Chargers Football Coach, Athletic Director Johnny Hill Announces Retirement Plans

Oxford High coach Johnny Hill will retire at the end of the calendar year.

Oxford Chargers head football coach and Athletic Director Johnny Hill announced he will retire from the Oxford School District effective Dec. 31, 2015. Hill served as head football coach for 22 years and athletic director for 14 years at Oxford High School, with 39 and a half years in education altogether.

“I would like to thank the Oxford community for their continued support of me as a coach and for their dedication to our athletic program,” Hill said. “A special thanks goes to school district administrators, Superintendent Harvey, the board of trustees, school principals, coaches, teachers and staff who have helped build up the overall athletic program to where it is today, which is a first-class program.”

Hill started coaching at Oxford High School in 1989 when he joined the Oxford Chargers athletic program after coaching at Warren Central in Vicksburg. During his time in the athletic program, several athletic teams have been added to the high school and middle school athletic programs. Under Hill’s leadership, the Oxford Chargers athletic program has added soccer, fast pitch softball, slow pitch softball, swimming, powerlifting, and golf. Also, the Oxford Chargers athletic program has been named by The Clarion-Ledger as the MHSAA 5A All-Sports Award winner several times during Hill’s tenure.

According to Hill, about 700 students were enrolled Oxford High School, which has now grown to over 1,100. When Hill joined the athletic program, Oxford High School athletic teams were competing at the 4A level, a time when 5A was the largest athletic class in the state. Now, the Oxford Chargers compete in Class 5A with the 6A class being the largest athletic class in Mississippi high school athletics.

“Coach Hill’s leadership is a major reason that our athletic program has had the success that it has,” Oxford School District Superintendent Brian Harvey said. “Our community and school district is very blessed to have someone like Coach Hill in our school district. He made sure that our student-athletes were a part of a top-notch program where they competed at the highest level athletically and academically with other high school athletic programs not just in our region, but in the state.”

Courtesy Oxford School District