Neil Billingsley is on a streak - the first person in the Plainview High School Fieldhouse every morning since April 1, 1978. On that day 46 years ago, the rest of the coaching staff walked in on Billingsley, the newly hired offensive assistant, picking up trash from the equipment room and asked if he was the new custodian.
Most days ‘Coach Bill’ arrives at 4:30 in the morning, although sometimes, he admits, it’s closer to 5 a.m. He starts by taking the laundry out, clipping every kid’s workout clothes to a strap and placing it in their locker. Then, he brews the coffee for the coaching staff and unlocks the facility for the football players driving in at 6:00 a.m.
Maybe those coaches were right about Billingsley all those years ago. He’s always behaved like a custodian, doing the jobs no one else thinks of, but which keep the program running smoothly.
“I’ve put up maybe four or five (laundry) straps in the four years I’ve been here,” Plainview head coach Wyatt Martinez said.
Technically, Billingsley retired in 1997. He just never stopped showing up to work.
Billingsley isn’t here to psychoanalyze his service or why he does what he does. The 86-year-old claims he wouldn’t know what to do with himself if not for volunteering for the football program. He likes being the first coach players see in the locker room, asking them about their home life and schoolwork.
But for the Plainview staff, Coach Bill is a living testament to why they became coaches, and an example to follow.
“Not only will you not find somebody that can outwork him, you won’t find somebody that loves kids more than he does,” Martinez said.
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