Team's success is fulfilling for Tide coach

TUSCALOOSA | It was a Sunday afternoon in April and a day University of Alabama men’s golf coach Jay Seawell will never forget.

The Crimson Tide had just finished lapping the Southeastern Conference Championship field by eight shots, and in what should have been his ultimate look-at-me moment, all Seawell could do was look at the joy on his players’ faces and think about how he had made good on a promise.

“You know we weren’t very good when I got here,” Seawell said of the state of the Alabama golf team before he arrived. “The [Jerry Pate Golf Center] hadn’t been built yet. But these young men came here anyway. Their reactions after we won the SEC are something I’ll always remember.

“Players and parents came up to me and said, ‘Coach, you promised us and it happened.’ That’s an awesome feeling. Their reaction after they won, and just their happiness. That will always stick in my head.”

Today, Seawell and his No. 1 Crimson Tide begin postseason play at the NCAA Central Regional in Columbus, Ohio.

Alabama is the overall third seed in the NCAA field, after spending most of the season as the nation’s top-ranked team. The NCAA awarded Georgia the No. 1 overall seed, and the Bulldogs will play in the East Regional in Chattanooga, Tenn.

“When we saw that the overall No. 1 seed was Georgia, it was a kick in the stomach to me and to the guys,” Seawell said. “I think they were mad, very mad to be honest with you. But in golf you have to let that kind of stuff go. The only shot that really matters is the one you’re hitting. So if you get caught up in off-the-course things, then your chances of succeeding are less.”

The Crimson Tide won six of 11 tournaments this season. Its worst showing was a seventh-place finish while Michael Thompson was in Augusta, Ga., competing in The Masters. Four different golfers claimed individual tournament championships — Thompson (SEC Championships), Joseph Sykora (The Toby Cup), Mark Harrell (Jerry Pate Intercollegiate) and Matthew Swan (The Puerto Rico Classic).

Seawell coached the Tide to its second-ever SEC Championship (the first was 1979) and has spurred Alabama to the forefront of collegiate golf. Not bad for a self-described “ole country boy.”

His ascension from “average” college golfer at the University of South Carolina to architect of the No. 1 ranked team in the country does not surprise those closest to the 41-year-old coach.

During his five-year tenure at Augusta State, the Seawell family [wife Stephanie, daughters Brooke and Lauren, and son Jackson] became family friends with their pastor, Charlie Stakely of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Ga. Stakely said he could have predicted Jay Seawell’s meteoric rise.

“He’s just very, very rare,” Stakely said. “He comes from a golf family, but that’s not it. It’s his drive. When he left Augusta State, he didn’t go just to make a better life for his family. He went to win a national championship. He wants to win the whole thing.”

Stakely said there was one defining moment where he knew Seawell had outgrown Augusta State.

“There was a No. 1 ranked player in the South who had narrowed his choices between Clemson and Augusta State,” Stakely said. “At the time, Jay was driving his personal car on recruiting trips. He was holding study hall for his players in his own home. In the end, the player told Jay that he would love to play for him, but he wanted a campus experience. I remember him telling me the story and just looking at me and saying, ‘I just want a level playing field.’ ”

The opportunity for a level playing field came sooner than Seawell expected. While on vacation in 2002, Seawell looked at the Internet one night to see that UA golf coach Dick Spybey had retired. The next morning, he received a call from Alabama.

With his family settled in Augusta, and his mom and dad close by in Aiken, S.C., Seawell said it wasn’t a sure thing for him to take the UA job.

“The first thing that made me seriously think about the job was when they sent the plane for me,” Seawell said of Alabama’s private jet. “The second was that I fell in love with the campus. Alabama is a special place, and I didn’t go here and I’m not a homer. I just knew if I could get people to come visit they would come.

“But even on the plane ride back to Augusta I was still 60 percent sure I was going to stay. My wife told me that this opportunity was why I got into coaching making $7,500 a year at Anderson College. She asked me if I thought I could win there. I told her yes, and she said then we need to go.”

During his initial visit to Alabama, Seawell met with Athletics Director Mal Moore. Moore asked Seawell what he would need to make the Crimson Tide golf team one of the nation’s elite. Seawell presented Moore with a vision he had came up with at Augusta State. The vision was a state of the art practice facility, and Moore said it would be done.

The end result was the Jerry Pate Golf Center at the Ol’ Colony Golf Complex. Seawell credits the facility as the main reason the program has risen to the top.

“I think as soon as this place was finished all of a sudden we became good,” Seawell said from his office in the Jerry Pate Golf Center. “It changed the mentality of the players. There was a sense of pride about this. As soon as we dedicated this, we went to the NCAA for the first time in nine years. I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”

Seawell said Moore and Pate made the facility become a reality. Pate said there are good things ahead for UA under Seawell’s leadership.

“These are exciting days in Tuscaloosa right now,” the former U.S. Amateur champion said. “Golf is a character game. Jay is such a talented guy. They have the best chance Alabama has ever had to win it all. He’s done a remarkable job. Just a great leader on and off the course. It’s so lucky for us to have him.”

Reach Aaron Suttles at aaron.suttles@tuscaloosanews.com or at 205-722-0229.