-
New Head Coach Brad Hill giving a speech to his players. Gary Jackson
The Kingston Redskins football team has some big changes in store for the 2022-2023 football season with the hiring of Brad Hill as the next head coach. Kingston’s former head coach Tommy Bare stepped down due to health issues. Hill said he will look to continue the growth and competitive nature Kingston has held for years. Hill sat down with The Madill Record and answered a few questions.
Tell us about who you are?
“ My name is Brad Hill. I grew up in Idabel, Okla. where my mom was a teacher and principal. My dad was the head football and baseball coach there. The baseball field in Idabel is named after my dad. I played football and baseball for him. I would go on to play college football at Henderson State University. I also played college baseball with them. For the last 19 years, I have been coaching. I started coaching football at Brewer High School in Texas. I worked with junior high my first year and worked my way up to high school. I worked with some great coaches at Brewer High School. I proceeded to work my way into Oklahoma, and coached at Broken Bow High School. After that, I became defensive coordinator for Norman North High School. I was fortunate enough to coach some great players such as Bob Stoops’ sons Drake and Isaac. I took the job of head coach at Moore High School, where I coached for the last five years. Moore went to the state playoffs for four straight seasons, with last year being the first time we missed the playoffs. In 2019, the team made it to the semifinals of the state playoff bracket. Now I am here in Kingston. My parents live in Durant and my wife will be here coaching as well. I have two boys named Brayden and Slider who are nine and twelve. Kingston has a great set up for winning. The way the athletics are set up gives us a great chance to win. The kids are tough and the administration is great and this felt like the right move for me.”
Why did you choose this coaching position at Kingston?
“Number one reason for me is the sports community. Kingston has a tremendous administration that wants to win and be good at everything. You can see that from the facilities and how they’re kept up. The tradition is amazing here as well. I think it's a heck of a chance to have a chance to win and create a dynasty and to be successful. It’s a community that has the values and the one school town where everybody supports the school and the school is the center of the community. It’s something that I grew up in in Idabel. When there was a game in Idabel, you could have robbed every store in town because everyone would be at the game.”
“That’s the same way it is here and not just with football; but with baseball, basketball, choir, band, etc. Being in 6A is little different than that. Having three high schools in town and everything else we had in Moore, I craved being back into a situation where it was one town, one team. I have two sons who will benefit from knowing everyone and building close relationships. At Moore, we had almost 3000 kids in the high school alone and I had kids play football for me that I don’t even know who they are. Being here, all of the students know each other.”
“I think it's a great place because we have a chance to win at the highest level. We also have an administration and community that backs you. These people want to win and have nice things. These kids are tough and have been successful in the past. All of these things are hard to find. Kingston has their athletics set up to where there is a weightlifting period year round apart from the athletic period in the afternoon.”
“All of these things are set up in a way to win and this is where I want to put my sons in to win. Having my kids with one going into 6th grade makes this place better for me to put them here. It’s a place besides being closer to my family in Southeast Oklahoma, that has a community that wants to win and it's set up so great. Mr. Brister, Mr. Holmes, and Coach Wiebener have set this up to win and have tough kids which are the ingredients for success. If I didn’t think it was a better job than the one I had previously, then I would not have applied.”
Look for the full, more indepth interview with Hill in The Madill Record’s special football edition on September 8, 2022.