DAILY Photo by John Godbey Decatur resident Patrick Hillis has officiated Gulf South Conference football since 1996 and has his eye on moving up to the Southeastern Conference.

He lives his sports dream as a college football official

By Paul Stackhouse
DAILY Correspondent

Growing up in Florence, Patrick Hillis dreamed about the excitement and glory of being a sports superstar.

Being in the limelight, standing before thousands of screaming people while playing in the college or professional sports ranks is something many youngsters find themselves daydreaming about, and Hillis wasn't any different.

After all, Hillis, 33, who now lives in Decatur, came from a sporting family. His father, Preston, was deeply involved in sports, including baseball, basketball, soccer, softball and football. Instead of playing, however, Preston served as a game official.

And that passion for officiating games was passed along to Hillis, who has nursed it for years and now serves as a Gulf South Conference football official. In fact, he is set to officiate a University of North Alabama scrimmage Thursday.

But Hillis' desire to perform in a large stadium in front of a frenzied crowd hasn't gone away — he has a goal of officiating Southeastern Conference football.

"Growing up in high school, I started officiating games with my dad," said Hillis, a district sales manager for Sysco Foods. "Out of all the things I could have done, that's what I wanted to do. ... In all of those sporting events, you have to have officials to play the game. That's the role I wanted to play."

As a teenager, Hillis was a good athlete who enjoyed playing football. In fact, he punted, kicked and played defensive back for Coffee High in Florence before he graduated in 1990.

But as for officiating, he didn't start with football right away. His first experience as an official came in soccer.

"When I was 14, I refereed local soccer in the Florence League," he said. "I enjoyed it so much, I went on and worked to make a grade six in soccer."

"Grade six" would allow him to official high school soccer state playoff competitions. Hillis started at a grade nine certification which allowed him to work small events such as the local soccer league.

Taking a test to show he knew the rules of the game was just one part of making a certain qualification. He also had to prove himself on the field in front of his superiors.

After refereeing high school soccer for seven years, Hillis worked the 1996 state championship game between John Carroll and Mars Hill Bible in Birmingham. Besides soccer, he also officiated high school football and baseball.

In 1997, Hillis married Mary Hillis, who is now an assistant principal at Decatur High. They have a daughter, Mary Kate, 5, and a son, Mac, 1. After getting married, all of his sports officiating was dropped with the exception of football.

"I couldn't do any of this if I didn't have the super support that I receive from my wife," he said. "She and the kids are my support system and they come first in my life."

A year before getting married, Hillis started officiating college football in the Gulf South Conference. He still works the GSC as a line judge.

"I work as a line judge as part of a crew," he said. "Just about everything we do is working as a crew. We have eight crews in the Gulf South Conference and there are eight crews in the Ohio Valley Conference which I am trying to join and be a part of.

"Working in the OVC would be a step up for me and wherever I go and whatever I do, I'm always trying to learn as much as I can to be the very best that I can be."

In the Gulf South Conference, Hillis makes approximately $265 a game. In the Ohio Valley Conference, that flat fee would improve to $535. All expenses would be paid by the referees themselves, including travel.

"That's tough part of doing this is you may have to leave on a Friday night to work a Saturday game and not get back until late Sunday night," Hillis said.

He already has made in-roads toward working in the SEC.

"I'm already on the list to work some of their scrimmages and events like A-Day games. The pay is good and is based on seniority," said Hillis, who added that it's possible he could work the Tennessee spring game April 8 in Knoxville.

There are 10 crews that work SEC football. For rookies, the pay is around $800 a game. A topped-out veteran can make as much as $2,200 a game with some of your expenses covered.

Working in championship games and bowl games can increase the pay scale.

"I know I'm on the radar for working SEC games," Hillis said. "Each crew has seven officials. There are also TV coordinators and clock operators at the SEC level. I'm hoping to get my chance so the senior officials can get a look at me and see just how much I want to work at that level.

"They want to see how you react when you have 80-90,000 fans screaming at you. I know I'm up for the challenge and I'm going to keep working hard where I'm at until the judge me ready for the SEC."

Hillis said his goal isn't to work the professional ranks, where officials work about 20 games a year and earn $6,000 to $7,000 a game.

Also, just working a division wildcard playoff game could pay as much as $15,000. If you were to make the grade to work a Super Bowl, a check for a $25,000 isn't bad for a few hours work.

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