Articles

IP Ray Seals

 

A Texas Legend
Ray Seals
Head Coach and Athletic Coordinator
Madison High School

By Donald James

For more than 45 years, Ray Seals has been one of the most successful high school football coaches in Texas – and the United States. Those who know Seals, and/or have played for him, describe the legendary coach as passionate and a great motivator of young people. While Seals is humbled when he hears such praises and accolades, there’s no getting around the truth that he is a true winner.

Seals is currently the head football coach and athletic coordinator at Madison High School, where for a quarter of a century he has molded the inner city Houston school into a perennial football powerhouse. Prior to Madison, he was an accomplished head football coach at Milby High School. Other Houston schools where Seals have coached are: Houston Sterling High School (running back coach), Sam Houston High School (defensive coach) and M.C. Williams High School (offensive and defensive coach).

Over the last four decades the storied coach has received several dozen honors and awards as a testament to his living legacy, inclusive of garnering the first ever NFL Don Shula National Coach of the Year Award (2011); named NFL High School Coach of the Year (2009); received the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Coach of Influence Award (2008); recipient of the Houston Area Alliance of Black School Educators’ Texas Legend Award (2008); inducted into the Texas High School Coaches Association Hall of Honor (2005); honored by the Houston Texans as a Texas Legend (2005); and named a Coach Who Makes a Difference in Sports and High School Football (1998). In addition, he has garnered Houston Coach of the Year Awards on 10 occasions, and has received the coveted Houston ISD/Houston Coaches Association Man of the Year Award five times. “The awards and honors are great,” Seals humbly admits. “But for me, the real awards and honors are when the kids I’ve coached over the years come back and tell me that the things I taught them made a positive difference in their lives.”

The line of former players who have come back to thank Seals has been long as he has coached more than 1,000 players, and prepared more than 225 football players to receive college scholarships across the United States. The fruit of Seals’ labor can be found on many NFL rosters to include such players as Vince Young (Tennessee Titans), Tom Bruton (Baltimore Colts), Broderick Thomas (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Reggie Moore (New York Jets), Jerel Myers (Buffalo Bills), Moran Morris (New Orleans Saints), Ed Newsome (Philadelphia Eagles), Donald Jordan (Chicago Bears), among many others.

Although the father of three and grandfather of five is proud of the players who have turned pro, he is equally proud of players who did not step on the NFL’s playing fields. After all, teaching the lessons of life has been Seals’ most important game plan. “I try to teach all of my players that there’s more to life than just playing football,” says Seals, a former standout running back at Prairie View A&M University. “I try to teach them about values, character and making good decisions on and off the field. So it’s not about how many games I’ve won over the years, or how many players I’ve sent to the NFL; it’s about how many young men became better people because of what I helped instill in them.”