Navarre's Hill lands with Jacksonville University
By TRAVIS DOWNEY
Northwest Florida Daily News
315-4476 | travisd@nwfdailynews.com
No matter where he turned, Walter Hill found himself faced with the same question day after day.
"What's next?"
After finishing up his senior season at Navarre as the school's all-time leading tackler, Hill's next destination was a popular topic of conversation in the weeks and months that followed the Raiders' season finale. The only problem was, for what seemed like the longest time, the All-Area linebacker wasn't sure how to respond.
"It was stressful not knowing where you're going to school," Hill said. "You've got everybody asking you every day what you're doing next year. Now I can tell them what school I'm going to and that I get to play football.
"I'm happy."
Hill signed an academic scholarship with Jacksonville University just last week and will also play football for the Dolphins next fall, allowing a player Navarre football coach Chad Lashley glowingly referred to as the "epitome of a student-athlete" to continue to pursue his interests both on and off of the football field.
Jacksonville's football program is coming off its first Pioneer Football League Championship after posting a 7-1 league mark to go with a 9-3 overall record. The Pioneer Football League has 10 member schools and makes up the nation's only non-athletic scholarship NCAA Football Championship Subdivision conference. "I'm real excited," Hill said. "The thing about Jacksonville, I have family in North Carolina, so when I go up there they can watch me play, my brother is an hour away so he can watch me play and my parents can come too, and (Jacksonville) is winning."
Hill plans to study pre-engineering at Jacksonville, in hopes of following in the footsteps of his father Joseph while continuing to wreak havoc on the gridiron as part of the Dolphins' defense and special teams units.
After back-to-back winning seasons as a sophomore and junior, Hill's prep career ended with a losing record in 2009 but as Lashley pointed out, the Navarre linebacker remained a model of consistency in the locker room, a trait the Navarre coach believes will only continue to carry Hill once he leaves the Raider campus.
"He's been a great role model for the kids in our program and Navarre as a whole," Lashley said.
