(Little Rock, Ark.) — On December 5th, Marion football co-offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Cliff Hill received the 2022 High School Broyles Award recognizing the top assistant high school football coach in the state of Texas.
Hill, a Luling native, is in his 6th year as an assistant at Marion High School serving under head coach Ryne Miller. The Bulldogs have a 44-23 record during Hill’s six years at the school.
The Broyles Award honors the top assistant in college football, but in 2018 the award was expanded to include high school football assistants in participating states. The Texas award has been given to assistants at Ennis, Austin Westlake and Longview high schools in years past. The honor for Hill at Marion this year represents the smallest school to have a coach receive the award in Texas.
Hill himself said he was surprised he was even nominated for the award.
“Last spring I got a call from Rodney Webb who’s the president of the Texas High School Coaches Association and I was wondering one, how he got my number and two, what was going on. He congratulated me and told me about the award and that I had been nominated.” Hill said. “It was very, very overwhelming. I’m a pretty humble guy. It’s always about the kids first so, anytime you receive an accolade like that it kinda blows your mind because everything I do is focused on the kids and not myself.”
TCU assistant Garrett Riley was awarded the college Broyles Award during the ceremony last week in Little Rock, Arkansas. Hill said he was very humbled to be sitting in the same room with Riley and other college coaches.
“It’s a community. I didn’t realize that until I went up to Arkansas. It’s a community, it’s a fraternity. You’re sitting there with Garret Riley and Alex Golesh who’s now the head coach at South Florida and you’re having breakfast with these guys. Everything was very formal. You fit right in with the college coaches and it was a very humbling experience for this small town guy.”
Hill, who will return next year to represent Texas as a host of the awards ceremony, gave praise to the coaching staff he works with at Marion High School.
“It’s a credit to these guys and you can only do so much by yourself and I’m been blessed to work with a great staff and great dudes and without them, there’s no way that this is possible.”
Hill coached Marion offensive stars Bo Stahl and Dominic Castellanos, who earned the District 13-3A Newcomer and Utility MVP awards, respectively. The Bulldogs also placed offensive linemen Owen Schoenvogel and Garrett Mann along with utility player Jaxon Garner on the All-District First Team Offense under Hill this past season.
The Broyles Award is named after the late Frank Boyles, the longtime former coach and administrator at the University of Arkansas. Broyles had a number of future head coaches who served as assistants under him including Barry Switzer, Johnny Majors, Joe Gibbs, Hayden Fry and Jimmy Johnson.