Boys Golf: Colin Seely named coach of perennially strong Dublin Jerome

As an assistant baseball coach at Dublin Jerome since 2018, Colin Seely knew he wanted an opportunity to serve as a head coach.

While he would still like to lead a baseball program, Seely has been named Jerome boys golf coach, pending school board approval. Joe Flynn stepped down after leading the Celtics to the Division I state tournament in each of his two seasons.

“The end goal for me is to be a head baseball coach, but I’ve always wanted to be a head coach, so this is going to be a great learning experience for me to be able to lean on other coaches in the building and continue to grow as a coach,” said Seely, who will remain as an assistant baseball coach.

Colin Seely
Colin Seely

“Colin understands the academic expectations of our athletes and is able to devote the time needed for our team to excel,” athletics director Joe Bline said. “I have great faith in coach Seely.”

A 2013 graduate of Jerome, Seely played baseball and football for the Celtics. He is a special education teacher in the school district.

“I play (golf) more recreationally, but some of my best friends were on the golf team while I was in high school,” he said. “I went to school at Jerome. I lived this dynasty that has been built over these last 15 to 20 years. I couldn’t be more excited to come back and hold that standard for this next generation.”

The Celtics have won nine state championships, including each year from 2017-19.

Seely’s father, Fred, played golf for Dublin High School and later coached the program. He is currently an assistant for C.D. Butcher’s girls team at Jerome.

A 1978 graduate of Dublin, Fred Seely helped the Shamrocks win the state title in 1977. He coached Dublin from 1989-94, and then from 1995-2000 after the school became Coffman.

“This really wasn’t something that was on my radar, but my dad being a head golf coach all those years and now being able to see his son be head golf coach as well in just an historic golf place like Dublin is something special,” Colin Seely said.

Seely, 27, is looking forward to working with Butcher.

“C.D. has been a great help to me, too,” Seely said. “He’s talked to me these last couple of weeks. We’re going to try to do as much as we can together with the boys and girls programs to continue to build on what’s already been built.”

Last fall at state, the boys finished fourth (609) behind champion Cleveland St. Ignatius (591). In 2020, they finished fourth (618) behind champion Akron Hoban (606).

“We’re going to have five new guys on the varsity,” Seely said. “We graduated five seniors, but I know there’s a great batch of young talent coming up as well as some juniors that were on that varsity B team that are champing at the bit to get one of those five varsity spots. There’s no lack of talent coming up in the program.”

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This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Boys Golf: Seely named coach of perennially strong Jerome