New MCC head football coach Willie Tillman fits the school, program
Willie Tillman was 15 years old when the idea of coaching took hold of him.
Tillman was a Satellite High sophomore working at Will Perdue's basketball camp and coaching a team of 8- and 9-year-olds in the championship of the camp tournament.
"We're down one in the final seconds, ball in the corner, and I called time out," Tillman remembered. "I draw up this play. I tell them we're going to win, and we're all going to run out of the gym together. What do you know if the play didn't happen exactly that way, and we win. I remember like it was yesterday, because of the excitement I saw in them. I still feel that moment."
Many more big moments have followed for Tillman, both in uniform and on the sidelines. He was a four-year Purdue football letterman and two-year starter as a receiver. He has been coaching for 26 years, hired in February and landing in early March at Melbourne Central Catholic as the new head coach.
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His Hustlers will play in the spring jamboree at Melbourne High beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday. The coaching fit seems ideal for Tillman and for MCC, because of his background in coaching at other faith-based schools and his own spirituality.
"I'm a Christian. Part of being a Christian is serving others and mentoring, fellowshipping, also teaching. All those things, to me, are part of coaching," he said. "Some of it comes naturally; some of it is learned, being raised in church.
"I don't know if I would have taken this job if it weren't for the religious side of the school, because that's important to me. I want to be able to pray with my team before the game, after the game, in the locker room. That was huge in accepting this job."
In addition to local coaching stops as defensive coordinator for Merritt Island High and then Florida Tech, he's held a handful of coaching jobs at Christian institutions, most recently Ave Maria University.
"That's kind of at my core," Tillman said. "Then I saw the (MCC) roster, and I was already recruiting some of the kids from here."
While molding the talent on a team that reached the FHSAA Class 3A regional final round last season, he believes he also has other things to offer to the players.
"I have a lot of experience and a lot of contacts, but I think my experience of being a high school and college player, a coach, a father, just recently became a grandfather, all those experiences really helped me," Tillman said. "I can tell our student-athletes what they need to do to be recruited."
Former Merritt Island head coach and athletic director Jeff McLean, who had Tillman on his Mustangs staff, had "so many good things" to offer about the new Hustlers leader.
"He has a great way with athletes, and he's been involved in all areas: high school coach, college coach and a successful athlete at a Big Ten school," McLean said. "He's been successful everywhere he's been, and I think that's a tribute to the kind of person he is. The game has done a lot for him, and I think he wants to give back to it and help other people."
In a few months at MCC, Tillman has instilled a theme of brotherhood as the foundational building block.
"I want our culture to be about loving each other, protecting each other, fighting for each other. I want our young men to come into this program feeling like they're a part of something, no matter what your role is. Everybody can't be a starter, but to belong to something is a special feeling, and I want our players to experience that."
Friday's spring football action in Brevard County
MCC, John Carroll at Melbourne jamboree, 6 p.m.
Father Lopez at Space Coast, 7
Bayside, Pt. Orange Atlantic at Centennial jamboree, 7
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: New MCC head football coach Willie Tillman
