Seymour High School stayed in-house to select its new head football coach, Tuesday night revealing assistant coach Tyson Moore is being promoted to replace departed Mike Kelly as the new leader of the Owls.

The Seymour Community School Corp. board of trustees confirmed Moore’s hire at its regular meeting.

Moore, 27, was thrilled by the appointment. He said he learned last week he had the job but had to remain silent until the official announcement.

“It’s a lifelong dream,” Moore said. “I never thought it would come true this soon.”

He said he felt many emotions, fearful, nervous, anxious, “but most of all, I’m proud.”

Athletic Director Kirk Manns spoke before the board about Moore, culminating a search that began April 16 when Kelly resigned after three seasons with a 14-16 record to become head coach at Hamilton Southeastern.

Moore was slated to be strength and conditioning coach next fall after serving as Seymour’s offensive line coach for the 2019 season.

Manns said his most important job as athletic director is to supervise the hiring of good coaches.

“A good coach will have a positive lifelong impact, and a poor coach, just the opposite,” he said. “Certainly, we need an accomplished coach who has the skill set to teach, prepare, organize and motivate, but there is much more to it than X’s and O’s.”

He looked for several key traits in the search, Manns said.

“We want a coach who is truly interested in empowering young people, a coach who is interested in teaching, mentoring and equipping students for life,” he said. “A coach who will instill the characteristics of integrity, teamwork, servant leadership, competitiveness, hard work, enthusiasm and a positive attitude in our students. A coach that know that it is not about him but instead about those that he leads.”

Manns said Moore brings those qualities to the role.

Between 2011 and 2013, Moore played offensive line for the University of Indianapolis.

He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University and a Master of Business Administration from Anderson University.

Moore’s father, Eric, coaches Center Grove, and Tyson was on the staff when the squad won a state title in 2015 and was runner-up in 2016.

From 2017 to 2019, Moore was defensive line coach and assistant director of strength and conditioning for Anderson.

The Seymour head coaching job was posted April 16, the same day Kelly resigned. A seven-member search committee, including Manns, was formed and sorted through 30 applications before the end of the month.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first round of interviews was conducted through Zoom and such technology.

“It worked out fine,” Manns said of that portion of the procedure.

Three finalists were brought in for final-round, face-to-face interviews and the committee was able to practice social distancing, Manns said.

Moore said the first 48 hours after he was offered the job “were the most chaotic in my life.”

He was on the telephone constantly informing the rest of the Owls staff and planning some changes.

Today, he has scheduled a virtual meeting with the Seymour players.

“It’s our first team meeting,” Moore said.