Kevin Gill appreciates the milestones, but he doesn’t have much time to reflect on them.
There’s always more work to be done.
When Gill’s McLennan Community College Highlanders shot down Eastfield, 88-67, on Monday night, it marked another landmark triumph in the career of the Waco-bred coach. It gave him his 600th career win in a coaching career that not only includes 18 seasons at MCC, but previous high school coaching stops at La Vega and Hubbard.
“I’m in the middle of recruiting now, so I haven’t really thought about it much,” Gill said. “The only time I can really reflect on it is when I get a text message from one of my former players or former assistant coaches. But in order to do things like this, you have to good players and good assistant coaches. But mainly players.”
Speaking of former assistants, Gill’s milestone win came at the expense of one of his old colleagues. Eastfield is coached by Anthony Fletcher, who was Gill’s assistant during his second and third seasons with the Highlanders from 2003-05.
It goes down as a special win not just because of the fat, round number – Gill improved to 600-152 all-time – or because of the coaches’ connections, but also because of the quality of the opponent. Eastfield came into the night at 15-1 and ranked third nationally in NJCAA Division III.
The Highlanders moved to 8-6 with the win, their fourth straight. It’s been an uphill climb much of this season for MCC, as Gill had no returning players from last year’s 22-9 regional tournament team. But the Highlanders are starting to figure some things out, the coach said.
“It’s a process,” Gill said. “It was harder than I thought it would be to not have any returners. It’s pretty tough, because now you have to re-establish the culture, whereas when you have returners they can help build that work ethic in the new guys. It’s been a process, but we’re working through it.”
The Eastfield contest marked MCC’s last before its Christmas break. The Highlanders will be back on the court on Dec. 31 against Angelina College, and then will play Concordia University’s JV on Jan. 3 before opening conference play at No. 1-ranked Ranger on Jan. 8.
“When we come back from the break, that Angelina game will be just like a conference game,” said Gill, whose team pulled out a 70-64 win over Angelina earlier in the season. “It’ll help get us ready. It’ll be good, because that one game will be worth, like, three practices.”
— WACOTRIB