

DC: How did having cameras around change anything for you?

SS: I actually forgot they were there most of the time! I only really noticed it with Devin and Jeremiah. Sometimes they would get so animated in front of the camera when they were talking, and that’s not really how they are. But they are teenagers. It makes sense that they would turn it up.

Also, this was a highly emotional time for them, so it could have just been teenagers being dramatic.

DC: What has Dabness recently shared with you from Basic Training?

SS: He started his training for at the U.S. Air Force Academy on June 23. He said that he’s gotten in trouble a few times but overall he’s one of the best cadets. His squadron commander thought that he was prior enlisted or from a prep school or ROTC because of how well he is doing.

He told me that it’s not that hard there if you just do what you are supposed to do and understand that you can’t be perfect, something is always going to be wrong. When I talked to him by phone recently, he told me that they really care about you at The Academy, and that’s why they discipline you because they want you to be the best.

If he can see all that in two weeks, that’s great. For someone like him, often someone who doesn’t have a dad will go to gangs, so how beautiful that he found what he needed in the military.

When we were visiting Cornell, he really liked it there but he said something that struck me as we talked about his decisions one night after dinner. He said that he knows he’s gifted academically and athletically but he felt that the Air Force could give him the discipline that he lacked, which would set him apart and make him more successful.

Here’s this 17-year-old telling me that. Not many people are wiling to take a look at themselves like that, especially at his age.

We'll be featuring more interviews with Poly players right here on the "4th and Forever" blog. Are you a Jackrabbits fan? Leave your feedback and best wishes for Devin and the rest of the team in the comments below. Need some inspiration? Check out what fans said in our interactive infographic.