CCAA Hometown Heroes is a look at current and former CCAA student-athletes and staff who are now on the front lines in the worldwide fight against COVID-19.  Individuals from CCAA member institutions have answered the call to help battle the pandemic, whether it be in the field of healthcare, as a first responder, through volunteer efforts or a variety of other essential services being performed throughout communities around the state and globe. 

Prior to the current pandemic, the World Health Organization declared 2020 the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, to honor Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday. As the founder of modern nursing, Nightingale’s contributions to the profession are prevalent, and her birthday - yesterday, May 12 - is marked as International Nurses Day.

Today, we celebrate one of our own that followed Nightingale’s path to nursing, Cal State San Bernardino volleyball alumna Mary (Thornton) Scott. Scott competed for the Coyotes from 1996-99, where she helped build the foundations of a program that has now gone to 20-consecutive NCAA Championships, earning the national title in 2019. She is married to longtime associate head coach for the Coyotes and national AVCA Assistant Coach of the Year, Danny Scott. 

Scott graduated from Cal State San Bernardino with a degree in liberal studies in 2000, and earned her nursing degree in 2003. She now works at Loma Linda University Health, as a critical care specialty team registered nurse.

Her vocational path was carved out early in life, and her desire to help others was cemented as she pursued a career in nursing.

“At a very young age I loved taking care of my diabetic grandmother,” Scott reflects. “It brought me joy to be able to help. I knew I wanted to be a nurse. As you can say it was my ‘calling.’ It is a very scary time for all and I want to be there to help ease that fear and anxiety any way I am able.”

At Loma Linda University Health, her patients run the gamut, and during pandemic that still rings true. But being an extra line of support when friends and family aren’t able to visit with their loved ones allows Scott and her colleagues to be an additional emotional support to the medical care they distribute to patients.
 
“Our team cares for and transports a variety of patients,” Scott explains. “We respond to strokes, traumas, adult and pediatric emergencies, take critical care patients into the moving environment and are a ‘jack of all trades’ resource for the hospital. Currently, the patients are not allowed visitors. I get the opportunity to provide a little extra care and support; a warm smile and a grasp of the hand go a long way to help heal during this difficult time.”

Beyond Scott’s time with her grandmother shaping her future path, her time on the court for the Coyotes did the same.

“Being a collegiate athlete has taught me teamwork and determination,” she says. “This has helped me both at home and work. Our family is a team and we are going to do what we need to do to keep our family and others safe. The same goes for work. My coworkers are family. We are constantly facing changes at the hospital, which has made a lot of what we do that much harder and scarier. But when times get tough we fight back harder and always have each other’s back.”

With a pair of former volleyball collegians holding down the Scott household, the sense of teamwork continues, albeit at a different pace in this time of separation and social distancing. 

“For our family it has allowed us to slow down and reconnect,” Scott says of the adjusted tempo of their family. “My husband and I would normally have to divide and conquer our weekly tasks. We would go days without our family time. We now are having game nights, family workouts, family bike rides, and home cooked dinners. 

“The fact that life changed over night has been a bit of a challenge. Sixth grade camp canceled, distance learning, not being able to visit friends and family, wearing masks, trying to help our 11-year-old twins understand what is going on. The uncertainty is overwhelming at times, but I know it will get better and we will adapt to our ‘new norm.’ I count my blessings daily that my family and friends are healthy.”

The CCAA salutes Mary and her colleagues working to keep us healthy, and all of our CCAA Hometown Heroes!

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