Head Coach

Coach Morgan Gleason began cheerleading over 25 years ago and continues to stay involved. As an athlete, she was named All-Star five years in a row, as well as being named All-American and recognized as Top 5 in the nation. Academically, Morgan was also recognized as a National Scholar Athlete. As an alum of East Hill, her high school teams brought home three National Championships and a number of top five finishes. Before transitioning to coaching, Morgan cheered at the collegiate level for the Samford University Bulldogs. Coach Morgan has coached gymnastics, all-star cheer squads and school teams. Morgan started back with the East Hill program four years ago. Most recently, the Junior Varsity team won the FCC National Championship in 2022, and the Varsity team won the 2023 FCC National Championship. Coach Morgan recognizes her favorite part coaching as watching the girls develop close bonds while glorifying God through the sport of cheerleading. 

Val Goncalves Jr is the Manager and Director of Tennis at RG Tennis Center. Coach Val holds a USPTA Elite Professional Certification and he coached many players at RGTC as the Head Professional prior to stepping up to this leadership role.

He was born in Curitiba, Brazil where he was the state champion for several years. He also managed to be in the Top 10 in the Brazilian national tennis rankings for multiple years. Additionally, Val played some professional tournaments, futures and challengers (ITF and ATP) before deciding to play college tennis. Valentim decided to join the NCAA Divison I – University of Pacific in California. Val transferred to the University of West Florida and was able to help his team to win a NCAA Division II National title in 2014.

Coach Val holds a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA) with emphasis in Supply Chain Logistics Management and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (BSBA) in Management, a Minor in Marketing, and a certificate in Supply Chain Logistics from the University of West Florida. Coach Val has also been the UWF Men’s Tennis Volunteer Assistant Coach since 2015. Val is also the Lead Coach for the Love Serving Autism program in Pensacola.

Dallas Roper joined the East Hill Christian School family in 1999 as a science teacher. He immediately got involved in coaching at EHCS by coaching middle school co-ed softball in the spring of 2000. He was head coach of girl’s fast pitch softball in the springs of 2001 and 2002. He was instrumental in the inception of both the cross country and girl’s varsity soccer programs at EHCS to which he has been the head coach of both from the start.   Dallas has a passion for coaching and desires to see his student athletes grow in their Christian walk through self-discipline, respect, sportsmanship, and character. The best way to reach Dallas Roper is via email, at d_roper@ehcseagles.com.

Head Coach

Dr. Rudy Seelmann began his coaching tenure at East Hill Christian School in 2015.  In addition to coaching at East Hill Christian School,  Coach Seelmann is also the current Goalkeeper Coach for the University of West Florida Men’s Soccer Team and leads the Goalkeeper Academy for Pensacola Rush FC.  Prior to this, he spent the previous 15 years coaching within the Gulf Coast Texans organization.  Prior to coaching, Coach Seelmann played soccer at the collegiate, professional, and semi-professional level.  He played his collegiate career as a goalkeeper for the University of West Florida.  There, he received several accolades including being named to the All-Gulf South Conference Team.  Additionally, he was named to the NCAA All-Academic Team for three consecutive years.  After his collegiate career, Coach Seelmann played professionally in the USISL (United States International Soccer League), and later in the semi-professional NPSL (National Premier Soccer League) and GCPL (Gulf Coast Premier League), where he was named to the All-Region Team.  

Coach Andrew Spence joined the East Hill Christian Family in the fall of 2022. He currently holds the position of head coach of both the Junior Varsity and Varsity Programs. Coach Spence also helps lead our D League basketball program designed for middle school athlete development. During his playing career, Coach Spence, earned two all-star awards, two tri-athlete awards, the Knight Award and was awarded MVP for his senior season. Coach Spence graduated from Pensacola Christian College in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in Youth Ministries with an emphasis on Physical Education. Currently, Coach Spence works as a Youth Pastor at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Gulf Breeze, Florida.

Coach Spence believes in Christ like conduct, sportsmanship and teamwork are paramount to the success of East Hill’s basketball program. Working hard and understanding the principles of basketball are benefits of participating in the program. Coach Spence believes the success of the team stems from learning to be encouraging and by being selfless.  If you would like to contact Coach Spence, he can be reached via email at a_spence@ehcseagles.com or by phone at 813-417-9154.

