*This article was first published in 2020. Mahomet-Seymour Hall of Fame Inductees will be honored at the Homecoming game on Sept. 17.
By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Jason Seaman is on the short list of top all-time athletes in Mahomet-Seymour history.
A record-setting standout who competed in three sports all four years at M-S, Seaman was cited as the Male Athlete of the Year as a senior (2007) for the entire News-Gazette area.
Seaman is on an even shorter list of former Bulldogs who were even more impactful after graduation.
Months before his 10-year high school reunion took place, Seaman’s name was known from coast to coast. He was the subject of a tweet from President Trump and he was honored by professional sports teams in Chicago, Indianapolis and St. Louis.
He is the seventh-grade science teacher who interrupted and stopped an active shooter in his classroom (Room 619) at Noblesville, Ind., taking three bullets in the process on May 25, 2018.
No lives were lost that day and Mahomet native Seaman was hailed nationally as a hero. The 13-year-old shooter whom Seaman subdued was eventually sentenced to juvenile prison.
In September, 2020, another title will be appropriate for Seaman: Hall-of-Famer.
He will be one of the headliners in the fourth class to be inducted into the Mahomet-Seymour Education Foundation Hall of Fame. The ceremony will be held in conjunction with the M-S homecoming football game.
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Much of Seaman’s life today is the same as it was in 2018, which was his seventh year of teaching and his fifth at Noblesville West.
He still teaches seventh-grade science in Room 619. He still helps coach the eighth-grade football team.
He is still humble and unassuming.
Seaman and his wife, Colette, added a third child to their family on Dec. 22, 2019, when Aubrey was born. She joins Jamison (4 ½) and Emery (who will be 2 in April).
The Seamans occasionally get back to his hometown and the only house he knew as a child. But now that residence is located on Jason Seaman St., otherwise known as Walnut St.
The back story on how and why Seaman was in position to be of assistance in the classroom on that May morning can be traced back to a different century.
During the 1998-99 school year, Seaman was a student at Lincoln Trail Elementary School.
“Coach (Steve) Kreps was my fourth-grade teacher,” Seaman said. “He jump-started it all.
“He guided me and I saw him as a role model. I saw you could have a job you love, and coach.”
The following school year, Seaman’s fifth-grade teacher was James Heinold.
Both Kreps and Heinold were involved with coaching youth wrestlers, and Seaman added that to the sports in which he participated.
“I had four years with Heinold,” Seaman said.
While he was learning about the finer aspects of various sporting endeavors, Seaman was also gaining an appreciation for the impact of his teachers and coaches.
“Having James Heinold and Steve Kreps was huge in a sense that all children need role models and the more you have, the larger the positive impact on the child’s life,” Seaman said. “Me being of elementary age, having two strong male role models outside my own family was invaluable.
“I don’t necessarily implore strategies they use as I teach a different age group, but my overall demeanor of being a positive role model and being what that student needs to be successful is what I aim for.”
When he had free time during the school day while in high school, Seaman would spend part of it at Lincoln Trail.
“I’d go to the elementary school and help Mr. Kreps,” he said. “Nothing too formal, just stuff I didn’t need a lot of qualifications to do.
“I’d read to the kids or help with various activities or play learning games.”
Seaman was discovering things about himself as much as anything. He enjoyed the interactions with the students and saw that as a career path.
By the time Seaman enrolled at Southern Illinois University, in Carbondale, he knew he was there to do more than play football. He became an elementary education major.
It wasn’t difficult to pick a subject to be his main focus.
“Science was definitely my favorite,” Seaman said.
He remains thankful for the start he had at Lincoln Trail.
“Having male role models before high school was huge,” he said. “There are few males in the teacher profession at the elementary level, so the fact I was fortunate enough to have two put me in an advantage to be successful.”
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Sports were a major part of Seaman’s young life.
By eighth-grade, he had given up his travel soccer team, but still found time to compete in five sports: football, basketball, wrestling, track and baseball.
“When I got into high school, they only let you do three, so I whittled it down (to football, basketball and track),” Seaman said. “I assumed I would do three (sports). I don’t know if my parents would have let me not do something.”
Though he was serious and competitive, there was another aspect of sports that Seaman always had in mind.
“It was a fun thing to do with friends,” he said.
It stayed that way year after year, Seaman said, for one important reason.
“You don’t get much out of sports if you don’t enjoy the coaches you have,” he said. “I was blessed to have that along the way.”
