Wednesday, May 23, 2007 11:38 PM CDT
Seaton set for first varsity coaching job at Casey
By Mike Monahan Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
CASEY – Chris Seaton, the new Casey-Westfield boys’ basketball coach enters with plenty of experience. Seaton, who was unavailable for comment in Wednesday’s story due to the Decatur Herald & Review Area Best track meet, has been in the Casey district 13 year and has 17 years of coaching experience.
“Being a head basketball coach is something I wanted to achieve,” said Seaton. “It is something I wanted to take a shot at if the opportunity arose. The opportunity presented itself and I applied for it. Thankfully, I was given the opportunity to coach the team.”
Seaton, a social studies and health teacher at Casey-Westfield Junior High, is also the Casey-Westfield-Martinsville girls’ track coach. Seaton replaces Brandon Miller, who stepped down after a four-year record of 66-39 and no losing seasons. Miller is to remain a physical education/driver’s education teacher as well as the junior high and high school baseball coach.
“I am very excited about the opportunity,” said Seaton. “I am very thankful to the board and administration for giving me this opportunity to coach. I can’t wait to get started. I am looking forward to being a part of the head coaching fraternity. I am put in a lot years to this point and I really excited to get in there and be a head coach at the varsity level.”
Seaton, a Mount Carmel graduate who went to Wabash Valley and later finished at Eastern Illinois coached four years at Sheldon Junior High, now part of Milford, before coming to Casey in 1994. Seaton has coached both boys and girl’s high school track at Casey over the past 13 years. He coached the Casey eighth grade for two years before joining Randy Bishop as an assistant coach. Bishop was 149-39 at Casey and won three regionals with six of the seven seasons’s being 20-win seasons.
“Randy Bishop has been the biggest influence on me in coaching,” said Seaton. “I adopted his philosophy and what he likes to do. I also enjoyed watching coach Brad Haftill coach. I enjoyed watching coach Brandon Miller and what he was able to do with his teams.”
Seaton has coached the Casey eighth grade for the past four years.
“All the kids in the program have come through the school district since I have been coaching at the junior high level,” said Seaton. “Next year’s senior class was the first class I had in eighth grade when I began coaching the eighth grade again. I have known most since Elementary school and have had them in summer camps. I know the kids and they know me.”
The Warriors lose Journal-Gazette/Times-Courier all-area player Ian Littlejohn, who averaged 16.8 points and 5.8 rebounds for the 14-12 Warriors. They also lose Brennan Ragon and Lydon Burson. However, they are to return Logan Boyd, who is to be a senior and Mitch Snyder, who is to be a junior. Snyder averaged 12. 5 points per game and Boyd scored 10.2 points per game.
“There are a lot of good coaches n the area that I have admired-Teutopolis (Ken Crawford), Effingham St. Anthony (Mike Wilson) and Marshall (Tom Brannan) and other school in the conference. I pick up things here and there and see what other coaches do and I try and emulate it if it fits in to the program.”
As far as philosophy goes Seaton said, “A lot depends on the personnel. I like to out and pressure and force the other team to make mistakes. I would like to think that in high school you will have players and shooters and they have got to put pressure on them. Not necessarily man-to-man. We could play a match-up zone, a 1-3-1 trap, a half-court trap, but you have still got to be able to play man-to-man. If you can play man-to-man you should be able to play zone. A high school coach is going to have to fit your philosophy or style for what is best for the kids. I am not one of those guys who so inflexible that he not going to tray and do something else. I will do whatever I think is going to help the team be successful.”
The Warriors averaged 70.5 points per game last year.
“I have been around a lot of offensive patters –the slow down and the up tempo game,” said Seaton. “I like both styles. We really have to be able to take good shots and that doesn’t mean you hold the ball. We have to keep our turnovers to a minimum and that is what we hope to do. I am going to be very curious to fill and figure out what the best approach is with this group of kids over the summer. I will use the summer to see what the best fit is for them.”
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
