Football: Hard work pays off for Hill in form of Rice scholarship
11:33 PM CST on Wednesday, February 7, 2007
CORINTH -- Justin Hill already has the muscular build of a Division I running back, so the senior wanted to play football at a school that would work out a different muscle in his body – his brain.
The Lake Dallas senior signed a national letter of intent to play football for Rice University on Wednesday in the Lake Dallas High School weight room, which was packed with Hill’s friends, family and former teammates.
“Justin’s worked hard for all of this, but his parents, the team, his teachers, the community – everybody around here has been a part of this,” Lake Dallas head coach Michael Young said to open the ceremony. “It takes a village to raise a kid, and it takes a village for sure to send a kid to Rice on a full scholarship. Justin is going to start his career in a tax bracket that I’ll never see in my lifetime.”
Hill orally committed to Rice earlier in the fall following a stellar senior year, where he rushed for 1,412 yards and 26 touchdowns while leading the Falcons to their best season in school history.
Hill was named honorable mention on the Class 4A all-state team, a first-team District 9-4A selection, and he’s the 84th ranked football prospect in the area according to The Dallas Morning News.
“This is a great day,” Hill said. “We had a great season, it’s nice to get rewarded for everything we’ve done. I couldn’t have done it without everyone else.”
Hill committed to Rice while Todd Graham was still the Owls’ head coach during the college football regular season. Graham has since been replaced by David Bailiff, who spent the past two years as head coach of Texas State and runs the spread offense with which Hill is familiar from his time at Lake Dallas.
The coaching change didn’t rattle Hill’s commitment.
“I think everything happens for a reason,” he said. “I think it’s going to work out for the better. I think God did that for a reason.”
Hill has been a standout student at Lake Dallas in addition to his accomplishments on the football field, but the senior will face a new standard for academic excellence at Rice. He is up to the challenge.
“I think I can handle it,” he said.
JEFF ANDREWS can be reached at 940-566-6873. His e-mail address is eszatmary@dentonrc.com.
Create A Screen Name
Screen names can only consist of letters and numbers.
Your screen name will appear to everyone.
NOTE: You cannot change, delete,
or edit your screen name once you hit "Save".
 |
 RSS
|
|
 E-Mail newsletters
|
||
- Denton
-
- Restaurants & Bars
- Shopping
-
Services
- Denton Apartments
- Denton Legal Services
- Denton Auto Repairs
- Denton Business Services
- Denton Car Rental
- Denton Child Care
- Denton Cleaning & Repair
- Denton Construction
- Denton Funeral & Memorial
- Denton Hotels & Motels
- Denton Loans & Mortgages
- Denton Movers
- Denton Plumbers
- Denton Real Estate
- Denton Taxes
- Denton Taxi
- More
- Attractions
- Community
- Health & Beauty
Mean Green Blog
Stay up-to-date with everything involving the University of North Texas athletics in the Mean Green Blog
DR-C High School Blog
Keep track of things going on in the Denton and area high schools in the DR-C High School Blog
Sports Highlights
- Internet Explorer 7+
- FireFox 3+
- Safari
If you are using Internet Explorer 7, make sure Phishing Filter is turned off by going to Tools / Phishing Filter / Turn Off Automatic Website Checking. If you are using Internet Explorer 8, make sure InPrivate Filtering is turned off and InPrivate Filtering data has been cleared. To turn off InPrivate Filtering go to Tools / InPrivate Filtering Settings, select the "off" button and click "OK". To clear InPrivate Filtering dataYou must be logged in to contribute. Log in | Register Now!
You are logged in as screenname | Log Out
You are logged in, but do not have a "screen" name. Create a Screen Name