Longtime track coaches wrapping up Wooster teaching careers
Although Doug Bennett, left, and Chris Mascotti-Rasor are both retiring from teaching at Wooster High School, they won’t say good-bye altogether. They both plan to continue coaching track and field, with Bennett also keeping his longtime boys cross country post.
With more than 30 years of teaching and coaching experience at Wooster High School, when the final bell sounds for the 2022-23 school year, Doug Bennett and Chris Mascotti-Rasor will leave their classrooms for the final time.
Although Bennett and Mascotti-Rasor are both retiring, they won’t say good-bye altogether. They both plan to continue coaching track and field, with Bennett also keeping his longtime boys cross country post.
In speaking to Bennett and Mascotti-Rasor separately, a similar trait came through loud and clear: both love their jobs.
“It’s just been a great run, teaching and coaching,” said Mascotti-Rasor, who has taught math and coached at Wooster High School since 1992. “It went by fast.”
Bennett has been the associate band director at Wooster since 1990. He has been the boys cross country coach since 1999 and added the boys track head coaching job in 2003.
“I picked the right career,” Bennett said. “It’s been a blast. I’ve enjoyed every minute of this. I had the privilege to work with some really neat kids. I learned as much from them as they learned from me, and we’ve been able to find a good amount of success. I feel like we’ve been able to teach kids and help them on their way to becoming adults.”
Scotti finds a home in Wooster
Mascotti-Rasor, known to friends as “Scotti,” was an outstanding basketball player and track athlete at New Philadelphia, where she graduated in 1983 before going to college at Bowling Green.
Two coaches she impressed as a prep athlete helped her get hired at Wooster.
“I really appreciate the people that were here when I came in,” said Mascotti-Rasor, who taught and coached for three years at Springfield High School before coming to Wooster. “The principal, Dave Burnison, was the former head coach at Mansfield Madison. When I played basketball at New Philadelphia, we were in the same league.
“The Wooster girls basketball assistant coach when I was hired was Rich Bellanco. He had been my high school coach, and he helped me get hired.”
As a girls basketball coach, Mascotti-Rasor served as the freshmen, JV and varsity assistant at different times from 1992-2004 and then again from 2007-09. When Nikki Reynolds retired as the girls track coach in 2015, Mascotti-Rasor took over that position.
“I started out coaching track at Wooster in 2005, working with boys and girls pole vaulters and long jumpers,” Mascotti-Rasor said. “That turned into something special.”
Among the talented athletes Mascotti-Rasor has coached at Wooster are long jumpers Stephanie Walton, Ashley Reed, Kendra Smith, Stewart Turner Jr., Nick Bellanco, Marquise Blair and Duke Price. Pole vaulters she coached include Bryce Kerr, Athan and Kosta Nicolozakes, AJ Wright, Devon Coulter, Bret Brenneman, Cassidy Brown, Renae Blough, and Sara Green. She also coached the 4x100 school record relay team of Haley Balas, Dylan Greenberg, Oksana Novotny and Clara Lemal-Brown.
Mascotti-Rasor has taught almost every math class Wooster has offered including several different calculus courses.
An obvious question to a retiring teacher is this: How do today’s students compare to those in the 1990s?
“They’re still great,” Mascotti-Rasor said. “They’re more independent than they used to be. They still care about their grades, but there’s just so much going on in their world with technology and distractions. It’s very hard for them to focus.”
Mascotti-Rasor is planning to travel in retirement, including a trip with her 89-year-old mom to Yellowstone.
Bennett in it for the long run
Bennett focused most of his attention on playing the trombone at Massillon Perry High School, knowing he was going to be a music major. He played in the concert band at Ohio State. He taught at Teays Valley High School for one year and Waynedale for four years before being hired at Wooster.
“I picked up running when I worked at Teays Valley,” Bennett said. “I was bored. I had nothing to do because I was out in the middle of the country. Once I came to Wooster, I started running with my dear friend Cindy Glass, who taught music here and was a cross country coach in the 1990s.”
Glass was an Olympic Trials qualifier in the marathon. Bennett eventually ran in 12 marathons including the Boston Marathon.
When Glass was unable to coach the Wooster boys cross country team in 1999, Bennett accepted the job as a one-year “fill-in.” He’s never left the post.
“Nikki Reynolds and (College of Wooster coach) Dennis Rice have been great mentors to help me keep moving in the right direction,” Bennett said.
The highlight of Bennett’s 24-year cross country tenure is three trips to the Division I state meet in 2003 (fifth place), 2004 (third) and 2006 (sixth).
Some of the big names from those teams include R.D. Goodright, Andrew Lanham, Eric Brenner and Joel Stansloski.
“Andrew Lanham is teaching law at Harvard,” said Bennett, who plans to work part-time for a music store and coach in retirement. “Last I knew of Brenner, he was teaching on an Indian reservation in Arizona.
“It’s really fun to watch them grow and see where they go. Being a tuba player, one of my favorite kids I’ve ever taught is David Burnett. He got his master’s degree in tuba performance at Michigan. Matthew Broda played the tuba and is now a professor at The College of Wooster. I could go on and on.”
Mutual respect
Bennett and Mascotti-Rasor are both gearing up for another strong postseason run for their track teams. The Ohio Cardinal Conference Meet will be at Ashland University on May 12.
The final question posed to both was to comment on the impact the other has had at Wooster.
Scotti called Bennett one of the hardest working colleagues she’s ever had.
“Doug does everything for everyone, and he doesn’t expect anything in return, except that you also work hard. He’s really done an amazing job with the cross country and track program.”
Bennett said Mascotti-Rasor cares deeply about the kids and enjoys being around them.
“We’ve been a coaching pair since Nikki retired. She is very intuitive about how to get the very best out of her kids. She was a gifted athlete in high school, and her husband Marlin is our sprint coach. I’m really grateful to have spent time with her, as well as the many other outstanding track coaches we’ve had here.”