Every so often a chance encounter leads to something more.
That was the case for me as I was exiting a local boys’ basketball state tournament game at my children’s alma mater back in March. As a full house began heading for the exits at Eisenhower High School, I recognized the fella walking next to me.
It was Eddie Hillery, who I’d first known close to 30 years ago when I was a sportswriter in the community where he was a 3-sport star (football, basketball, and track and field) for one of the high school teams (Rochester High School) I covered.
Much later in life, our paths crossed again when he was one of my teacher union’s recommended candidates for a local school board seat. During the arduous campaign we’d reconnected on several occasions and reminisced about his high school days and what had followed.
He had shared then that his post-high school life had included college football at Central Michigan University as well as a few seasons of professional football overseas in Germany, Finland, and Italy.
At that time, I found it to be an interesting story, but any thoughts of a podcast like Conversations with Sports Fans was still a way off for me.
But memories of those discussions from years before came flooding back as we chatted briefly on our way to the exits following Rochester High’s loss to rival Rochester Adams in the Division I District Championship Game.
A few texts and emails later and before you knew it Eddie and I were discussing how he went from diehard Detroit Pistons fan (during the Grant Hill era) to getting encouraged to try football by a middle school custodian to setting his high school’s all-time rushing record (over 2,300 yards). We discuss all that, plus what it was like going to Central Michigan University to play linebacker (having played only a handful of games at the position in high school) to the opportunity to play in Europe.
It was a lot of fun catching up with Eddie, learning about the trials and tribulations of a high school athlete (then and now as Eddie currently coaches at RHS) not to mention what it’s like being a girl dad and learning to be a fan of a new(ish) sport to him, volleyball.
- Reminder – This is the last week to enter to win an author-signed copy of We Sacrifice Everything to Baseball by S:5, E:29 guest, Michael Clair. All you need to do to enter is email Conversations’ host, Doug Hill, at hilldouglast@gmail.com by 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, May 22, 2026, and you’re in the drawing. If you’re a member of the $80 for 80 Circle of Champions and enter, your entries will be tripled!