September 2000: "The Hillary Legacy" - Cistercian Preparatory School

He upgraded other sports that traditionallyran a distant second to football.In 1987, he establishedCistercian’s first ever varsity baseballteam and coached it for severalyears. Then he handed over theseduties to his assistant coaches togive them a chance to shine (and toearn a little extra income). His loyaltyto the school — from its boysto its principles — lifted everyone.IS MYguardian angelput here to enrich“TOMmy life and makemy life better,”Sheila Hillarywas telling Fr. Peter when Coachpassed away from adult acutemyeloid leukemia (AML) onMonday, April 10. He had beendiagnosed just over two weeks earlier,as spring break began. Now, onthe first day back from break, wordwas spreading around the schoolthat Fr. Peter had left campus.Everyone seemed to understandwhat that meant.“It was strange, so sudden, sounexpected,” said Wyatt Maxwell. “Isuppose we dealt with it pretty badly.Apparently the little guys — his PEclass — were hit very hard, and Iwould bet the rising seniors were too.I can’t imagine knowing you’re notgoing to be coached by CoachHillary. It was the ultimate in reachingthe top, being a senior underCoach. It’s what seventh gradersdream about.”“We were already thinking aboutcoming back the next year and shootingthe bull with Coach after practicewhen the team runs, the traditionalthing that the graduated class does. Wewouldn’t get to do that. We were sad,we had classes, but nothing wasaccomplished. We learned that the bestway to deal with it was to talk abouthim, all the stories.”Coach would never have expectedthe scene at the CistercianGymnasium on April 13, 2000. Over1,200 crowded into the gym to paytheir respects to a man who neverappeared particularly impressed withhis own value.For this, the largest Mass ever atCistercian, the community ofCistercian Fathers concelebrated theservice, with Fr. Abbot the main celebrant.“The gym beautifully transformedinto a sanctuary,” Fr. Bernardrecalled. A six-foot-tall crucifix washung in place of the image of theHawk. The altar was set on a raisedplatform directly in front of the cru-A Cistercian parent’sperspective on thelegacy of Tom HillaryBy Bill DawsonThese remarks were delivered at Coach Hillary’s funeral.Tom Hillary was God’s gift to Cistercian parents. Ofcourse, our boys thought he was their special gift, andtheirs only. They looked up to him with respect and awe.But they probably never realized that we as parents lookedup to him with that same awe and respect. As parents wefelt that way for two basic reasons.First, Coach Hillary got more out of our boys than anyof us ever thought possible. An example of that was winningfootball. Although his record is impressive, the championshipbanners on the walls, here, do not even begin totell the story.Coach Hillary gave us exciting teams and incrediblegames. My favorite was the 1988 Greenhill game atCistercian. Trailing with merely seconds left in the game,Drew Whaley caught a pass from Cistercian’s freshmanquarterback. It was not unusual for Coach Hillary’s teamsto have freshmen playing key roles. A block from JohnMichael Stewart sprung Drew loose, and he scored thewinning touchdown with no time left on the clock. To thisday, that is the most exciting game I have ever seen.I have heard from some of you who attended theGreenhill game at Cistercian this year that it was equallyexciting. John Dayton described it as the best football gamehe had ever seen — not just the best high school footballgame, the best football game. Those types of victories andfourth quarter heroics were not unusual occurrences. Theywere common. We came to believe that, despite incredibleobstacles, we were always in the game.I am glad Coach Phillips (from Houston Episcopal) ishere with us today to reminisce about the 1994 Episcopalgame at Cistercian. Mike Stewart tells me it is his personalfavorite. When the Episcopal players took the field, theywere so big we parents were afraid for our sons and merelywanted them off the field unhurt. We groused amongourselves why our kids would even be playing a team sobig and burly. The boys, however, did not share ourdoubts. We won that game, and not in typical Cistercianfashion with long passes and the trick plays Coach Hillarywas known for. We lined up and ran right over them.Bubba Futerfas gained more than 300 yards. TheEpiscopal team could not believe it. We could not believeit.That game illustrates what was remarkable aboutCoach Hillary. He won with the talent we parents gavehim. He never complained about our kids being tooscrawny or awkward or nonathletic.I recall my son going out for football as a freshman. Ifully expected Coach Hillary to call me and say “Hey, I’veseen more meat than this on a deer’s antler.” But he nevercomplained. He took our kids on as his special challenge.And boy did he love a challenge. I asked one of the boysone year what kind of team we would have. He thoughtabout it a minute, and then said “Well, we are small, butwe make up for it by being slow.”That is not to say we parents didn’t provide materialto work with. One year, I think it was the one when theteam claimed their average SAT score was 1300, I askedone of the players what the team would be like. He saidhe could not promise much except that they would notforget the plays.Father Peter, you said you had received an e-mail froma former student saying he did not play sports underCoach Hillary because he was “not really an athlete.” Factis, most of the boys who played for Cistercian were “not10 The CONTINUUM