Throughout the year, the Southern Conference will feature a former student-athlete from around the league in a series called Where Are They Now. This will be an opportunity to get acquainted with student-athletes after their competition days have come to an end. The question and answer session will focus on a former student-athlete who has gone one to a career away from the field, course, mat or court.
Our third Where Are They Now feature focuses on former Furman soccer and baseball player Clint Hill. Hill was a member of the Furman Paladin soccer team who recorded 11 consecutive shutouts, including two in the NCAA Tournament.
Clint Hill
Furman Soccer and Baseball (1999-2003)—Business Administration
Current Profession: Major Gifts Officer at Furman University
You played two sports at Furman. How was balancing being a student and an athlete more challenging for you?
In the end, it ended up being better because I stayed busier and I think I’m more productive when I’m busy. I loved going from class to practice, to the training room, and then going back and studying for a test or writing a paper. It was just a challenge, the challenge of my life up to this point, and it was exhausting. I slept for about six months after I graduated trying to catch up, but I would do it all over again. It was fantastic.
Did you have a primary sport?
From the time that I was in the sixth grade, I had a goal to play both sports at a Division I level and Furman gave me that opportunity. They didn’t make it so overwhelming that it burned me out or ran me into the ground physically. In the fall, I was a full-time soccer player and as soon as the soccer season was over, I went right into baseball. In the winter and spring I was a full-time baseball player. I never had to do spring soccer or fall baseball because I was one or the other. I tip my hat to my teammates as well, who didn’t get too upset at me because I didn’t have to do the 6 a.m. weights in the offseason. In the end it was really more fun because I was always in season, I was always playing games and I never had to do all the hard work in the offseason. Again, it was just a fantastic experience. It was a dream really.
During your soccer career at Furman, you were teammates with Clint Dempsey and Ricardo Clark, who are current members on the U.S. National Team. What was it like playing with them in college?
I was really fortunate the teams that I played on for four years. We were unbeaten in the conference; we were 43-0 in the conference. It was partly due to guys like Clint Dempsey and Ricardo Clark. I was the guy that came in to give those guys a break, so I would come in for ten minutes while they rested and then they’d pull me right back out of the game. Clint and Ricardo would go and do their thing. I played with a ton of great players, those two of course are the most famous at this point, and they are doing amazing things for Furman’s reputation and the soccer program and for the country. They are great ambassadors for the SoCon and for Furman.
I always say too, Dempsey was two years younger than me. My name is Clint, his name is Clint, and everybody called me Clint until Clint Dempsey got on campus and then he became Clint and I was C.Hill. So he stole my name and my position, but he is an unbelievable player. He is married to a Furman alum and they’ve got a great family and of course are living in London. Again, they’re just great people and he’s obviously very talented.
Do you still talk to them (Dempsey and Clark), your coaches or any other former teammates?
I’m in touch with a ton of my teammates both on the soccer and baseball side, and I love getting those phone calls, “Clint, I’m coming back. Let’s meet out for dinner, or let’s tailgate.” It’s just a blast to travel and stay in touch with people and remember how great we used to be. That’s what former athletes like to do, get together and remember how good we were.
Following your graduation from Furman, what did you do?
After graduation, I got an internship in the athletic department and went into game operations and athletic marketing. It was a fantastic opportunity, I made almost zero dollars a year, but it was a foot in the door and a chance to prove myself. I obviously loved Furman athletics and I loved still being on campus and being here with my friends. So I kind of took that opportunity and ran, and here we are ten years later almost and I’m still working for Furman.
You had the opportunity to return to your alma mater after being a dual student-athlete. What does it mean to you today to still be able to walk on campus?
Furman to me is a very special place. I had never heard of Furman, I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma and got a phone call from coach Doug Allison, the head men’s soccer coach here, and the head men’s baseball coach, Ron Smith and they started telling me about the University. The more I learned about it, and the more I read about it, it was just everything I was looking for. Little did I know that education and my experience as a student-athlete would lead to a career where I was in athletics and now I’ve gone into alumni relations and the development office here at Furman.
It’s a joke with my mom that its ten years later and she’s still waiting on me to come back from college. She thought it was a four-year experience, but it turned into a lot more. I’m blessed to be here and like I said, I wouldn’t change anything about it. It’s been a fantastic experience and I really owe it all to that first phone call I got from Doug Allison, who introduced me to Furman.
Do you feel your time as a student-athlete prepared you for the professional world?
My experience as a student-athlete, and particularly here at Furman basically prepared me for most of the success that I have had. You can’t be a student-athlete without discipline, work ethic, and you learn to be a leader as well. I think all of those things are very important when you go into the work field because that’s what employers are looking for, I feel like.
What are your responsibilities in the Alumni Relations and the Development Office at Furman?
