By Gene Galin
Pittsboro, NC – I had an opportunity to stop by Chatham County’s newest high school and meet with the Seaforth High School Athletic Director Jason Amy. We stood onto of the press box which overlooked the football field, along with the softball, baseball, soccer fields and tennis courts.
Watch the entire video above or go through the abridged notes from our interview on Tuesday, August 2 below.
Gene Galin: Jason Amy is the athletic director here at Seaforth, the new high school by Jordan lake. We’re out here standing on top of the press box facing the football stadium, which looks nice and green, doesn’t it? And you’ve got the football team out there practicing. Did they just started yesterday?
Jason Amy: We did. We just got everything going. We’ve got over 30 student athletes out there playing football. So great sign for Seaforth Hawks football.
Gene: Seaforth is only ninth grade and tenth grade. Is that correct?
Coach Amy: Yes, sir. So it’s just the freshmen and sophomores. The freshmen and sophomores will be operating under a JV football program this year. We already anticipate going varsity and JV for next year.
Gene: So next year, you’ll be ninth, tenth, eleventh grade. This year’s just ninth and tenth. Field looks great. Actually tell people what you were doing when I got here.
Coach Amy: So Gene did catch me in the act of mowing, even though I was a little bit a little bit rainy still. But we’re trying to get all the fields of you know, kind of up kept and looking good. And he did he caught me on the mower. And I told him I said, well, Gene, let me at least finish up I had to knock a little bit more out. So you got me.
Gene: Now when you get that lawn mower?
Coach Amy: I think that was last week, week, another one this past week.
Gene: So the guys will understand. You got a new lawnmower. And even though it’s a little wet, you’ve got to run it. And you were doing a softball field out there.
Coach Amy: Yes, sir. Trying to maintain all the fields and upkeep everything as best we can.
Gene: Now, I was out here a few months ago, got to talk with the principal. You started out what a couple months ago as well, didn’t you?
Coach Amy: Yes, sir.
Gene: And things just did not look as good as they do now?
No, not at all. It was it was taken the shape and the form of what a field would look like. So that’s what I keep telling myself is, you know, gain fields we, we take a lot of pride in. So that’s what we’re trying to do is, you know, with it being the first year, some folks don’t understand how much work goes into making these fields look the way that they do so well.
Gene: Don’t most fields take about two years to settle in.
Coach Amy: Yeah, at least at least a couple of years. So that’s what we’re doing. And we’re just working hard trying to get everything looking good. So all right.
Gene: This is what you see when you’re looking up off of the top of the press box. And I’m up here by special permission because regular folks aren’t allowed here without special permission. So tell us the layout. What do you have? What is that? You got the tennis courts out there?
Coach Amy: Yes, sir. The weather is a little bit wet. So we got some of the soccer team working on some drills over here today. So we’ve got six tennis courts here. All right. Going right here to our softball facility. And then we move right next door to the baseball field. And then we go to our main field, which is located closest to us. And then on the other side is our soccer game field.
Gene: Is the reason they’re practicing right now on the tennis courts is the soccer game feels kind of wet?
Coach Amy: Coach Viana just wanted to mix it up. And he said, You know, I know I know tennis wasn’t going to be doing anything. I’m going to work on some foot drills and see if they can control it and hit it over the net. And I said, great, great idea, coach. Go ahead, knock it out. So I’ll be over on his field. shortly. He is trying to do some interesting things, keep the kids active.
Gene: When does football start their season?
Coach Amy: So we we have our first scrimmage on August 11. So you know, here we are. We got a couple weeks and we’ll be off and running.
Gene: When when soccer start up.
Coach Amy: Everything everything’s gonna be starting up that second week, August we have a scrimmage that’s gonna be headed towards Heritage High School, and believe that it’s gonna be on a Friday and Saturday.
Gene: Now you’ve got the football players practicing out on the football field right now. But there is a practice field that you are going to have opened up for them. Is that not correct?
Coach Amy: Yes. Yeah. We’re actually gonna be practicing practice. Last Friday practices are going to be located where you see the five man sled sled located over here. So they’re going to be utilized in that area. That’s outside the soccer field. And then eventually we’re going to move down. Probably next year. That’s still being worked on we have another area that will have
seating capacity i think is what about 2000 2020? Right so point plenty of room.
And what exactly is the official see for hawks color? Is it like, it’s not fuchsia?
Coach Amy: It is Maroon in silver, maroon and silver. So folks, if you want to match up, get the right colors, get the right outfits get the right makeup, it’s Maroon in silver, silver. Alright. That’s a good clarification. Yeah.
Gene: We were talking earlier, you’ve got your booster club. You’re calling that what? Hawks’ nation?
Coach Amy: Yep, we’ve we’ve got a group, Bryanden O’Neill, she’s been instrumental being our president, pretty much spearheaded every one gathering kind of the troops per se and getting everyone involved in creating, you know, not just an athletic booster. We want to be known as more than that. So we’ve kind of Brandon created the name hawks nation, because she wants to support everybody. And that kind of resembles her and everything that she’s trying to do. And we’ve gotten Nicole Stephenson that’s also the vice president doing a phenomenal job just trying to keep everything together and making everything that we’re doing community base related.
