Friday Features: Basketball is family affair for UAH’s Seab Webster
By Mike Perrin
The dinner table. The front porch. The minivan. There are lots of places for fathers, mothers and sons to bond.
Seab Webster’s family came together – thousands of times – on and around the basketball court. Webster is a senior preseason All-American forward for the fifth-ranked University of Alabama in Huntsville. His dad, Bubba, was his high school basketball coach. His brother, Riley, also played for his dad at Madison County High School in Gurley, Ala., and is a freshman this season for Lennie Acuff’s Chargers.
“Riley and me lived in the gym, locker rooms and concession stands – sneaking fountain drinks and candy whenever possible,” Seab, pronounced 'seeb', said. “We always sat on the bench with him and went to as many practices as possible. Honestly, I never thought that I would not play basketball since I was born.
“Many of my buddies in high school would joke that my mother gave birth to me on a basketball court. I think my Mom (LaShawn) kind of goes unseen at times. But she never missed a game, she always took us to Dad’s practices and she was always there supporting us no matter what we were doing.”
While surely every day as the coach’s son couldn’t be rainbows and butterflies, Seab said he would never trade his time playing for his father.
“It’s an unreal experience and a situation I wouldn’t change for the world,” he said. “I really got the best of both worlds. My dad is really knowledgeable of the game and about life, so I had him giving me advice on and off the court.
“The one thing my Dad did not do was bring his work home. For example, if I had played bad in a game that night, he wasn’t going to act mad or disappointed in me when we got home.”
The culmination of Seab’s career as one of his father’s players came during his senior season. “The story that pops out the most is the moment after we won the state championship my senior year. I ran over to my dad, hugged him, crying my eyes out and I told him, ‘I got it for you, dad, I got you one!’ because he had never won a state championship as a coach. I was just so happy I could win his first one for him.”
Seab, now 22, and Riley, 19, spent part of one season as teammates in high school. The younger brother was a freshman who had been pulled up to the varsity for some tournaments before making the move for good at the end of the season. “My best story about playing with Riley would be when we played in the (prestigious) Huntsville Times Classic,” Seab said. “Riley had not played with me all year and he got moved up for this tournament. We were in a close game and Riley checked in. I caught it in the post, kicked it out to him and he banged in a 3.
“A couple possessions later he drives and kicks it to me and then I bang in a 3. After that game was over both of us got a write-up in the paper about the ‘Webster-to-Webster’ connection.”
If Acuff can get the same production from the younger Webster that big brother has brought in his years at UAH, Chargers’ fans should be thrilled. Seab has scored 1,291 points thus far, increasing his production from 7.8 to 15.1 to 16.7 to 19.5 points a game. In an 82-80 season-opening win over Saint Leo, Webster turned in a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. The next night, in a 91-86 win over Tampa, he poured in 27 points with eight boards.
What does Webster credit with his growing contributions to his team? “I really just tried to live in the gym, the weight room and in the kitchen,” he said. “I really dedicated myself to eating clean and working on my body. This made me quicker and more confident. I had a buddy named Keegan Bell that is the best basketball trainer I know, and he helped me with my handles and with my diet, and he kept me accountable every summer.
“Also it helps that my dad is a high school coach still and the gym is a mile from our house. I had no excuse to not be in the gym working.”
Hard work on the court is something the Webster brothers learned at home and carried with them to college. “My dad is more simple on offense because he can’t recruit to a certain style like you can in college, but he and Coach Acuff are very similar. Both expect you to play as hard as you can and play smart.
“Coach Acuff is a really hard worker,” Webster said. “He’s always reading or watching film. So he’s always trying to learn and get better at his job. He genuinely cares for his players and our other coaches and I feel that not every coach does that. He worries about the person you are before he worries about the player you are.”
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