Austin Scott never misses a game for the University of Wyoming. Yet he rarely sees one.

In my way of thinking, he is one of the most valuable members of our athletics department, and maybe its least well-known.

His job is to make sure all of our electronics works while toiling behind the scenes, under the radar.  

You see, Scott is Wyoming's Assistant Director of Technology.  His scope of responsibility includes making sure all video boards, scoreboards, sound systems and televisions function properly.

It's a big job.

"During a game Dennis (Trapani, Creative Services) and I might be scrambling around like a madman to fix something," he says. "I'm okay with that as long as our fans have no idea we're doing it.  That means everything's working.  That's just the way it is.  If I do get to watch for a little while, it means things are good.  But most of the time I'm chasing down one issue or another."

Austin is a very engaging young guy who is a technical wizard around the athletics department.  If your television isn't working, call Austin.  Having trouble with your computer, call Austin first.  If your zoom is malfunctioning, call Austin.  If there's a panel out in War Memorial Stadium's video board, Austin.

I think he might be our MVP.  I say that because I have no idea how to do any of those things.

He is behind the scenes and that's the way he likes it.  He's like an umpire.  You really don't notice him until something goes wrong.

Knowing how to fix things is only the tip of his iceberg.

Austin is a musician, can play the drums and any stringed instrument.  He has a punk-rock band called Stay Awhile.  He's also what you might call a 'gentleman farmer' raising sheep and chickens on 32 acres of land 15 miles north of town.

He's a native of Lyndon, Ill., a small town about 130 miles east of Chicago.  I goggled it.  It's called a 'village' with a population of about 648 people. Austin says it was 600 when he was a kid so it's obviously booming!

"My wife (Maureen) graduated a year ahead of me, and we decided that when I graduated we wanted to get away from the rat-race that's the Chicago area.  It's a long story, but Maureen's parents lived in Steamboat, and we'd come to visit them.  We liked it out this way.  Her parents ended up living in Laramie, believe it or not, and we all loved it here.  

"When we came out we were looking for a slower pace of life than the Chicago rat-race. Our dream was to own land.  The original plan was to buy land and build a house.  We quickly found out we couldn't afford to do both.  But we did find 30 acres with a pretty rundown house on it that we could afford.  So we bought it and have been remodeling.  It's coming along."

Being as talented as he is, he has been able to do almost all the work on the house himself.  Everything, that is, except the plumbing.  "I don't do plumbing, had to hire that done," he says.

The Scott's have seven sheep which they'd like to expand to 30 and 10 birds, which they hopefully can expand to 100 chickens.

"Our goal is to be as self-sustainable as possible.  My wife is a fiber artist—knits, crochets etc.—and raising sheep made sense.  We're growing our own food too.  Just trying to lower the expenses. While our parents weren't farmers our grandparents were, so it's in the genes. We have a lot of fun doing it."

That's a long way from fixing the fiber optic run to the football scoreboard.

Austin graduated from Columbia College in Chicago with a degree in Live and Installed Sound Engineering. He began his career with an audio and video installation company.  His bag is live production with installed systems.

That's where his musician genes come into play.

His dad, Brian, was a musician and had a very popular band in the area while Austin was growing up. "I was like his sound guy.  His group, Cuzband, played all over the area and I would help him set up the sound.  He and his band played a lot of establishments covering Classic Rock songs, and I'd go with them."

Started by his dad, the Sco0tt family has a band back in Lyndon called the Hoodies and is a popular group during the hometown's annual summer celebration called the "Crow Festival". Lyndon is known as the "Crow Capital of the World". Three of the six Scott brothers play in the band. "It's a lot of fun," says Austin. "My dad got it started, and the name came from the fact he was always wearing a gray hoodie around."

Sadly Austin's father past away in April of 2020, but he and his band were a bit of a legend around the area.  "I was always around music, always working with sound.  I play drums, and anything with strings, but I knew I wasn't a good enough musician to make it in that business, so I chose the sound end of it. I had a punk band back home, and wrote music in college. I wanted to do my own thing which was more punk.  Music is a way of expressing myself, I love it."

Making things work also is an impressive way he expresses himself.  

Austin's UW title covers a lot of ground, but specifically he works on anything with low voltage. That covers electronics like scoreboards, audio systems, televisions and the like.

"Most of my trouble-shooting involves the stadium because of its exposure to the weather," Austin says. "Wyoming weather is hard on our systems, especially the video board.  I'm working there most of the summer getting ready for the upcoming season.  We have minimal issues with our indoor systems, but there are issues now and then, especially with the replay systems.

"Really, the art of trouble-shooting is understanding the language.  There is a language of technology. You have to know what they are talking about."

It's Austin's view that all of this stuff is built to last three to five years.  "It's pretty much obsolete by then," he says. "But in his estimation the next big advancement in his world will be everything going wireless.  "That's certainly where it's headed.  For instance, we have fiber lines running to our scoreboard. One of these days we will be able to remote into it, and there will be no wires."

For obvious reasons, his most stressful time on game day is if something stops working an hour or two before a game. "It's the worst feeling in the world," he says, "you don't want to let everyone down, especially the fans.  But when we get it fixed, and nobody is the wiser, it is really a rewarding experience."

He works closely with Tyson Drew, Wyoming's Associate Athletics Director for Facilities Operation/Event Management, and his facilities crew, and Trapani, Assistant Athletics Director for Creative Services and his crew, who is in charge of all the video board shows and live streaming.

Interestingly, Scott was not much of a sports fan until he accepted this job. He wrestled in high school but, by his own admission, wasn't very good, and he also boxed.  "But I mostly lifted weights and played music," he says.

"But I have enjoyed watching our sports when I can.  Obviously I enjoy wrestling, and I've gotten into Cowboy and Cowgirl basketball.  I've really had a lot of fun with that.  I don't get much of a chance to watch football because I'm usually pretty busy during the game."

As if he doesn't have enough to do, he enjoys working on cars in his spare time and has two "project" cars on which he is currently.  He's also a hunter.  But music is his passion.

One of these days I want to see his band perform.  That would be fun.  

Oh, and by the way, Austin, my toaster isn't working very well, can you take a look at it?