Former SCF coach gets baseball coaches’ hall invite

Every January, Tim Hill II travels to Indianapolis for the annual American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame and Coach of the Year Banquet. In 2018, his visit will take on extra meaning.

Tim Hill, the former State College of Florida head coach, will be inducted posthumously into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in January. Hill is the lone junior college coach in the 11-person Class of 2018, which also includes Yankees international player development coordinator Pat McMahon and three-time national coach of the year Andy Lopez, who led Pepperdine to its only national title in 1992.

“It’s the largest association of baseball coaches and something that my dad was a lifetime member of,” said the younger Hill, who succeeded his father and is now the head coach at State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota. “We went to the conventions almost on an annual basis. I think the pinnacle of a college coach’s career would be to be recognized by that association.”

Even in this esteemed group of coaches, though, Hill’s career with SCF stands out. During his 31 years as head coach at the Manatee County junior college, which was known as Manatee Junior College when he arrived as an assistant coach in 1978, he compiled 1,193 wins. He ranked No. 1 in wins among JUCO coaches in Florida history and sixth in the country. He won six state championships and finished in the top three in the nation three times.

“The overall wins is quite impressive,” said athletic director Matt Ennis, who first worked alongside Hill as an athletic trainer for the Manatees, which were known as the Lancers when Hill began his coaching career. “The game changed so much over his coaching career, 30-plus years. For him to change with the game, with the players as they changed and still be able to be successful, that itself was remarkable.”

Players became successful even after they left Bradenton. Nearly 300 of his former players went on to four-year programs and more than 200 were taken during the MLB draft. Nearly 150 of those played professionally; 17 reached the majors.

His legacy with SCF lies in the relationships he forged, both Ennis and the younger Hill said. He maintained relationships with his former players until his death in 2015. It didn’t matter whether they went on to find success as a ballplayer or in some other walk of life, Hill wanted to stay in contact with them after building a relationship with them when they were, for the most part, only teenagers.

“Without a shadow of a doubt,” the younger Hill said, “his legacy was just the relationships he had.”

Those relationships fed into his success as a coach. He was named the Florida College System Activities Association Coach of the Year six times and received the honor from the Florida Diamond Club and Louisville Slugger another four times. In 2005, he was inducted into the National Junior College Athletic Association Baseball Hall of Fame.

This winter, it will not be just the younger Hill making the trip to Indiana. It will be a family affair, with maybe some friends and former players tagging along. Genny Hill, the elder Hill’s widow, will accept her late husband’s honor on his behalf.

“He would’ve been really proud to have gotten that,” the younger Hill said. “I just wish he had been here to see it, but at the same time it’s still nice to see him recognized.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2017 at 8:45 PM with the headline "Former SCF coach gets baseball coaches’ hall invite."