Hill right at home at Mullins
By David Shelton
Staff Writer
Mullins – From the time he graduated from Mullins High School in 1999, Greg Hill admits he began thinking about one day being the head football coach at his alma mater.
Hill was a star baseball and football player at Mullins and went on to play baseball at Coker College. After graduation, Hill returned to Mullins in 2004 as a teacher and became an assistant to then football coach Denver Cromer.
Quite a bit has happened since that first year as an assistant. Over the next six seasons, Hill worked under four different head football coaches. Stability within the program was non-existent.
When Miles Aldridge left the school after one season to take a job at Spring Valley, the school turned to Hill and finally gave him his shot. Hill was named the new athletic director and head football coach earlier this spring.
“It’s certainly a dream come true but at the same time, it’s a great responsibility and challenge,” said Hill. “I had opportunities to leave over the last few years but I always felt Mullins is where I belonged. I love it here, always have. This is home. I want this program to do well, to win consistently, and to give the people here in this town what they want.”
With all of the changes over the last half decade, Hill is hoping to convey a message of stability to the athletes at Mullins High School.
“Stability is so important, not only in football but in the entire athletic department,” said Hill. “My job is to let these kids know that I’m here and I plan to be here for a long time. These kids deserve that commitment and I feel like I can get their commitment in return. We’re doing to do it right here. We’re going to work hard everyday and see where it ends up.”
Having worked under several different head coaches during his relatively young career as a coach, Hill has learned various styles and ways of doing things. He picked up different ideas from each coach and has formed his own ideas of how to get things accomplished within the framework of a team.
“I learned a lot from each coach about football, about practice planning, about how to deal with players,” said Hill. “I think the one thing that sticks with me is to establish a plan and execute it. Find out what you can do well and really focus on doing the best you can. I’m not married to any one particular system but I have an idea of how we want to play. We’re going to be versatile and flexible depending on the players we have but we will have a consistent way of doing things.”
Hill will have virtually the same staff that was at the school last season, except for two. One key returning coach is defensive coordinator Jimmy Vereen, a veteran of nearly 30 years at Mullins.
“He was a coach when I played here and like me, he really bleeds Mullins football,” said Hill. “He is certainly a man who has seen a lot and coached a lot. I’ll lean on him a lot for sure.”
