Animator has not been initialized!!!!!! Help!!

So i've been going through forms trying to figuire this problem out.. but haven't been able to fix it yet :P So here's my problem.. I have 3 objects that use animators and are found on start of the scene.. the first runthrough is fine.. and works perfectly.. But I have a restart function in my game.. and when i restart the level.. the animation is at its previously final state.. and i get the error: "Animator has not been initialized."

here's the code:

using UnityEngine; using System.Collections;

public class playScript : MonoBehaviour {

 public bool playClicked = false;
 public GameObject score;
 public GameObject specials;
 public GameObject pauseButton;
 public GameObject deathMessage;
 public GameObject endScore;
 //public GameObject playButton;

 public PlayerSpawn spawnPlayer;

 Animator specialBarAnimator;
 Animator scoreAnimator;
 Animator pauseAnimator;

 void Awake ()
 {
 
 }

 void Start ()
 {

     playClicked = false;
     score.SetActive (false);
     specials.SetActive (false);
     pauseButton.SetActive (false);
     StartCoroutine(Play());
     deathMessage.SetActive (false);
     endScore.SetActive (false);

 }

 void Update ()
 {
 
     specialBarAnimator = specials.GetComponent<Animator>();
     scoreAnimator = score.GetComponent<Animator>();
     pauseAnimator = pauseButton.GetComponent<Animator>();

     if (PlayerScript.dead)
     {
         specialBarAnimator.SetTrigger ("Dead");
         scoreAnimator.SetTrigger ("Dead");
         pauseAnimator.SetTrigger ("Dead");
         deathMessage.SetActive (true);
         endScore.SetActive (true);
     }
 }

 IEnumerator Play () 
 {
     yield return new WaitForSeconds(2);

     playClicked = true;

     score.SetActive (true);
     specials.SetActive (true);
     pauseButton.SetActive (true);

     spawnPlayer.CharacterSpawn();
 }

}