Dawn Seiler is heading back to the sidelines.
The legendary girls’ basketball coach, who will be retiring as Aberdeen Central athletic director next month after five years in the that role, will become the head girls’ basketball coach at Redfield next season.
“I know it’s a little bit of crazy, but I feel like it’s the good kind of crazy. It’s something that I enjoy,” Seiler said. “I haven’t gotten to work with kids directly for the past five years, so I’ll get to work with kids again and that was very interesting for me.”
Seiler was wondering what she was going to do in retirement and contemplating her options before a couple of her former co-workers who are now a part of the Redfield school system reached out to gauge her interest.
“They call me and they say, hey, are you interested in this?” Seiler said. “I’m like, nah. Nope. Not driving every day. Not going to do that stuff.”
Her friends stayed in her ear and eventually Seiler realized that it might be just what she was looking for.
“They just keep working me, so it ended up it’s going to be a pretty good part-time job for me,” Seiler said. “I was looking for a part-time job.”
Seiler received encouragement from those closest to her and now will be back to doing something she has done for 38 years.
“My friends and family were very encouraging,” Seiler said. “I think mostly because they want me to do something and not drive everybody nuts.”
Seiler, who spent 15 years coaching at McIntosh, and another 23 at Central, retired as the state’s all-time winningest girls’ basketball coach with 629 wins. It was record that stood until Hanson’s Jim Bridge passed her and retired with 636 all-time girls’ basketball wins.
Seiler said other schools reached out to her along the way, but she felt Redfield was the right situation. It’s close enough that she can drive back and forth, and yet far enough so as not to interfere with the Aberdeen programs.
“Redfield’s far enough away where they can’t say you’re recruiting kids from Aberdeen,” she said, “and that is the last thing I would want to do.”
She is looking forward to building a program in Redfield with its kids.
“I want to go to Redfield. I want to work with kids that they have and see where we can take the program and go from there,” Seiler said. “I’m not a recruiter, but we’ll try to build something there.”
Seiler has never been one to back down from a challenge and is excited about the opportunity that lies in front of her in Redfield.
“I consider it a project, but it’s the kind of project that you like,” she said. “You’re going to be able to watch it grow.”
Seiler understands that her decision will cause some to take a double take, but also wants to give something back to the sport of girls’ basketball.
“I knew it was going to get the attention of people, and wonder what is going on, why would you do that? But you take a look at what’s going on in girls’ basketball right now, we’re all complaining about the numbers. … There’s that part of it where I could be part of the solution instead of just talk about the problem,” Seiler said. “We know there’s a problem. Do I think I’m 100 percent the answer? No. But you know what, it’s something we’re going to try and we’re going to try to build something in Redfield.”
She said getting back into coaching is something she is looking forward to.
“I think it will be fun,” Seiler said, “and that’s how I’m going to approach it, this has got to be a lot of fun.”
