Scott Hogsett
A resident of Chandler, Arizona, Scott Hogsett is not only a role model in the adaptive sports community; he is a role model for all athletes. He is a three-time, Paralympic Wheelchair Rugby medalist. He has played wheelchair rugby for 20 years, 11 of them as a Paralympic athlete for Team USA. In 2005, he was featured in the Academy-Award-nominated documentary “Murderball,” and in April 2014 he became the first Paralympic athlete inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame.
Now retired from Paralympic competition, Scott is sharing his gift as an inspiring speaker. His messages range from rebounding from tragedy and facing situations with determination, to the intensity of competition and the role of inspiration. Since 1996 he has been connecting with and motivating audiences, from competitive athletes to aspiring business men and women. Groups addressed range from elementary students to attendees at large national conventions and symposiums.
Scott’s Story
Active in sports from the time he was five, Scott was always a fierce competitor. But his greatest challenge came at the age of 19. Enrolled at a junior college in Washington and preparing to start on the school’s baseball team, Scott was thrown off a deck during a Super Bowl party and his neck was broken, rendering him a quadriplegic. With the same intensity and determination for which he has always been known, Scott decided that instead of wasting time thinking of who he had been in the past, he would take on the challenge of his future life and see how far he could push it. He decided he still wanted to go to college. But when conditions in Washington made a difficult return even more challenging, Scott decided to take his goal of independence to a new level, moving to Arizona in 1994, leaving friends and family behind to seek a new, active lifestyle, alone.
A Sporting Success
In 1995 Hogsett began his career as a member of the Phoenix Dust Devils wheelchair rugby team. When his mentor (who ran the team) moved to California, Scott added “coach” to his “player” status. In 1998 he formed a new wheelchair rugby team, the elite Division I Phoenix Heat. The team, which practices at the nationally recognized Virginia G. Piper Sports & Fitness Center in Phoenix, placed second in 2000 in the National Championships. The Heat’s first national championship came in 2005, after which the team, with Hogsett as coach, finished 36-1. In 2007 Scott was named United States Quad Rugby Association (USQRA) Athlete of the Year. In March 2014, 2015 and 2016 the Phoenix Heat won its second, third and fourth USQRA Division I National Championship.
As a Paralympic athlete, Scott won his first medal, bronze, as a member of the USA Paralympic Rugby Team, competing in the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece. Team USA and Hogsett again dominated competitors at the Paralympic Games in Beijing, China in 2008, winning the gold medal. Hogsett served as captain of the 2012 USA Paralympic Rugby team that won a bronze medal in the Paralympic Games in London, England, his third and final Paralympic medal.
In Arizona, Scott earned a bachelor’s degree in Therapeutic Recreation. He is now married to his wife, Michelle, are the proud parents of 9-year-old son, Jacoby. When he is not spending time with his family, Hogsett is at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Barrow Neurological Institute. For the past 22 years he has served as a mentor to hundreds of recovering spinal-cord injured patients, motivating and encouraging them.
A native of Spokane, Washington, Scott spends as much time as possible during the summer in Idaho.