East Hill Christian has a rich history of varsity athletics and girls basketball is no exception. The Lady Eagles are coached by Angie Watson and assisted by Coach Gabe Sauer. Watson was hired as the girls basketball coach in the summer of 2021 and is excited about the opportunity to rebuild the program. Coach is motivated by the potential she sees in her short time at East Hill and the direction the program is heading. Although Watson is just completing her first season coaching basketball at the varsity high school level, she came to East Hill with plenty of basketball knowledge and experience as she learned from the 12th winningest coach in NCAA Division 1 history as she played at the University of Georgia for legendary coach and mentor, Andy Landers. Landers coached Watson (then Angie Ball) as she was a standout forward for the Lady Bulldogs from 1997-2000. She was Georgia’s first ever signee from Canada where she started for 5 years at Sir Oliver Mowat High School where she averaged 26 points, 10 rebounds and 8 blocks a game her senior year. At Georgia, Angie took on an immediate leadership role on her team helping them reach the NCAA Division 1 Final Four in 1999 as with 2 SEC championships during that 4 year period. Beside her parents, Coach Watson credits Landers as the most influential person in her life. When asked to give a description of her coach at the University of Georgia, Coach Watson said this of Landers, “There are times in my life since I graduated from The University of Georgia that I don’t think I would have made it through the same if it weren’t for the way Coach pushed me at Georgia. His goal was to make us believe that we could do things that we never thought we were capable of, and we did! There were days I was so sore and tired I could barely walk up a flight of stairs but somehow he showed me I could get through it, day in and day out! When I played for him, I thought he was a maniac. He pushed us to the brink of physical and mental exhaustion. Thorough it all, he inspired me to want to coach, he inspired me to want to help kids reach heights they don’t believe are possible. He did that for me and I want to be able to do it for girls I coach now”. Aside from playing for him, Watson also inherited Landers’ coaching philosophsies as a lead counselor at the Andy Landers basketball camps from 1997-2001.

After her Collegiate career at Georgia, Watson was plagued by injuries. Her professional career was shortened as a result. She would however complete 4 seasons as a professional basketball player in the WNBA, the women’s professional French league and Italian women’s professional league. In 2000-01, Watson played in the Italian Women’s professional league in Varese, Italy. In the summer of 2001, Watson was a member of the 2001 WNBA’s Charlotte Sting, where the Sting reached the WNBA Finals. During that season for Charlotte, Watson experienced a tragic knee injury that inhibited her from having the professional career many believed she would have. She went on to complete 2 more professional seasons after her knee recovery. In 2001-2002 she played in the Women’s French Professional league for Aix-en-Provence and in 2002-2003 she played again in the Italian league, this time for a team just outside of Venice Italy. After the completion of her season in Italy that Spring, Watson signed a free agent contract with the Cleveland Rockers. Since her 2001 knee injury, Watson was never quite the same player she was, “she’d lost her quick step”. As a result, she was released from the Rockers roster and did not make the final roster.

As many discover in life, some of God’s biggest blessings are hidden through detours in our own plans for our lives. That was the case for Watson when she came to the realization her basketball playing days were over because of injury. That’s when Watson discovered a true passion for coaching. Shorter University was looking for a young assistant coach where Watson would get her first crack at Collegiate coaching where she coached from 2003-2004. She immediately fell in love with the task of coaching and the sense of challenge, accountability and leadership it comes with. At Shorter, she got her feet wet coaching and Watson discovered a passion for something she felt could be her career direction for a very long time. The Lord, as He often does had another plan, she met and fell in love with her husband Bubba Watson. She stepped away from coaching to support her husbands career and begin a family but always knew the Lord had given her a calling to coach to lead in this magnitude and prayed the opportunity would come up again. Coach Watson describes coaching at the varsity level or higher a full time commitment and didn’t get back into as East Hill’s coach until she and her family were fully prepared to invest the time needed be successful when rebuilding a program. The coaching hiatus would end when the Lord called her back to it at East Hill Christian and so the journey began and Coach Watson and her family couldn’t be more thrilled.

East Hill Christian school participates in the East Division of the Panhandle Christian Conference. Under Coach Watson’s leadership, The Lady Eagles basketball team prides itself in developing the fundamentals, strategies, and life skills to be competitive on and off the basketball court. Watson has never solely been about the program’s number of wins, loses and overall championships but she sets the standard high when they commence preseason training and always looks to pushing the program higher with tangible goals such as the PCC East Division and the overall PCC championship. She believes the lessons that are learned through the daily process of working hard, having proper discipline, and being a united team every single day on the court, in the classroom and in the community is far bigger than than total wins. Watson and Sauer thrive on seeing their players develop in areas that further them in life beyond high school and the game of basketball. When asked to summarize her coaching philosophy, Watson said, “I do not take the title of coach lightly. I never set out to become a leader that measures our success by our number of wins and loses. Winning and losing is a byproduct of what we do day in and day out in the classroom, in the community, in the locker room and on the basketball court. My goal for a team is to push them harder then they believe they ever thought they could push. When we push that hard, results in life are insurmountable. This world we live in is tough and I believe I have a responsibility to help prepare these young lady athletes for how hard life really is. Jesus said this world would be hard (John 16:33). It’s important to know that life never really gets easier and we can’t sit back and have that mentality…EVER. Life only feels easier when we learn to work harder when adversity comes, because it will come. As coach and a mentor I trust in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to help lead and guide me in everything I say and do. I try to make sure that every player I have the opportunity to be around knows my first priority in all I do is to give God all the Glory in victory and in defeat.”