Post by PukaPants on May 12, 2004 8:54:53 GMT -5
Hillman survives jeers to reach top with BYU volleyball
Gordon Monson
Salt Lake Tribune Columnist
When Joe Hillman and his Brigham Young teammates fended off three match points and then came back to win a national championship over Long Beach State in volleyball Saturday, he hadn't thought through exactly how he was supposed to act in that moment.
So, he ran.
He sprinted around the court, grinning like a fool.
Before looping back to hug his teammates, he dropped by the Long Beach bench to answer a question some of the 49ers had been derisively screaming at him, all match long.
The Q.: Hey, Joe, how old are you?
The A.: I'm 27! I'm 27 years old!
Then, he dog-piled into a celebratory team heap and cried.
"It was magic," he said. "A dream come true."
For Hillman, it was more than that.
It was one more positive step from a challenging past toward a bright future.
Better late than never.
Twenty-seven might be a bit tardy for most college seniors. And Hillman had paid the price this past season by being at the center of controversy over eligibility issues regarding a handful of BYU players. Opposing coaches had fired accusations and instigated investigations into BYU using professional and ineligible players en route to assembling the best team in the country. Hillman was singled out in the UCLA student newspaper, chronicling some aspects of the 6-foot-7 opposite hitter's meandering, dilatory sojourn to and through BYU volleyball.
But there was more to his late arrival than anyone knew.
The record showed his protracted path, but not all of the reasons for it.
The outer shell revealed this:
Hillman grew up in Las Vegas, where he immersed himself in volleyball during his high school years. After he graduated, he worked for a year in pest control, then went on an LDS Church mission for two years to Missouri. A few months after returning, in December 1997, he enrolled at Utah Valley State College, where he attended classes, off and on, over a four-year span. He also played volleyball on the school's club team.
After marrying his wife, Kyra, in 2002, Hillman considered going to Europe to play pro volleyball, but he also checked with BYU coach Tom Peterson to see if he had collegiate eligibility left, and if there was a Division I school where he could play and stay afloat in the classroom.
Peterson decided BYU was the school.
According to NCAA rules, Hillman had two years of eligibility to burn. He enrolled at BYU in January 2003. He sat on the bench for most of last season, prior to ascending to the starting opposite spot this year.
BYU rolled through its schedule, climbing to No. 1 and staying there for two months. As the win total grew (29-4), so did the accusations about ineligible players. Although they were disproved, at road matches, Hillman heard chants such as, "Six more years! Six more years!"
"I tried to laugh it off," he said. "But it got old."
Here's what was inside the shell:
Hillman had spent most of his school years in special-education resource classes. He wasn't dumb -- at times, he said he saw himself that way -- but he struggled to learn. His elongated path to BYU wasn't as much about maturing physically for volleyball, rather, mentally for academic survival.
"I'm not the smartest kid," he said. "I didn't overcome my learning disability to the point where I'm a genius. But I learned to learn. I can do as well now as the effort I put in."
Hillman is two semesters from graduating at BYU. After that, he plans on playing pro ball in Europe and getting a master's degree in workplace safety management.
He is one student-athlete, now a national champion, who deserves praise for his accomplishment, not suspicion and derision for his supposed late and laggard matriculation.
Gordon Monson
Salt Lake Tribune Columnist
When Joe Hillman and his Brigham Young teammates fended off three match points and then came back to win a national championship over Long Beach State in volleyball Saturday, he hadn't thought through exactly how he was supposed to act in that moment.
So, he ran.
He sprinted around the court, grinning like a fool.
Before looping back to hug his teammates, he dropped by the Long Beach bench to answer a question some of the 49ers had been derisively screaming at him, all match long.
The Q.: Hey, Joe, how old are you?
The A.: I'm 27! I'm 27 years old!
Then, he dog-piled into a celebratory team heap and cried.
"It was magic," he said. "A dream come true."
For Hillman, it was more than that.
It was one more positive step from a challenging past toward a bright future.
Better late than never.
Twenty-seven might be a bit tardy for most college seniors. And Hillman had paid the price this past season by being at the center of controversy over eligibility issues regarding a handful of BYU players. Opposing coaches had fired accusations and instigated investigations into BYU using professional and ineligible players en route to assembling the best team in the country. Hillman was singled out in the UCLA student newspaper, chronicling some aspects of the 6-foot-7 opposite hitter's meandering, dilatory sojourn to and through BYU volleyball.
But there was more to his late arrival than anyone knew.
The record showed his protracted path, but not all of the reasons for it.
The outer shell revealed this:
Hillman grew up in Las Vegas, where he immersed himself in volleyball during his high school years. After he graduated, he worked for a year in pest control, then went on an LDS Church mission for two years to Missouri. A few months after returning, in December 1997, he enrolled at Utah Valley State College, where he attended classes, off and on, over a four-year span. He also played volleyball on the school's club team.
After marrying his wife, Kyra, in 2002, Hillman considered going to Europe to play pro volleyball, but he also checked with BYU coach Tom Peterson to see if he had collegiate eligibility left, and if there was a Division I school where he could play and stay afloat in the classroom.
Peterson decided BYU was the school.
According to NCAA rules, Hillman had two years of eligibility to burn. He enrolled at BYU in January 2003. He sat on the bench for most of last season, prior to ascending to the starting opposite spot this year.
BYU rolled through its schedule, climbing to No. 1 and staying there for two months. As the win total grew (29-4), so did the accusations about ineligible players. Although they were disproved, at road matches, Hillman heard chants such as, "Six more years! Six more years!"
"I tried to laugh it off," he said. "But it got old."
Here's what was inside the shell:
Hillman had spent most of his school years in special-education resource classes. He wasn't dumb -- at times, he said he saw himself that way -- but he struggled to learn. His elongated path to BYU wasn't as much about maturing physically for volleyball, rather, mentally for academic survival.
"I'm not the smartest kid," he said. "I didn't overcome my learning disability to the point where I'm a genius. But I learned to learn. I can do as well now as the effort I put in."
Hillman is two semesters from graduating at BYU. After that, he plans on playing pro ball in Europe and getting a master's degree in workplace safety management.
He is one student-athlete, now a national champion, who deserves praise for his accomplishment, not suspicion and derision for his supposed late and laggard matriculation.