By Marty Gordon
Illinois native David Seabaugh is the new head football coach at Auburn High School.
He fills the opening created when former coach Cam Akers became an assistant at Pulaski County.
Seabaugh comes to the area after spending this past season as the quarterback coach and passing game coordinator at Kemper County High School in Dekalb, Miss. Last year, the team finished 8-3.
He started his coaching career right out of high school at his alma mater, Litchfield High School, in Illinois and then attended college at Mississippi State University where he was able to work for the football team in recruiting.
When Mississippi State had away games, he drove back to Illinois Friday morning to make the game that night.
While in his senior year at State, he worked with the football team at Starkville High School.
Originally from Walshville, Ill., a tiny town of about 45 people, Seabaugh became aware of the Auburn opening this past month.
“I think the most attractive part of this job opening (at Auburn) was that this is a school that has won 30+ state championships in eight years with all of their other sports,” Seabaugh said. “You don’t win state championships without having athletes and having an administration that really sees the importance of athletics in schools. Now my job is to correlate that to the football field.”
He met with players and their parents late last week. Auburn is coming off a 3-4 spring season after COVID-19 moved the 2020 season.
Seabaugh’s first goal at Auburn is to bring some excitement back to the football team. “I’m not going to come in promising to make deep runs in the playoffs in my first season,” he said. “But I will say we will have a product on the field that the people in this community can be excited about.”
This past season, the lack of numbers affected the Riner program as no junior varsity team was fielded.
“My philosophy is something I stole from Bill Walsh,” Seabaugh said. “As he says, ‘If you do all of the little things, the score will take care of itself.’ Everything we do, we will be trying to do it perfectly. If we focus on being precise and being as perfect as we possibly can, the score will take care of itself.”
He will be teaching physical education and advanced physical education and is still assembling his coaching staff and is looking for a defensive coordinator.
He jumpstarted the school’s program on Monday with off-season lifting. Auburn opens the 2021 season at home versus Narrows.
