Hillis tackling everything these days…except golf

When the University of South Dakota takes the field vs. South Dakota State on Saturday, not a lot of people will know that Stephen Hillis, a 6-foot-1, 235-pound linebacker for the Coyotes, has type-1 diabetes.

That is because he has greeted the challenges involved in dealing with this disease with the necessary discipline.

The necessary discipline in this instance has been a hallmark of Hillis’ time playing football and applies to just about everything else in his life, too. Face the challenge, tackle it, then move on.

“Diabetes is not something you can ignore – it’s not like ‘Ah, I’m too tired today, I’m not going to deal with it,’” Hillis said. “You have to deal with it. At the same time, you get used to it. The biggest thing is counting the carbs and adjusting your insulin based on how many carbs you’re eating. It’s become normal for me now. I don’t think anything of it.”  

Coyote fans have gotten to know Hillis, an outstanding all-around athlete at nearby Cedar Catholic High School in Hartington, Nebraska, primarily as a special teams weapon over his first three years in the program. This year, when Jakari Starling got hurt the first week against Kansas State, Hillis became a starter at linebacker.

He was going to see a lot of playing time regardless, but the added snaps in Starling’s absence have flattered him. He has since become the second-leading tackler in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. That included 11 in the most recent game vs. NDSU. 

The whole next-man-up mentality is admirable but not something most college football teams want to get into a habit of needing from too many players. It’s nice to know as a coach, though, that you have players who embrace the opportunity as well as the next-up mindset.

“Steve is a very mature, driven and motivated kid,” USD defensive coordinator Travis Johansen said. “He’s incredibly accountable – exactly what you’re looking for in a kid and as a player and as a teammate.”

At Cedar Catholic, Hillis was twice all-state in football, once in basketball and was a four-event medalist as a sprinter on the track team. He graduated in 2017 with academic honors on top of those he’d earned as an athlete, then headed for the Air Force Academy. He was going to play football while keeping up with the military institution’s additional rigorous demands.

The week before what was going to be his second fall football camp in Colorado Springs he started losing weight. It was about 15 pounds that first week, a startling amount for someone who was actually trying to put on some weight heading into his first year as a college player. He had a conversation with his mother, who is a doctor back home and then, after a mandatory weigh-in at Air Force prior to a lifting session, was told by the athletic training staff that he had to get tests done.

Shortly thereafter he learned he had type-1 diabetes. Life was going to change.

“When I was at the clinic, they told me I had type-1,” Hillis said. “A colonel told me I wasn’t going to be able to play football and I wasn’t going to be able to stay in the Air Force. He said it was time to start thinking about something else to do. It was tough. Both my parents were in the Navy so I really thought I was going to be in the military at some point or another. Getting to go to the Air Force Academy seemed like a great opportunity for me.”

He learned he could still play football but he was going to have to find a different place to do it. That went for his academics as well.

Hillis had committed to the Air Force early in the recruiting process during high school so he didn’t have the same familiarity with other schools that a lot of kids might have in his situation. In addition, because he was going to complete his freshman year at Air Force, he didn’t have a lot of opportunities to do the kind of college cold-calling he was going to have to do to find a new place to play football.

He was able to visit USD on his spring break, however, and got a very positive impression of Coach Bob Nielson and Johansen.

He became one of the young backups at linebacker behind Jack Cochrane, an All-American for the Coyotes who is now getting on the field as a rookie for the Kansas City Chiefs.

“Right from the time I got here, Jack kinda took me under his wing,” Hillis said. “He really helped me out – taught me how to watch film, how to think about the game, how to work out, how to get better at football. It was awesome having him here.”

Though Hillis was a star in three sports at Cedar Catholic, none of those sports was golf. Ultimately, it’s why he’s sporting a hairstyle these days that wouldn’t fly at the Air Force Academy.

The story began with a wager with teammate Alex Jensen, a senior starting offensive tackle, at a golf course. If Hillis won, Jensen would have to shave his head. If Jensen won, Hillis couldn’t get his hair cut until Jensen left Vermillion after the season.

“It was an 18-hole match up at Grand Falls,” Hillis said. “It just wasn’t even close. He had me by 12 strokes after the first nine holes. We’d played golf together before so I knew how he played but I’d recently broke 100 down in Hartington for the first time ever. I was pretty confident based on that – I got a little too cocky. Then he played really well and I played terribly. Alex jokes with me now that he might never leave Vermillion. I could be growing it out forever.”

Hillis, who is presently pursuing a career as a strength coach – he’s working on his second Master’s degree this school year – said he was one of the weakest linebackers at USD when he got to Vermillion. Now he is one of the strongest players on the team. It’s a process that made an impression.

For the most part, though, he’s the guy who is making impressions these days.

“He brings a level of consistency that is really unmatched,” Johansen said. “We really know what we’re getting out of him and his teammates know what they’re getting out of him. There’s never a downtick from one game to the next or one practice to the next. He’s as consistent a person as there is. That’s allowed him to keep moving his game forward. In my estimation he’s one of the best linebackers in this league, without question.”