Monday, July 25, 2022 | 2 a.m.
David Hill’s alarm clock rang when the sun was rising on this crisp Southern California fall morning. The Las Vegas native stepped over a few of his football teammates sleeping on the floor of their crowded 800-square-foot, two-bedroom apartment and grabbed the name tags for his jobs.
Before practice and class at Los Angeles Pierce College, Hill would work part-time at Sears and at the campus bookstore.
Community college players aren’t on scholarship, meaning the Desert Pines High graduate was on his own to pay for tuition and living expenses. Most meals were from the 99-cent store or courtesy of food stamps, and he split the monthly $1,635 rent with eight teammates.
“It was the hardest two years of my life,” Hill, now 32, said. “But I was chasing a dream and just wanted to be successful. I wasn’t going to let my family down or give up.”
A decade later, that dream of making a splash in college football is taking shape, as Hill started this month as the player connection coordinator and offensive analyst for the University of Georgia.
He’d been trying to break into the college coaching ranks for the past decade and was willing to work for free, but was repeatedly turned down and seemingly stuck in neutral as an assistant coach at his prep alma mater.
The same relentless mentality he had in junior college, where despite being 5-foot-8 he earned a spot on the University of Arizona roster as a fullback, was paramount in chasing his coaching dream.
He remembered asking one college coach if he could join the program as an intern to prove himself, telling the coach, “I will show you I am worthy of being on staff,” he said of the failed attempt.
He was so determined to start a coaching career that he went month-to-month on his rental lease the past five years so he could be ready to relocate at a moment’s notice.
“I would have been a team janitor to get my foot in the door and to show them what I can do and earn their trust. Nobody would have worked harder than me,” he said.
Struggles strengthened him
Hill’s classroom at Desert Pines is a portable at the back of campus, perfectly situated between the Jaguars’ football field and weight room. While Hill made his mark over the past 10 years in coaching, where he’s credited in coordinating for about 100 kids who have received college scholarships, his work teaching in Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) was equally meaningful.
Hill schooled the teenagers in life skills, everything from how to dress for a job interview to managing their finances and shopping for groceries. He proudly says there was a 100% graduation rate.
He would tell the students to “never stop pursuing your goals and dreams. Mine is to be a college football coach, and it’s only a matter of time until I get there.”
He would openly discuss his failures, knowing the trials and tribulations of his journey could serve as inspiration. His mother was just 14 when he was born, and his father was shot and killed when he was still in diapers. Some days, he didn’t know where his meals would come from.
Those struggles strengthened his desires in football.
When all of his roommates in that crowded Los Angeles apartment didn’t graduate junior college, Hill said he obtained a pair of associate degrees. When assistant coach Ty Greenwood would knock at the apartment door on Sunday morning looking for a group to go train, Hill was the only athlete who took the offer. The two would spent countless hours together.
“He was one of those guys who had the passion for the game, loves football, and also had a passion to be the best version of himself,” said Greenwood, who currently coaches at Elon University in North Carolina. “He didn’t come from a strong economic background and didn’t want to be poor his entire life. He had a vision for himself and was willing to put in the work.”
When Hill was passed over following coaching interviews at UNLV and Colorado State, he kept plugging away, even though his time had expired in being eligible to be a graduate assistant coach — the easiest way into coaching, but only available to those who are less than seven years removed from their college graduation.
“I will always bet on myself. I believe in myself more than anything,” Hill said. “I knew I would be successful.”
Willing to do the work
Hill concluded his two seasons at Pierce College in 2010 with limited interest from Division I level programs, but wasn’t content on calling it a career.
He scoured through game film from the past two junior college seasons and pieced together a highlight video to send to colleges with hopes they would recruit him. He also increased his school schedule to 15 credits to graduate early, an unofficial requirement for transfers so they can participate in spring practice at the program they transfer to.
Finding a college home became his obsession because he knew the alternative: Returning home to Las Vegas to work a job that was unsatisfying and potentially struggling like others in the northeast Las Vegas neighborhood where he was raised.