Gene: Now you’re not brand new to Chatham County High School Sports because you you were one of the athletic directors over and you did wrestling as well. Over Northwood. How many years Have you been in the system?
Coach Amy: So I’m looking right now, with everything I’m right at twenty.
Gene: All right, and what made you decide, hey, I’d like to come over and be the new athletic director at the new high school.
Coach Amy: Yeah, it was, it was definitely a decision. And I always tell people is when you’re leaving something that you enjoy and you love and the school of Northwood high school. I mean, everything was great. It’s a great place to be and it was a nother opportunity that Chatham County, we haven’t seen opportunities like this happen since 1972 and a half or 50 years ago. So that’s what I said, I was like, you know, I’ve, I’ve been there and done it, and I want to try something new and challenging and definitely have gotten that.
Gene: Well, I know, it’s been challenging. We’ve had opportunities to talk. And I’ve seen you out here and actually, but I’m sure you enjoy some of this stuff a whole lot. And what are some of the biggest things you’ve enjoyed doing out here?
Coach Amy: You know, every day when when you just when you see growth, and you see the kids showing up, I told all the coaches today, as a matter of fact, yesterday, was one of those really monumental, just, you know, it was just myself and Mr. Creighton, the principal, for the longest time kind of walking the halls and trying to figure getting a staff putting, why do we need here? What do I need to do there? You know, there’s a lot that was input into it. And then yesterday, all of a sudden, I see all these parents waiting on their kids to come off the game field. And, and then you’ve got all the kids that are trying out here today. That that’s definitely probably been one of the most inspirational and, you know, just, you know, overwhelming experiences.
Gene: What were some of the things that parents, student athlete parents saying when they’re in the when they’re out here and see these facilities.
Coach Amy: I you know, the one thing I will say is I’ve had numerous folks and they said is it is this a public school, the ones that don’t know, which is always a nice gesture, and I appreciate that. But yes, we are a public school. But all the parents that do know us that are here. I feel like I’ve honestly asked, you know, what can I do to help? What can I do to help? And that’s what I’m getting a lot of that and, and that’s all we’ve got to do. And that’s it. Mr. Craig, I believe in his vision of we are see forth and we’re pushing forward and everybody that’s here, we’re just all kind of rolling up the sleeves and making it work.
Gene: And you’ve got more to do. You have all your coaching staff?
Coach Amy: I do. Yeah, I got. I’ve got I’ve got a full coaching staff. So that was obviously one of the more difficult things was over the course the last few months is going through the whole process of finding not just a coach, but the best coach, the best coach was gonna be fitted for us and yes, so I can officially say now I can start refocusing on another thing,
Gene: And we talked about this we used to do, we did interviews at Northwood and we’ll continue to do interviews with coaches and coach Amy here said, Hey, if you want to do that with the coaches here at Seaforth, we’ll continue to do that. So folks, we will be doing interviews with coaches postgame and let you know what’s going on. Is there anything else you want to know? Oh, you want to let hawks nation not just hawks nation but Chatham County nation to know about sports and student athletes here at Seaforth?
Coach Amy: Yeah, I think the one the one thing that we’ve been trying to push is like our junior hawks program and we have seen a lot of the kids in Chatham County come by our sport camps and coming by seeing the school. We just want to be very open with everybody and letting everybody understand, come out and see us we got a brand new school here. Hopefully we see everybody come by and attend 10 events. But you know, the big focus was is you know, doing it for the younger generation all the kids that aren’t currently going to be at Seaforth high school all the elementary and middle school students and that’s what we want to do. We want to make it an inviting for them to come here and be a junior Hawk. And hopefully we’ll see them walking the halls soon.
Gene: And you’ve got most of your social media set up. You’ve got it what a Facebook page a Twitter account. Are you doing Tick Tock dance videos?
Coach Amy: I am. You’re now I know there’s another gentleman he does way better than me on that. I have not embarked on that night. Sorry. I’ve got Nicole Stephenson. She’s been pretty instrumental in regards to just just you know, like I said everybody’s kind of rolling up their sleeves helping out with what they’re best at. She’s pivotal as far as helping organize everything.
Gene Galin: Well, folks, you’ve got Jason Amy athletic director coach here at Seaforth got a long history with Chatham County. And if you take a look at the facilities out here, the grass is green, which is fantastic. For the ones of us who have seen this one it was brown or like oh my god, this is gonna take forever, but this does look good. Couple of weeks the game start and, folks, you’re more than welcome to come out, check out their website, check out Facebook and all the other accounts and stay on top of what’s going on. Coach Amy, thank you very much.
Coach Amy: Thank you.
Seaforth High School Athletic Director Jason Amy (photo by Gene Galin)
