“It gives me great sense of pride as a proud graduate of Statesboro High that my high school alma mater and now the place where I’m fortunate enough to be the principal will bear the address 10 Coach Lee Hill Boulevard,” Principal Chad Prosser concluded his remarks.

When the city of Statesboro hosted a street renaming ceremony Saturday morning in the Statesboro High School auditorium, four former students spoke of Hill’s lasting influence. They were the current principal, a local pastor, the mayor and a 1980s SHS track star who has since led track and basketball teams to state championships as a coach in Atlanta.

Folding chairs had been lined up outside, but gusty breezes and a chance of rain prompted organizers to move the ceremony indoors before it started.  A few more than 100 people attended, so social distancing was generally maintained in the large auditorium, where protective masks were worn.

Hill, a teacher and coach at Statesboro High for more than 45 years and head boys basketball coach for more than 40, died Aug. 1 of complications from COVID-19.

Saturday was his birthday and he would have been 69.

‘Special spirit’

Giving the welcoming remarks, Mayor Jonathan McCollar made a point that Prosser also conveyed, that Hill caused students and even people he had only just met to feel that they were important to him.

“There’s only a special kind of spirit that has that ability, because when you mentioned Coach Hill’s name it lit up rooms, and everybody knew or had a story about Coach Hill and what he has done for them, and that legacy lasted all the way up to his final days,” McCollar said.

Although not a basketball player, he went to games and had Hill has a physical education teacher throughout high school. From college to the mayor’s office, McCollar has continued to follow Statesboro High basketball closely.

His youngest son, Chase, loves the sport, and the last time they saw Hill at work was at a region championship game. After it ended, the McCollars went to the back room. 

“The end of the game was not what we wanted, and we sat there and one of the things Coach Hill kept saying over and over was, ‘I just wanted it so bad for them.’ Not him, but them. He wanted it for his players,” McCollar said. “He wanted them to have that as part of their memories.”

The coach had also reached into a bag and given Chase a jersey.

 “My son holds onto that jersey because he wanted to play for Coach Lee Hill,” McCollar said.

Over the years, Hill led SHS Blue Devils basketball teams to 877 wins. He coached in 25 regional championship games, winning 14 of them. Under his guidance, the Blue Devils advanced to the state playoffs 29 times, appeared in the state Final Four five times and finished as state runner-up once, in addition to winning the Class AAAA state championship in 1991.

The Rev. Scott Hagan, now senior pastor of Statesboro First United Methodist Church, also grew up loving basketball but couldn’t make layups, he said. When Hagan was in high school, Hill took him on as a student manager. He would do rebounds in practice for the players who could make layups and then ride the team bus and shoot video of the games.

With Hill’s encouragement, Hagan went on to serve as a manager for the Georgia Tech team under Coach Bobby Cremins, and then did similar work for the USA Olympic Dream Team.

In his invocation, Hagan asked that God “allow the signs on this street to be a daily reminder of one of your servants who lived well and served others.”

Her mentor

Hill began his teaching career at Metter High School in Candler County in 1973 and was first employed by the Bulloch County school system in 1974 at Statesboro High, where he began coaching track and cross country.

Betty Perkins, a 1983 Statesboro High graduate, spoke Saturday to remind people that Hill’s ability to coach winners didn’t begin with basketball championships. With him as her coach, Perkins set one of Statesboro’s longest-standing records in track with her speed in the 800 meters and also won state honors in the 400, the 4x100 relay and 4x400 relay.

Hill had identified Perkins as a champion in the making when he saw her run as an eighth-grader at William James Junior High in 1979.

Four  years later, Perkins left Statesboro High wanting to be a coach just like Hill and will always see him as her mentor, she said. She is now her 28th year teaching and coaching at Atlanta’s Benjamin E. Mays High School. Head coach for girls track, Perkins previously coached basketball as well and guided teams to state titles in track in 2016 and basketball in 2003.

“The love of what he instilled, I instill that same thing in my athletes,” she said. “Coach Hill’s legacy will live on long after. Every single student athlete, every single one of mine, in all of my 28 years know about Coach Hill because I talk about the man that helped me get to where I am and where I was.”

Coaching family

Hill’s daughter Iesha Baldwin, Statesboro High’s head tennis coach, spoke on behalf of the family. If her father had been there, she said, he would have smiled and greeted everyone and his laughter would have been heard throughout the room.

She also noted that he modestly downplayed the accolades he received over the years. The school named its basketball surface Lee Hill Court in 2016, and in 2017 the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners issued a proclamation saluting him as “Mister 800” after his 800th win.

“But he would still be so amazed at this street-naming event,” Baldwin said. “This would definitely be at the top of his list because he always wanted his teams, as well as me and my sisters and brothers, to represent Statesboro well.”

Returning from away games he would often say, “There’s nothing like good old Statesboro,” his daughter recounted.

Mayor Pro Tem Paulette Chavers and fellow council members Shari Barr and Phil Boyum  joined McCollar on stage as he read aloud Resolution 2020-24 renaming the  former Lester Road as Coach Lee Hill Boulevard.

Then a “Coach Lee Hill Blvd.” sign was unveiled on stage, and both a framed copy of the resolution and the street sign were present to Hill’s family, including his wife Wilma Scott Hill and their adult children, Tanisha Campbell, Tonya Wallace, Kimberly Wilson, Iesha Baldwin and Lee Hill, who is also a coach; and other relatives.

The ceremony also included the presentation of flags by the Statesboro High JROTC cadets, the National Anthem sung by Vivian Summers, “Amazing Grace” perfomred by Pastor Donald Chavers and a closing prayer by the Rev. Horace Harvey, who coached with Hill.

City Manager Charles Penny, who served as emcee, announced that the coverings meanwhile had been removed from the new signs already installed all along the boulevard.