Bladen County native Matt Hill was approved Tuesday night as the new Head Boys Basketball Coach at Lumberton High School by the Robeson County Board of Education.Hill replaces interim coach Brandon Meadows who led the Pirates to a 10-14 record in his only season as their head coach.
Last season Hill led St. Pauls to an 18-8 record, the school’s best record since the 1997-98 season. He inherited a program that was 3-19 in 2013 and led them to 8 wins in 2014, before the ten-win improvement in 2015.
“I am looking forward to the challenge,” said Coach Hill. “It is a step up in competition level to a 4A school. However we played some pretty good teams at St. Pauls with Fairmont, Red Springs and Whiteville in our conference.”
“It was tough to leave St. Pauls. I didn’t exactly leave the cupboard bare there with the kids that were coming back,” continued Coach Hill. “However I felt this move was the best decision for me and for my career.”
Current Lumberton junior varsity coach Jonathan Benson was a teammate of Hill’s at West Bladen. “I talked to Jon and he helped recruit me – answering any questions that I had,” added Hill.
Hill, a 2006 graduate of West Bladen High School where he was a pitcher/infielder on the baseball team and kicker on the football team, started coaching as a volunteer assistant at West Bladen in 2008. He was later hired by the school after he graduated from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in 2010.
During his time at West Bladen, Hill coached junior varsity football, basketball and baseball and served as an assistant coach for varsity football, basketball and golf.
“I’ve been able to work with some very good basketball coaches – Coach (Junior) Nance, Coach (Ken) Cross and Coach (Travis) Pait,” said Coach Hill. “They really taught me a lot.”
Hill hopes to start basketball work-outs at Lumberton as soon as the NCHSAA dead period is over.
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