EDITOR'S NOTE: This story originally ran as part of GCN’s National Signing Day coverage in February 2011. It won first place in the “Best Sports Feature Story” category in this year’s APA “Better Newspaper Awards” contest.

DAPHNE, Alabama - Sometimes a ride home is just a ride. And sometimes, it’s the lift of a lifetime.

Daphne senior defensive back Chris Hill and Trojan offensive line coach Milton Sutton had been down that road together many times before. It was the third week of November and the Daphne football team was preparing for the 6A semifinals with Davidson that Friday.

“Where Chris lived was on my way home,” Sutton said. “We all, all the coaches, give the kids rides home all the time. Even if it’s out of the way. Either way, you just don’t think about it. I just feel like God put me there that particular day for a reason and led me to be there for Chris.”

And so one ride home late in the 2010 season ended, or rather kept going, with things to think about and decisions to be made. At the time Hill had been living with his father who had been out of work for months.

The twice-named Trojan Player of the Week and Bryant-Jordan Achievement Award nominee for DHS said the power at his house had been turned off before, but he soon realized something was different.

“Coach Sutton drove me home and we saw all the lights were off. (My father’s) car wasn’t there. I went to the back and I knew he wasn’t home and the doors were locked. So, I went through a window and tried to turn the lights on. Then, I saw things were missing, all his clothes were gone. Coach asked me if everything was all right and I said, ‘I don’t know.’ I tried to call my dad, but couldn’t get in contact with him. So, coach Sutton took me home with him.”

About a week later, after a win over the Davidson Warriors, the Trojans were propelled into the 6A state championship to face Hoover. By then, Hill said, he had talked by phone to his dad who was in Texas looking for work. The two had been living together since Hill had come to Daphne to begin his freshman year of high school.

“It had been just me and him and I didn’t have a job either, playing football and going to school,” he added. “We didn’t have any money coming in. He couldn't find much work and we had moved four or five times until my senior year.”

THE ROAD FROM ARKANSAS TO TEXAS: Both young when he was born, Hill’s father and mother did not stay together. He was born in Stuttgart, Ark., and when he was only a month old his maternal great-aunt and great-uncle took him in. He lived and grew up with his elderly grandaunt who he called “Mama” and his elderly and disabled granduncle called “Uncle Pete” in Little Rock. They had two older children Jackie and Andy. Only Andy was still at home but was several years older than Chris.

“They raised me and loved me as if I was their own,” he said. “I looked up to Andy as a big brother and a father figure.”

Hill had no idea, at least for a few years, how much of a struggle his step-parents faced with expenses. But around the age of seven or eight, he said he sensed a connection between food, electricity and money.

“They had to borrow money from friends to put food in the house,” he said. “Sometimes we went without lights because there was something else to pay for.”

THE CAVALRY TO THE RESCUE: “Andy went into the Army when I was in the third grade,” he added. “So, my big brother was gone.”

But Hill noticed that soon bills were being paid and even though Christmas had always been nice, it became even nicer.

“With help from Andy,” he said. About the same time, his Uncle Pete got his nephew interested in football. “My uncle was a sick man, so most of the time he was in pain. He would play catch with me in the driveway and made sure I could catch the ball. Working with him made me pretty good.”

By the time he was in the seventh grade, however, Hill was forced to encounter a tougher, harder side of growing up in the poorer parts of Little Rock.

“When I walked home from school I used to get jumped by this gang.”

First he was taunted, then assaulted and soon encouraged to join the gang or keep getting hurt or worse. With Andy gone and his aunt and uncle in visible decline, he saw no other way out and agreed to join.

GUARDIAN GANGSTER: “I was the youngest in the gang, Hill said. “But they welcomed me into their family. The guys a little older than me were like brothers and my O.G. (original gangster, the leader) was like a father figure. So I got caught up with drugs and the gang life.”

Interestingly, it was the O.G.’s mother who made Hill think more about his own family, his past and his future.

“One day she asked me, 'Baby, what's wrong?' I said, ‘Nothing.’ She asked me again and I said, 'Nothing.’ then she started asking about where I’m from and things like that. I told her, ‘I never met my daddy.’ and she said, ‘That’s it. That is what is wrong. You need to meet your father.’ Before I left she made me promise to find my father.”

In a few months, with help from Mama, Uncle Pete and Andy, he would. After his aunt found a home-made knife and other gang-related items among his things, she confronted him and he confessed about his becoming involved.

He also told her that he felt he needed to meet his father. As it happened, Andy was stationed in Texas that summer and was not far from where his father’s sister lived.

