BJ Hill Coaches Culture and Football

GREEN BAY, WI- (WGBW) –  A former professional football player with the Green Bay Blizzard, the only player for that team to have his jersey retired, and new head coach at Southwest High School in Green Bay, BJ Hill is a modern-day history maker and featured athlete for Black History Month.

While training young athletes, inspiring performance, and racking up the wins may be the main part of his job description, Hill said setting a culture for the students at Southwest High School is his first priority.

“For me setting the culture, the first thing is getting to know the students, right? And so I don’t want to come in and just be a dictator. I want to understand what each student and what each player is dealing with in their personal life, and then I can empathize with them in terms of what they’re going through,” BJ Hill told Civic Media’s Maino and the Mayor show. “And as long as they know they have a personal relationship with me, they’re going to want to run through a wall. That’s just the way it is. Right. So. That’s going to be the first order of business.“

Now that his playing days with the Blizzard are over, Hill says he can now focus on what he has found to be a calling.

“I was like, you know what? This is exactly what you want to do. This is your passion. You know, you love coaching. You love teaching kids,” he told himself. 

Hill emphasized that, yes, he wants to see the athletes at Southwest High School to a winning season, but he also wants to help the athletes and students win at life.

“I’m an extension of the parents, whether it’s a one-parent household, two-parent household, I’m on your team,” Hill said. “And so the goal is to build these boys into young men. And so, that’s the first order of business.“

Creating that winning culture for young people and being a leader are the things that make B.J. Hill a modern-day black history maker.