ASHLAND — Sean Seder will walk out of the locker room doors into the glow of the Community Stadium lights Friday night to fulfill a dream that he has had since he was a young boy.
Every child is asked the question of what they would like to be when they grow up. Seder’s answer was simple, it was to be a head ball coach.
“I was the water boy and ball boy for all of my dad’s teams from like five (years-old) up,” Ashland High School head football coach Seder said. “Football is something that I have done ever since I was little all the way up and I’ve always been around it, it’s just always been a constant.”
For the 33-year-old Seder, football is in his blood, having come from a successful line of football history in his family beginning with his father Bill Seder, an extremely successful coach at Waynedale. Seder was groomed to love football as a child, but it was never forced upon him from his father.
“Growing up all I ever heard about was how phenomenal my dad was, but he was never the type to pressure me,” Seder said. “I always looked up to him and wanted to try and fill his shoes.”
Sean’s uncle, Tim Seder, is a graduate of Ashland High School and played college football at Ashland College before kicking professionally for the Dallas Cowboys and Jacksonville Jaguars. Tim Seder is now a head football coach in Texas. Bill Seder Sr., Sean’s grandpa, was also a head football coach and now resides in Ashland.
Needless to say, Sean Seder grew up in the shadows and footsteps of his family’s legends, but they were role models for him to look up to.
He was an all-around athlete growing up by playing every sport possible. As he entered high school at Waynedale, he narrowed it down to football, wrestling and baseball.
Realization hit for Seder after he knew he was not going to have the opportunity to play college athletics. However, he could now focus on his goal of being a head football coach.
Following college at Ohio University, Uncle Tim Seder was able to convince Sean to head down to Texas to coach high school football for five years as a coordinator. The level of intensity in Texas high school football jumpstarted Seder’s coaching career.
“It was kind of a culture shock. It is all about the competition you go against, if you make a mistake, you pay for it,” Seder said.
While in Texas, Seder was also a head wrestling coach — which opened up the door of opportunity to come back to Ohio and take the head wrestling job at AHS in 2014.
Fast forward to May of 2019 and Seder receives word that he will be the next head football coach at AHS … dream accomplished.
“It was kind of one of those mixed things where you are super pumped and at the same time you are like ‘man, I have a lot to do in a short amount of time,’” Seder said.
This process of becoming a head coach did not happen in a short amount of time, but has been a build-up since Seder was five.
He attributes part of his coaching ability to the strong love for the game, but he also has a passion for the daily interactions between his athletes.
“The effort that he takes to build relationships with kids is huge,” Ashland High School athletic director Jason Goings said. “I’ve really watched his leadership in our wrestling program and just the way kids flock to him.”
Goings also said that Seder spends extra time with his athletes before and after school and even eats lunch with them on a regular basis.
“One thing I really like about Sean is that his coaching style is very well suited for our kids,” Goings said. “He’s demanding, but they thrive on that because they know he cares about them.”
Although being the head football coach is a very intensive and demanding job, Seder will still be the head coach of the wrestling squad at AHS where he also teaches STEM.
While his work life is becoming overloaded, Seder still needs time for his wife Megan and two children: a daughter, Leighton, 10, and a son Kannon, 1.
Seder said this will probably be the most challenging year time-wise for him. One thing he doesn’t have to worry about anymore is his masters degree in administration, which he completed in June.
“I’m an OCD schedule guy who is all about efficiency,” Seder said. “I think being meticulous about that, as difficult as it is, I think it lets me get the hours of everything I need to do.”
For now, Seder holds the temporary tag of an interim head coach due to the timeliness of trying to search for a head football coach. Former AHS head coach Scott Valentine announced his resignation on May 6 and by May 28 Goings announced that Seder would become the interim head football coach.
“We made no commitments, but nothing is off the table,” Goings said regarding the interim tag. “The best plan of action would probably be to get together again administratively and say what we think the best plan is now, regardless of how this season goes, I think that is something we still need to do.”
There will always be expectations at Ashland High School, and following in Valentine’s successful footsteps might be hard, but Seder is looking at this season as simply improving from the previous season.
“That’s how we kind of set our goals is trying to be better than last year which is 5-5,” Seder said. “Then come out of our non-league (games) healthy and hopefully with a positive record to then put ourselves in a position towards the end of the season to win our OCC (conference).”
Seder is a man who cares about wins and losses and being competitive, but in the end, football is football, and that is all he needs.
“My wife will hate me for this, but football was probably my first love. It’s just been something that has always been there.”
Seder’s head coaching debut will take place this Friday at 7 p.m. as the Arrows host the Uniontown Lake Blue Streaks at Ashland Community Stadium.