“So in about a month or so, we moved to Texas to be with Andy in the summer going into my ninth-grade year. I met my aunt there and he (my father) drove from Alabama and I met him for the first time.”

THE ROAD TO ALABAMA: That first visit went well and that Christmas, Hill came to spend the Holidays with his father in Alabama. But on Christmas Eve, his aunt called to tell him that his Uncle Pete had died. In the wake of that Christmas, the only sad one he had ever known, he decided to move in with his dad and enrolled in Daphne High as a freshman that January.

He quickly fit in and excelled on the spring football field and in the classroom. But his life at home was not as easy. About six months after moving in, his father became unemployed. “Things started going down hill. He couldn't find much work up until my senior year,” he said.

UNCLE PETE'S PROMISE: One of the things that kept Hill going was a simple request from his uncle.

“My Uncle had told me all he wanted was to see me make it. One thing I had in my mind was to do it for him and try to make it, no matter what happens.”

Daphne senior counselor Karon Bishop said that although a lot of young people start out or end up in similar situations, most are not able to cope as wisely as Hill.

“Chris Hill is one of finest young men I have known in my nearly 25-year career,” she said. “He is loyal, compassionate and amazingly happy. He harbors no malice and has the greatest respect for those who have taught him to be a man of integrity. One of the most impressive things about him is, he doesn't blame any one for the bad things and just says, well this is the way life is now and then looks ahead and is determined to make it better. One of the things he thinks is most important and what he wants most out of life is to be a good father one day.”

Bishop helped Hill apply for the Bryant-Jordan Achievement Award which is set up for kids who have overcome adversity. Although he was not selected for the wider-area award, Hill said Bishop, Sutton, coach Mike Vick, coach Bart Sessions and other teachers and coaches helped him achieve his dream of getting a scholarship and honor his uncle’s wish. He was one of 12 student-athletes from Daphne to sign scholarships on National Signing Day, Feb. 2. Hill and classmate Tyrell Holloway both signed to play football at Northwestern Oklahoma State University.

“I had to learn to do a lot for myself growing up,” he said. “But then I realized I couldn’t do it all and I needed help and I got it from Mrs. Bishop and other teachers and coaches. My future, my dream, is to go to college and play college ball. By doing this, I believe I’ve done half of what my uncle wanted me to do. I plan to be married to the woman of my dreams and to have kids. My goal is to make sure my kids do not experience the things I had to. And I want them to experience the things I haven’t got a chance to experience.”

Hill said he felt rescued by Sutton and his family.

“He really was like a lifesaver, like a life preserver. That’s when your sinking down, and like a lifeguard, he pulled me up. Kept me going and gave me strength to look at the bright side and the possibilities for the future. By giving me a place to stay and be to able to just focus on school and football was a blessing. But they made me feel so right at home. It was even more than I could've ever asked for. I definitely want to thank them like I did at the signing.”

THE ROAD TO AUBURN: The Trojans went on to win the 2010 6A state title with a 7-6 win over arch-nemesis Hoover at Jordan-Hare Stadium at Auburn University. Both teams had the top-two rated defenses in the state. It all came down to a defensive stand by the Trojans with Hill in the thick of it. On a third-and goal-play, he swatted down a Hoover pass (that would have probably won the game for the Buc's if completed) to force a field goal attempt that went wide. It was a happy time, but marked what would soon be time to make another decision.

Sutton said he, his wife Deborah and their son Alex who is a junior at Daphne all agreed that making it possible for Hill to stay at Daphne and graduate from the school he has given so much back to himself, would be more of a blessing than a burden.

“At first we all said let's just get through the playoffs and then the Holidays and then let’s see what we all want to do. Deborah and I talked and our son Alex, who is still home, and Chris all talked about it. We already feel like he (Alex) and Chris are like brothers. And it’s been good for both of them and all of us. We feel like God has given us all a purpose in life and if we helped him out then it was meant to be done. Deb feels blessed that he's with us and we both feel that way and the appreciation he shows and his attitude just is really reward enough for us. Chris had options, but pretty much all those meant having to leave Daphne. He wanted to stay. We wanted him to stay.”

THE ROAD TO THE FUTURE: When asked what advice he would give to others, Hill said, “I want to tell the world that I’m here and I’m still making it. It’s just another step in life and I just have to continue to work hard. It’s not the end, just another path on the road and another adventure. I have to work even harder now.”

He stays in touch with his father who has found a job, Hill said. He also wants to get back in touch with other family members he has been missing.

“Especially Andy,” he said who may be on his second deployment to Afghanistan. “He was about to go back the last time I heard. But I have lost a lot of my numbers (stored in a cell phone) and I just got a new phone. But I hope I can get in touch with him soon.”