Super Bowl Champion is now “Head of School” at Carmel school

Scott Fujita is the Athletic Director and soon-to-be “Head of School” at All Saints’ Day School in Carmel. His time on the field with the students is a stark difference from where he was on this day nine years ago – holding his child after winning the Super Bowl with a different group of Saints.

“Suddenly they open these gates and all the families rush onto the field as confetti falls from the sky. To have that moment with my young girls, collecting confetti off the ground and throwing it in the air, it’s pretty special,” Fujita said.

He was a linebacker and the New Orleans Saints’ defensive captain when they won the Super Bowl in 2010. Fujita was a prolific tackler and had four of them in the team’s beat down of Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts.

KION spoke with Fujita about playing on the biggest stage in sports.

“For me it felt like recess. It felt like all the work and the years of football leading up to that, that was where the work was. The Super Bowl game was the payoff,” Fujita said.

But retiring in 2013, he’s traded his cleats for a clipboard, spending this Super Bowl week tossing a Frisbee in the grass and throwing footballs, donated by his old quarterback Drew Brees, with a group of kids on the All Saints’ Flag Football team.

“(We showed the players) the route tree and route combinations, with the play name. And the more you practice it the more you get better at the process and on game day it becomes automatic,” Fujita said.

The team finished the season, their first, undefeated.

‘It left really good being undefeated because we don’t get that opportunity very much as a small school,” said student Zaki Ibessaine.

Fujita’s pro experience was huge to the players just learning the game.

His experience was huge to the students learning the game.

“The plays he brought were super cool. Because he was on the Saints, he brought a bunch of plays he used to run in practice,” said Will Hand, a student at the school.

Another student, Parker Lynch, said, “Mr. Fujita, he’s a beast. Helping out our team (and) making sure we knew all of our plays before.”

The rise to Head of School has been a long time coming for Fujita. He has a Master’s in education, joined the All Saints’ School Board, and as Athletic Director he brought in football, track, and cross country.

“(I found) sort of a new calling. And a school like this where my kids are in school and I believe so whole heartedly in the school’s mission and the faculty, and I’m in awe of what they can do. And the product of student and human being that goes out into the world from this place, I want to be part of that,” Fujita said.

He is loved by these Saints like he was by the Saints in New Orleans – helping lift a community devastated by Hurricane Katrina a few years prior. His Super Bowl was there’s too.

“To be there at that moment in time, where it meant so much to the community, and really they just wanted something to district them from everything they have just been through. It was such an incredible journey,” Fujita said.