HIGH SCHOOL

Hillman excited about move to head coach at Horseheads

Kevin Hillman takes over as head football coach after long stint as an assistant for the Blue Raiders.

Andrew Legare
alegare@stargazette.com | @SGAndrewLegare

Kevin Hillman, 37, was approved by the Horseheads Board of Education as head varsity football coach at Horseheads High School in late February. He replaces Damian Saks, who took a job as an assistant principal at Elmira High School after coaching the Blue Raiders from 2009 to 2015.

Horseheads varsity football coach Kevin Hillman.

Hillman was interim head coach in 2012 when Saks was out for medical reasons and has been a football coach at Horseheads since 2003, first with the junior varsity and then as an assistant for Saks since 2009.

The 1997 graduate of Elmira Free Academy and 2001 graduate of SUNY Cortland is a physical education teacher at Horseheads High School and lives in West Elmira with his wife, Amanda, and their daughters Elena (5) and Stella (3). A son is due in late June.

Question: What is it that made you want to put your name in the ring for the head coach job?

Answer: I’ve been here for 13 years coaching and been working with Damian both on JV and then I came up with him on varsity, calling the offense and running that part. Then when he was out, I took over that year. Not that I wanted to take the job, but when he left, I felt like after having that year of experience it was something I could do. Honestly, anybody who’s coaching would love the opportunity to be the head coach and have your own stamp on the team. Even when I got into it, it’s something I thought about, that I’d like to be a head coach someday if that time came up.

Q: What was your immediate reaction when you found out you had the job?

A: I was excited. Damian let us know he took a job at Elmira and all that stuff. Once that happened, he said to me, ‘You might want to put your name in.' As soon as that went on, I got the mindset that it was something I wanted to do, looking forward to hopefully having that opportunity. I was ready to go. As soon as I found out, I immediately got hold of the kids, had a meeting and all that stuff.

Q: Do you have any specific goals?

A: I’m sure no matter what coach it is, they obviously want to have a winning program. I know it’s been awhile around here. I think we’ve done things to kind of get in that direction. It’s nothing too crazy. I’m not going to change everything. I have a couple of ideas and things that we’ll do practice-wise and team-wise that I kind of want to implement.

Q: How much of a focus is having a winning season and competing for titles?

A: It would be stupid for me to come out here and say, ‘Oh, we’re going to win sectionals next year.’ The main goal is to try to get Horseheads football back to how it was in the ‘90s, when they were winning some sectional titles. But we just want to get to a winning season. When you get to that part, then you have the confidence to say, ‘Hey, we’re a winning football team.'

Being a winning team would be a huge thing around here. Just here at the high school, being here for the last few years, it’s not like we’ve had huge numbers of people going out for the team and stuff like that. I think a lot of that has to do with, when you don’t win, kids don’t want to be a part of anything. But if you do, then I think you’ll start to see those numbers and people will want to go out.

Q: When you build a winning varsity program, it usually starts young. What's your approach in trying to work with feeder programs in Horseheads?

A: That’s the biggest disconnect we have here at Horseheads, unlike Elmira and probably others. You go to Elmira and they’re running what they run (at the varsity level), all those Small Fry teams are. That’s something we don’t have yet here. It’s something I’ll try to work on as the head coach and try to talk to those Small Fry guys and try to get it so we’re all kind of one unit.

They don’t look at us like they’re our feeder program and I get it. I understand that. But as a community, I want this program to be the community’s program, where everyone’s behind Horseheads football if you’re from Horseheads. You go to Maine-Endwell and you see it says Spartan Country and all that stuff is all over the place. That would be great if everyone got behind it here at Horseheads. That’s just something where I’ve got to reach out and talk to those guys. Hopefully in the next month or two I’ll get the opportunity to do that. … You look at Horseheads baseball with coach (Jeff) Limoncelli and that program is from the bottom up. I think that has a big impact on why they’re so successful.

Q: Beyond wins, what do you want to see from Horseheads football?