“A lot of people want the rewards, but won’t put in the work,” said Joseph Roberson, the athletic counselor at Pierce College and one of Hill’s longtime mentors. “The one thing with David is the thing he wanted required a lot of work, and he wasn’t going to stop pursuing it. I don’t know if I can take credit for that. I provided the support and provided the encouragement, but he needed no motivation.”
Hill’s determination paid off when he was offered a spot at Arizona, where he played two seasons at fullback. Along the way, he found a career calling: Working with athletes and trying to help them be the best versions of themselves.
He was inspired by Ryan Walters, a graduate assistant who was young, energetic and detailed. More importantly, he advocated for players. After one of the coaches left the program, Walters was elevated into a full-time coaching role and hasn’t looked back. He’s now the defensive coordinator at Illinois.
“(Ryan) doesn’t know this but he was my inspiration. Everybody loved him,” Hill said. “My plan was always to play in the NFL, but around that time, I knew I wanted to be a college coach.”
But first, he had to find a college program to work in.
With no experience, Hill returned to Desert Pines to join the high school coaching staff and become an educator. What he envisioned would only be for one season turned into a decade and a pair of state championships.
And when some of the Desert Pines players were lightly recruited by colleges, Hill stepped up to enhance their profiles. He saw a little of himself — humble means, big dreams and in need of a mentor — in each of the teenagers and made it his life’s work to find them college homes.
He had a hand in players landing at major programs like Oklahoma and Georgia, or lower-level schools like Montana and Northern Arizona.
On Tuesday, days before reporting to the opening of Georgia’s camp for his new position, Hill received a proclamation from the Clark County Commission for his work with the children.
In presenting the proclamation, commissioner William McCurdy II said “we are incredibly proud of all you have done.... Your sole focus is giving back to the community and showing students you can achieve if you focus.”
Driven to help others succeed
Hill would see social media posts from athletes at other Las Vegas schools taking unofficial college visits each spring. The photos showed the prospects mingling with coaches and touring facilities, and helped them envision how being a collegiate student-athlete would look and feel.
For athletes who were already on the radar of coaches, this process helped them determine which schools to focus their recruiting on. For athletes lightly recruited, the visits helped motivate them to train.
Hill wanted the same thing for the players at Desert Pines and took to action to arrange the trips. First, they would travel across the region, hitting schools like Arizona, Arizona State UCLA, BYU and Utah.
After a few years, they ventured further with regular visits at Alabama, Oklahoma and Miami. And the trips eventually included players from other Las Vegas-area schools.
Hill approached getting the teenagers noticed like he did trying to get himself noticed at Pierce College. Whether it was making phone calls in between classes, welcoming a coach to campus or sitting in with a parent on a home visit, Hill was relentless.
“Where we come from, a lot of people don’t have that drive or that end goal in sight and what it takes to get there,” said Andre Reese, Hill’s closest friend from childhood who played with him in high school and junior college. “If you told him it took doing something 100 times a day to get it right, he would do it 100 times a day.”
Those college visits also fueled Hill’s desires to transition into the college game. He saw the big-time atmosphere on game day with thousands of fans, got a preview of the work that happens behind the scenes leading up to game day, and was convinced he could make his mark at the next level.
He was confident that his ability to connect with high school athletes would carry over to college.
“I knew I would be successful. It just took someone seeing that in me,” Hill said.
Hill will be asked to do a little bit of everything in his new position, but there are some limits. NCAA regulations prohibit an analyst from recruiting off campus or working with players on the practice field. Instead, there’s a lot of work behind the scenes breaking down film and preparing for meetings. The player connection coordinator part of the job is in his wheelhouse because it will continue to allow him to be a mentor.
That, after all, is what Hill takes the most pride in. And that’s why it was so hard to say goodbye to Desert Pines.
“That is the Catch-22 with the job in that I have to leave Desert Pines,” he said of the tearful meeting with players to announce his departure. “But if not now, when? This is an opportunity I have worked 10 years for.”
