South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Lindbergh alumnus Derik Scott competes in ‘Titan Games’ with ‘The Rock’ on NBC

Derik Scott
Derik Scott

One of Lindbergh High School’s alumni will be front and center on prime-time television Thursday as he competes on NBC’s “The Titan Games,” hosted and produced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Derik Scott, a 2006 graduate of LHS and 2009 graduate of Lindenwood University, will be a competitor in an episode set to air at 7 p.m. today, Thursday, Jan. 24, of the game show, where contestants compete head-to-head with one another in various feats designed to test physical strength and mental and emotional fortitude.

Scott is no stranger to competition. His parents, Kevin and Dana Scott of Concord, used to run a gymnastics facility and by the time he was 5 years old, Scott was doing backflips and other moves. He won his first national championship when he was 7.

“Even from a young age, my parents had me doing everything,” said Scott. “You name it, we participated in it.”

In high school, Scott played basketball, baseball and football. He lost out on football scholarships for college after injuring his Achilles tendon multiple times and instead decided to walk onto the dive team at Lindenwood University, where he became a three-time All-American diver.

“The only reason I wasn’t a four-time All American is because I graduated in three years,” said Scott, who also holds a Guinness World Record for most backflips on a Swiss Ball in a minute.

After graduating from Lindenwood, Scott attended Baylor Law School. In 2015, he moved back to St. Louis, where he took a job as general counsel for a chain of fitness centers.

Scott was prescreened for “The Titan Games” almost a year ago, after initially hoping to be on “American Ninja Warrior.” He was contacted by representatives for the show who explained the concept and said that it was being produced by Johnson.

“They said ‘The Rock,’ and I was like, ‘OK, I’m in!’” Scott said.

Scott had to go through an arduous vetting process before being selected out of 10,000 applicants for a combine in Burbank, California. One of 200 participants, Scott had to do various physical and mental tests for the show’s producers.

In the end, he was one of 64 people selected for the show.

While he hasn’t been able to say much about how the show will pan out, Scott said that he has enjoyed the process and getting to know his fellow competitors.

“The commodity that stems from competition and just being around people who push themselves,” said Scott on what he’s enjoyed the most.

Scott moved to Los Angeles in June, where he took a job as legal counsel for a fitness center there. In July, he found out that he had been selected to be on the show.

“Our first thought was ‘what is that?’ but it was Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson so that was pretty cool,” said his mother, Dana Scott. “It’s sorta this adventure we’ve been having since July that we haven’t been able to tell anyone about. And he can’t even say anything to us, just very little.”

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