The Boys of Fall: Hylton coach Tony Lilly

With the recent release of country music superstar Kenny Chesney’s popular single “The Boys of Fall,”  the News & Messenger is asking current high school football coaches in Prince William County about their recollections of playing high school football and how those memories have impacted their lives as coaches today.

Lilly was a three-year starter at Woodbridge High School (1980 graduate) and went on to play four years at the University of Florida from 1980-1983 before playing four years in the National Football League for the Denver Broncos in which Lilly played in back-to-back AFC Championships Games as well as Super Bowl XXI and XXII. A defensive back, Lilly also played for current Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan at Florida and in Denver. Lilly is in his first year at Hylton after coaching five years at Potomac.

Q: Do you have any relationships that were formed from playing high school football that have carried into adulthood?

A: [Former Woodbridge teammate] Brian Beaty at Osbourn Park is one of my best friends in the whole world, and I would say over the last 25 years I go over and have coffee with him on the weekend pretty much every weekend and we get an opportunity to sit down and visit and talk about things. I try to let these guys that I’m coaching at this level now know that when you get done playing this game you’re not going to remember the scores of the games that you played in. You’ll know they were big games, but you’re going to remember the friendships and the laughter and the fun that you have with your teammates. That’s what I’ve always carried with me.

Q: You’ve played and coached in some really big games. What loss or losses have stung you the most?

A: [In high school] we had to travel to G.W. Danville to play them in a regional final game two years in a row and we got beat down there. Then I started coaching at Woodbridge and we went down there again in a regional final and got beat by them again, and it wasn’t until they came to Potomac three years ago that I finally beat G.W. Danville. I think it was a bigger win for me then it was for my players because I had never beaten G.W. Danville.

Q:Did you dress varsity all four years in high school?

A:My freshmen year, the second week of the varsity season that the varsity coaches came down and asked me to come up to varsity. I was going to be a back-up punter and a backup safety. For me at that time that meant an awful lot. I knew I wasn’t going to play, and I knew I could probably start freshman football, but it was more important to me that I got to dress out with the varsity players. As a coach, that’s something. There’s always a few freshmen that I bring up, for one because I want them around that atmosphere.

Q:How did playing varsity so soon impact you maturity wise?

A:For me you had to grow up and practice and prepare during the week at that level and it’s just different at a freshmen level, and also to be around those coaches that have been instrumental. [Former Woodbridge head coach] Bill Holsclaw was very instrumental in my path. Ron Davis, who was my position coach [at Woodbridge], probably has always been the most instrumental person in my career.

Q: What else was Ron Davis able to pass on to you other than his knowledge of the game?

A: The first time I saw the man he was imposing and intimidating … He’s not a play around type of guy, he was very serious about what he did. He was just really inspirational. He played at Virginia Tech and he was one of the great players to ever play at Tech and had the opportunity to play with the Denver Broncos and he was cut in the last cut and probably could’ve gone to six or seven different teams, but he made the decision to go back to college and be an example for his younger brother and sisters and I really admire that, so a lot of the game that I was taught in high school I was able to translate a lot of that into college and the NFL. He taught me a lot of things that high school coaches just aren’t able to teach.

Q: Is there a lesson or an experience from one of your coaches that you’ve incorporated into your coaching style?

A: I had a college coach at Florida who I always thought he was a little bit bizarre and he would stage things to happen in practice to bring our level up, and they were really bizarre things. I mean every player on the field is fighting at once and as a freshman I’ve never seen that before.

I remember thinking this guy is a little wacky, and I found myself on the practice field three years ago when we went to the state finals at Potomac, and I found myself during training camp we were having a flat couple of days, so I staged a fight in practice and I’m like “Oh my god I’m doing a Charley Pell.” But, you hear yourself saying some things that coaches said to you when you were in high school. I mean there’s things that come out of your mouth and you’re like “Oh my god that’s where I’ve heard that before.” So, they carry with you.

It’s much more important to me to develop strong friendships with these players and get them on the right path in their life then win football games. The winning takes care of itself as you do that. I have friendships with players that I’ve coached and they’re like my sons. I had one live with me for six months because he was having a few personal issues and I did that because he was that good a kid and I didn’t want to let him go. He probably would have had to move to a different county, and now he’s gone on to college and his first year at Shenandoah University he set the all-time receiving record as a freshman, He had a coach take him from there to Kentucky State where they put him on a full scholarship. He’s a three sport guy and the baseball coach asked him to play and he calls me and tells me he’s going to play then he calls me two weeks later and tells me he hit a home run in his first at bat and now he’s got the Los Angeles Dodgers talking to him and they want him to drop out of school and sign, but I highly encouraged him to finish school first.

Q: What does it mean to you to have that kind of an impact on a young person?

A: It means that I’m where I’m supposed to be. I really believe that God intended for me to be where I am right now. I’ve had opportunities to coach in college, but I chose to stay here because I believe this is where God wants me to be.