With curly-haired two-year-old daughter Harper balanced on one leg, occupied with an iPad, Jason Gillman talked about the next stage in his life.
Gillman’s wife, Megan, is expecting their second child in August. The couple with roots in the county are thinking about building a new home on acreage they just purchased. It’s not hard for Gillman, 36, to get to sleep when he gets home at night, but if Harper wakes him, or Megan is up because she’s several months pregnant, it’s not easy getting back there.
“Falling asleep at night isn’t hard because I’m exhausted. But there’s a lot of moving parts in my life right now,” Gillman said.
Part of that movement is north on I-55 to Imperial.
After nine years as the assistant boys varsity basketball coach at Hillsboro, Gillman accepted the boys head coaching position at Windsor, one of the Hawks’ opponents in the Jefferson County Activities Association large-schools. The Windsor C-6 Board of Education voted to hire Gillman at its March 26 meeting.
Gillman replaces Todd Dutton, who was the head coach of the Owls the past eight seasons. Dutton, who lives in St. Charles, said on Sunday he was retiring from coaching and teaching at the end of the school year, but left the door open for a possible return to one or both.
Gillman was coaching the freshman boys basketball team at Hillsboro when Dan Johnson was hired by the Hawks to be the varsity head coach. Johnson moved Gillman up to the varsity as a paid assistant. Gillman, who is the assistant boys golf coach in the spring at Hillsboro, only assisted the varsity from that point. Gillman said being a head coach has always been one of his dreams.
“I’m getting to the point where I have to do it, or not,” Gillman said. “I was always content coaching basketball at Hillsboro. If it’s about coaching basketball, Coach Johnson is great about letting me have input. He let me be as involved as I wanted and hopefully I’m prepared to be successful as a head coach.”
Gillman is a 2001 graduate of Hillsboro, earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Missouri State University in Springfield and a master’s degree in secondary administration from Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis.
Johnson’s a little taller than Gillman, but not much else separated their appearance on the sidelines, both wearing heavy dark beards. Two coaches can’t inhabit the same bench for nine years if they don’t agree on most things when it comes to coaching. Their success together is unrivaled in the county. The Hawks had one losing season under the Johnson-Gillman brand (13-14 in 2014-2015). Hillsboro has turned up the heat the last three seasons, winning three Class 4 district titles and compiling a record of 93-21 (.816).
However, 2019-2020 will definitely be a season of transition for Johnson and the Hawks, who lost Gaven Pinkley in 2018 and Michael Brewer to graduation this spring.
“We haven’t done anything different the last three years than we did the previous six,” Gillman said. “We change our game plan and offense to the kids we have. The daily grind and how we prepare over the summer has always been the same.
“We see the game very similarly. When you’re the assistant, sometimes you have to put your ideas on the back burner. I was like, ‘that’s exactly how I would have done it.’”
Windsor hasn’t beaten Hillsboro since 2015, and the Hawks scored 100 points under Johnson for the first time against the Owls in February. In December, junior twins Ethan and Evan Worley, arguably Windsor’s two best players, transferred to Hillsboro. Gillman meets his new team on Thursday (April 4).
“We’re going to do whatever suits the Windsor Owls to win a basketball game,” Gillman said. “There are five shots we want to take. We want to run hard and talk loud and that’s the basics of everything. If you play hard and take good shots, everything else takes care of itself.”
Since the Owls and Hawks are in the same conference, at some point next season Gillman will be tested against his former boss.
“It’s not going to be about Coach Johnson and Coach Gillman, it’s going to be about the kids on the floor,” Gillman said. “I’m not going to do anything different than we would in any other game. And I know (Hillsboro) will play the same way.”
Johnson said he and Gillman both had similar ideas about how they wanted the Hawks to play, and Gillman was a good source for Johnson because he was from Hillsboro. Gillman always offered ideas and Johnson said his assistants need to have pretty thick skin when their ideas aren’t put to use. Gillman had other head coach opportunities in the past, and Johnson said he knew he’d eventually lose his top assistant.
“I was happy for him. If it’s what he wanted and something best for his career and family,” Johnson said. “Would I prefer all of my secrets going to a school outside the conference? Sure. It’s good for our conference because he’ll be stable for them.”
Windsor finished 10-16 in two of the last three years and lost eight of its last nine games this season. Juniors Norman Alford, Grant Siegel and Pierce Hartmann and sophomores Sonny Amabile and Derek Willliams were all starters for the Owls this past season and are all very capable players. Those five players combined for 731 points this season.
“I’ve always wanted to coach a Class 4 school in the county, and there aren’t many of those,” Gillman said. “I know Windsor has a lot of players returning and a bunch of young kids who played a lot of minutes.”
The last game Gillman coached at Hillsboro was memorable because of how badly St. Mary’s beat the Hawks, who had challenged an equally strong team in Sikeston the previous two seasons in sectionals. The Hawks’ 95-46 loss to the Dragons exposed certain weaknesses.
Gillman bristled a bit about one loss and what that meant.
“It’s harsh to judge Jefferson County basketball on our outcome against St. Mary’s,” he said. “They were playing really well that night, and I don’t know if anybody in the state could have beaten them that night. They made outside shots and guarding a guy like Yuri Collins 35 feet from the basket; nobody’s going to stop him.”
After 32 years in education, Dutton said it was time to step back and reevaluate his future. Dutton has a seven-year-old son attending the St. CharlesSchool District. At Windsor, Dutton taught PE for freshmen through seniors and weight training classes.
“I’m not going to say I won’t coach again,” Dutton said. “I still have a passion and desire to coach. At some point in the public-school system, it’s time to retire. As far as Windsor is concerned, I have a lot of love for the kids and school. The people I worked with couldn’t have been better. You have great families with great kids who all are concerned about education. It’s been great working with so many people and respectful hard-working kids.”
Dutton led the Owls to a winning record of 17-10 in 2015-2016. He said he’ll miss coaching against his peers in the JCAA, large and small.
“It was an enjoyable time,” he said. “I coached against a lot of great coaches. I got comfortable being part of the JCAA. I will miss the relationships more than anything. The bottom line is how you can use the gifts that have been given to you.”