He now tries to be that person who helps make sure the young athletes under his tutelage have an enjoyable experience.
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The M-S varsity football teams won 35 games during the four years while Seaman was in high school, including back-to-back 11-win seasons where the Bulldogs advanced to the state quarterfinals one year and to the state semifinals the next year.
In both basketball and track, Seaman was a part of teams that captured either regional or sectional titles. He broke the school record in the shot put (60 feet, 8 inches) as a senior, a mark that held until 2019.
He remembers, however, finding himself in difficult positions or situations that left an indelible impression.
“As a freshman, I dressed for the varsity Class 5A football playoff game against Jacksonville,” Seaman said. “I didn’t play, but to see the emotion on the seniors’ faces with the realization that their playing years were done, cemented how important things are.”
When off-season weight-training sessions began, football head coach Tom Shallenberger had Seaman lifting with the upperclassmen.
“He put me in situations that made me uncomfortable to make me better,” Seaman recalled.
In basketball, Seaman also got an early taste of varsity action.
“Freshman year, I’d been in high school for a semester and Coach (Brett) Hersom started me in a game at the (Charleston) Holiday Tournament,” Seaman said. “I hadn’t even played in a varsity game yet, and I wasn’t ready.
“I got waxed that day.”
From that auspicious beginning, however, Seaman emerged as a player who led the team in scoring as a sophomore, junior and senior and finished as one of the top five rebounders in school history.
He almost didn’t play basketball as a senior.
“The only time it crossed my mind (to skip a sports season) was my senior year in basketball,” Seaman said. “I tore my ACL the year before and did more meniscus damage (as a senior).
“Coach (Chad) Benedict was in his first year.”
The football season ended after a first-round playoff loss, so – unlike previous years – Seaman had time off before needing to report for basketball.
“There were a couple weeks I wasn’t doing anything and I changed my mind,” he said. “(Benedict) convinced me to come out.”
Though he was more prominent during the fall and winter seasons, Seaman said, “I enjoyed playing basketball the most, but I didn’t put the work into basketball as I did the other two.”
As he approaches his 32nd birthday in September, basketball is a sport that he still plays regularly.
“I’m actually a better basketball player now than I was in high school,” said Seaman, who participates in a men’s league in Indiana.
Seaman is convinced that participating in a variety of sports was an overall benefit.
“Different sports help you with different shortcomings,” he said. “Each helps address weaknesses that helped me in other sports.
“Athletics is one of the best things to do for physical and mental well-being, as long as you have coaches who care. You have to make sure you’re surrounded by the right people.”
Selection to the M-S Hall of Fame is not something that Seaman was expecting.
“I did it to compete and win,” he said. “It was not for personal gain.
“To have others look at you and think you did something special resonates with me when I just did it to have fun.”
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Seaman is here to confirm that lessons learned through athletics do indeed have carryover value into adulthood.
“You’re preparing for what might happen, for what could happen,” Seaman said.
His daily lesson plans don’t always turn out the way he saw them during his pre-planning. Seaman is fine with making spur-of-the-moment alterations.
“There are times I felt I had the perfect lesson plan, and it completely bombs,” he said. “I realize I can’t do that the rest of the day. I have to change that.
“I’ve never been one to shy away from something new. I don’t have a cookie-cutter program. We’ll try stuff.”
At times, it catches his students off-guard as his lesson plans are posted online in advance.
“Students will come in (later in the day) expecting something and I’ll say, ‘We tried that first hour and it didn’t work,’” Seaman said. “‘We’re doing something else.’”
Seaman also had no hesitation in returning to the school and the room where the shooting took place, where he used his training to distract and then tackle the student-shooter.
“I came back the Sunday after (the shooting),” he said. “The police were here with me. It wasn’t weird.”
In May, the second anniversary of the event will take place. It’s not in the forefront of Seaman’s mind.
“I’ve never been a what-if person,” he said, “Enough time has passed, but I still remember everything.”
He doesn’t dwell on it because that is another of the carryover lessons from sports. No matter the outcome one day, the next day’s results won’t be predicated on the past, so be prepared to make a difference and have an impact.
M-S Education Foundation Hall of Fame
2020 Inductees
NAME GRAD YR.
Fred Kroner 1973
Jason Seaman 2007
Leo Vitali N-A
Janet Watkins N-A
NOTE: The inductees will be enshrined at the homecoming football game on Friday, Sept. 18 against Effingham.
