Statesboro’s city government is hosting a road renaming ceremony for Coach Lee Hill Boulevard – which was until recently Lester Road – Saturday at 10 a.m. in front of Statesboro High School in the student drive-thru area, which faces the new Coach Lee Hill Boulevard.

The date of the ceremony, Oct. 10, 2020, would have been Hill’s 69th birthday.

Face coverings will be required at the event, which is open to the public, the city announced. In the event of rain, the ceremony will be held inside Statesboro High School’s auditorium. But it will be held “rain or shine,” Mayor Jonathan McCollar reminded City Council when they met Tuesday.

Hill, who died, Aug. 1, after a more than six-week battle with COVID-19, had served as the head boys’ basketball coach at Statesboro High School for more than 40 years. He led the team to a state championship in 1991 and had the most wins of any high school basketball coach in Georgia at the time of his passing.

During a regular Statesboro City Council meeting Aug. 4, the mayor and council passed a resolution to rename Lester Road to Coach Lee Hill Boulevard.

“We lost a giant within our community in Coach Lee Hill,” McCollar said in making the proposal. “He was near and dear to so many people … a mentor, a father figure and shaper of generations of students who came through those doors. I think it’s fitting of us to embody that legacy in a way that can really show him the respect that he deserves.”