The fun part about my job in the Development Office is that I get to wear a lot of different hats. My primary responsibility is to raise money for the University, but it’s not specifically for athletics, it could be the academic side of campus. There are a lot of different hats that I get to wear, including admissions.
Really my job is to interact with alumni and parents and try to link them back up to their interests in the University. So I get to be a part of really nice events, I get to play at nice golf courses and I get to have nice meals. Really in the end, I’m hanging out and building relationships with Furman people. Sometimes I wonder why they pay me to travel around the country to all these great places and hang out with all these great people, but it’s a great job and it’s a career. I’ve been fortunate to stumble my way into it because I didn’t even know development was a job until seven years ago. Now here I am and I just really, really love it.
Furman must be excited to have you in their Development Office, because typically it’s always someone who didn’t go there.
It’s a huge advantage in my job to have gone to Furman. If you’re talking to an alum, they sit down and tell their Furman story and I tell my Furman story. It’s a big Furman love fest, as I like to term it. It’s a blast and you kind of have the traditions you share, even if you’re generations apart, it’s still Furman. And it’s a huge advantage when you’re meeting people to relate on the same level.
You mentioned you started as an intern in game operations. How did you make that jump from game operations to development?
They gave me a lot of leeway in the athletic department to interact with fans, alumni and students. I was charged as an intern to try and build our student-promotions and attendance to athletic events, so I was working with a lot of faculty and staff members as well as the student body. Apparently I did that fairly well and they noticed my work ethic and my ability to piece things together and to work hard to get the job done.
A lot of times, it’s probably not a good thing, when your boss at the time, Athletic Director (at the time) Gary Clark comes into my office as an intern in the athletic department and puts a job application on my desk that’s in another part of campus. I was like, “Well wait, I thought Gary liked me, but now he’s trying to get me to go work for somebody else.” It turned out that I wasn’t making a lot of money, I didn’t have benefits, and Gary recognized that there was a job opening that he thought I would be good at and wanted me to have a better job and a chance at a career, even if it meant Gary giving up somebody who was working in his department. He was looking out for my best interest.
While you’re still at Furman, are you involved with the soccer or baseball programs?
I am as much as they let me be. In the development office and the fundraising world, people like you to be involved because you’re helping to raise money. Coach Allison and coach Smith both are working on projects right now on a couple of facility enhancements for the baseball and the soccer teams.
I get to wake up and come to this campus every day to work and call on former soccer and baseball players to help give back to a program that gave so much to them, and so much to me. So it’s just a small way every day I get to give back to what basically has made me what I have become today.
What were you doing during the World Cup in 2010?
I was watching every game. The excitement that it brought to watching those games, knowing the players that were on the field, I just never imagined that I would be watching a game at that level and be like, “I played against that guy” or “I played with both of those guys.” It was a really cool thing, and it brought a lot of energy to our campus too and our alumni base. One game in particular, I remember being on campus and a bunch of us were gathered around watching the game, and the ups and down of soccer, we were screaming and yelling at the refs and it was just a good time. You want the USA to win no matter what, but when you’ve got good friends and former teammates that our representing our country and our conference, it’s really a neat experience.
What was your fondest memory as a student-athlete at Furman?
Some of the fondest memories I have of Furman is really the time I spent with my teammates, whether it be on the bus or in the locker room, or even at practice, and of course winning games. Big moments and big games always come to mind, but those kind of go away and are just memories. Those friendships that you build have lasted and will last a lifetime. When I sit down and think about the fondest times, it’s just the relationships you build when you’re in school when you’re working so hard with people in the classroom and on the field and you start envisioning yourself as something more than a student-athlete.
What advice would you give to current student-athletes?
I’m not sure any of them should listen to me necessarily. Not to sound too cliché or old, but enjoy it. It goes by so fast, and it is very hard work, but it’s something that will pay off, whether it’s moving onto a professional career in athletics or a professional career in something else. It’s a chance of a lifetime to get an education and to play a sport that not a lot of people get the opportunity to do. If you work hard and you’re dedicated, you have discipline, and you’re nice to people, good things happen.
That was almost a fear of mine before I graduated, or as you get closer to graduation. My self-identity was being through a student-athlete. That’s what you told people and that’s what separated you and made you different from other people. In some circles it was impressive. After you graduate and you’re going through that process, you’re thinking “what am I going to be now?” “Where am I going, and how do I set myself apart in the working world?” I can remember that as a very vivid challenge to say, “Well listen, I may not be scoring goals or getting base hits, or scoring runs, but I’ve got to take that competitive edge and work ethic and put that into something else now.” I feel like I’ve done that pretty well. It’s a challenge for student-athletes now to be thinking through that and not having a passion for something besides their sport.