Prep star overcomes tough New Jersey streets

Will Hill used his cousin's murder as motivation for a breakout junior season at St. Peter's Prep. Peter Gregoire/SI

Last Sept. 9, as evening burned into night, Will Hill III, the do-everything quarterback and free safety from St. Peter's Prep in Jersey City, N.J., sunk his cleats into the Giants Stadium FieldTurf for the second time in nine months.

A junior at the time, Hill had already been crowned a state champion the previous December when the Marauders defeated Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey, N.J.) for the Non Public Group IV title. His push to the pylon on a quarterback sneak with time running out in the semifinal game vaulted St. Peter's to that stage, and his play in the championship game was no less vital. Now here he was with his teammates, the prep kings of New Jersey's swamplands, kicking off another season.

Ostensibly, little had changed for Hill since the title game the previous season. Perhaps an inch or two taller and more chiseled from weightlifting, Hill was much the same, from the dreadlocks to the rib-poke humor. A team leader since his sophomore year, the southpaw saw his ranking among recruiting services rise over the offseason. A blur out of the backfield with a 4.38 40 (in cleats, not spikes), the legend of his sandlot scrambles and unremitting hits had only grown.

But if you looked closer, Hill seemed different. Throughout warm-ups and the bus ride over, the typically jocular Hill remained reticent, choosing to wear his emotions beneath his shoulder pads on a black T-shirt. On the shirt was an ironed-in photograph of 15-year-old Brielle Simpkins, Hill's cousin and contemporary, who had left an indelible mark on him. Beneath it read the words: In Remembrance, R.I.P. "She was shot and killed a week before," says Hill, who kept a photo of Simpkins in his maroon play card on his wrist during the game. "Three days before she was killed we were hanging out for the first time in a while. We were laughing and having a great time. You're with this person your whole life and then they're gone."

Innocent by age, not necessarily association, Simpkins, an Elizabeth (N.J.) High cheerleader, was one of three murder victims shot dead in the second floor of an apartment building on Sanford Avenue in the Vailsburg section of Newark. In an attempt to cover up the crime, the three assailants set the scene on fire. "It was a no brainer for me to keep on playing," Hill says. "The team is like a second family and the game was an outlet for my feelings. I could take it out hitting people."

After the storm of emotion had passed, football was at the center of Hill's life. With an overflow of family, who had been up from Virginia and Florida for the funeral, in the stands, Hill returned the opening kickoff 29 yards. His first play under center, he mishandled the snap, recovered and sprinted another 40 yards untouched for a touchdown. A few plays later, a pass on the run resulted in a 40 yard gain.

On defense, Hill was in his element, swatting a pass away and knocking an unsuspecting return man to the ground on another play. In his thoughts and in his hits, he says Simpkins was the spark to a 36-0 victory. "She was there with me," Hill says. "The frustration of the week gave me the energy to hit harder and leave it all on the field. It allowed me to take out my frustration."

Street smart, but not of the streets, Hill has managed to eschew a road to ruin while speeding down a fast track to success. At home in the houses of others, living life as the Garden State's guest, he spends nights in the suburbs and down the Shore, away from the action that has brought down others before him. "The question I ask most is, 'Where's Will?'" says his mother, Grace. "But I know he is somewhere safe. He calls to let me know."

As grown up as a high school senior can be, Hill is a 6-foot-3, 205-pound senior captain who can bench 290 pounds, squat 500 and complete 28 chin-ups. He can broad jump 11-foot-5 and has a 38-inch vertical.

As a junior, he threw for 11 TDs and rushed for 15 more. He returned four punts for touchdowns, had 61 tackles and three interceptions. "As the years go on there is the mystique that has grown," says St. Peter's coach Rich Hansen. "To watch tape of him is to ask questions of how, when, and why did he do that?"

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