A: The big thing, which Damian was so great at, is having quality kids come out of the program. The feedback we get from the community any time we do any fundraiser stuff or we do any community service stuff, things you hear back like, ‘Your kids were great.' Damian took a lot of pride in basically having quality kids on the team. He would go out of his way to talk to kids and see how they were doing and all that. That’s something I feel that’s important to do. Make sure you keep that connection during the season and when the season's over. We’re one big family. I think that has a great impact on the kids.

Kevin Hillman, the new head coach at Horseheads, works with players at practice during the 2015 preseason.

Q: You played for the highly successful Dick Senko at EFA and coached with Damian. Anything in particular you take from those two or anyone else?

A: Back with coach Senko, his enthusiasm was off the charts. You went to practice and he was always ready to go. He was so enthusiastic. You can tell the love he had for football. Coach (George) Batrowny became my specific coach there. The relationship I had with him was great. He was kind of the same as coach Saks. He was always checking on you. 'How are you doing?' He cared about you not just as a player, but as a person as well. I think that’s so important. Even to this day I have a good relationship with him and talk to him, still call him coach. Probably would with coach Senko, but he’s down South now. Every one of those coaches, and coach (Dana) Carpenter, were great to work with.

With Damian it’s the same thing. I think we kind of had the same philosophies coming through here. If I can do the job he did with these guys, just working with the kids and communicating with the kids and talking about the kids and caring about the kids, and trying to make them the best person they can be, not just in school but in life because that was a big thing for him. If I can do that, that’s more than half the battle.

Q: How did your meeting with the team go?

A: We met as a team right at the end of February, right after I got approved by the Board. I just kind of laid the groundwork of what my expectations were for them. I think the biggest thing for us, if we want to compete at this level, is just the off-season preparation and working out and all that stuff. We're getting a little bit of that – we have five, six, seven guys there. If we really want to compete, these guys have to be in there all the time. I'm sure teams like Elmira and Binghamton, those guys have a number of guys in there working out, lifting and getting stronger, getting faster. And we've got a lot of kids doing other sports, but that's something these kids need to be able to focus on if we want to be able to compete with those guys. And I think that also starts with the eighth-, ninth-, 10th-graders, getting that instilled in them now. Because those are the kids who are really going to turn the program around.

Q: We saw the hurry-up, no-huddle offense at Horseheads the last two seasons. Is that something you will continue?

A: We're kind of going to have the same philosophy. We're going to be hurry up. We'll have the ability to slow it down if we want. That's something we were talking about adding either way if coach Saks was here or not. We still like the up-tempo thing and I think that helps us a little bit. We're actually meeting today as a staff, just trying to get back to focusing a little bit more on the running game. I know myself, calling the plays, that you kind of fall in love with (senior quarterback) Ben Clark and his ability to throw the ball. I kind of got away from running the ball and at times it made us one-dimensional, looking back on things.

Q: Who is on your staff?

A: Myself, coach (George) Gilbert will be back and coach (Pat) Clark, who was the JV coach, will come up with us. Those are the three paid coaches.

Q: What does it mean to have a guy with George's experience on staff?

A: It's awesome. First of all, he's a Division I college player, he played professionally. He's been around here all the years they won sectional championships. His brother's an NFL coach. Just his knowledge and experience and all that, it's invaluable.

Q: What is it about football that appeals to you?

A: Ah man, so much. For me, as a high school kid, just the camaraderie and the teammates and that time you have, bonding with those kids is probably the best part of it. The games are great. Obviously, the competition is awesome. Competition I think is a skill that not only translates on the football field, but in life as well. I think being a competitive person is very important.

When we all get together as friends who played in high school and all that stuff, we go back and we just talk about playing and all the stories you have. That's the thing you miss the most. ... That's what I tell these kids all the time. 'Whether you win or lose, in 30 years when you guys get together you're going to talk about when you played football together.' To me, that's the greatest thing in the world.

On Twitter: @SGAndrewLegare