It's Not How You Start, but How You Finish
Mar 13, 2018 | Women's Basketball
Khaalia Hillsman struggled early in her basketball career. Toughness and a strong support system have led her to a decorated career, a degree and a future in the sport.
You would never know it by watching her now, but not so long ago, Khaalia Hillsman was bad at basketball. The Texas A&M senior center is the first to admit it.
She couldn't catch, couldn't dribble, couldn't shoot, couldn't-even-run-in-a-straight-line bad.
Hillsman, though, always had someone who believed in her. In elementary school, it was former A&M star Sonny Parker at his Sonny Parker Youth Foundation (SPYF). In high school, Mac Irvin, the godfather of Chicago's basketball community, and his wife, high school coach Corry, served as mentors. Later, it was Aggie assistant coach Kelly Bond, who graduated from the same Chicago high school. Finally, it was A&M head coach Gary Blair and assistant coach Bob Starkey.
Of course, Hillsman's biggest supporter was and remains her mother, Bianca Hillsman, who worked two and three jobs to make sure her daughter never went without.
"I was horrible when I first started," Khaalia said. "I'm sure they still have some videos of me crying somewhere. That's a really big deal for me is when I'm struggling to find some way to lift myself out of a slump, you need those people who believe in you and know you can do it."
It's not how you start but how you finish, and Hillsman ranks in the top 10 in A&M's history in blocks, field-goal percentage, double-doubles and rebounds. She recently earned second-team All-SEC honors for the second consecutive season and expects to begin a professional basketball career next season.
"Most people never get to do what she's done on the level she's done it," Bianca Hillsman said. "I mean, who would have thought? All the people laughing at her and teasing her, they never believed she would be SEC player of the week, All-SEC second team. I mean, who's laughing now?"
Hillsman succumbed to peer pressure in giving basketball a try for the first time in elementary school. It did not go well.
"The first game I go to, I'm like, 'Oh! Oh, my!' I asked her, 'Have you thought about swimming or piano or something?'" Bianca Hillsman said. "I just didn't think she was athletic at all. She was like a baby giraffe out there. But immediately after the first game, the coaches were like, 'Oh, my God, can she play on our team?' I'm like, 'Doing what? Did you not see what I saw?'"
Khaalia, now 6 feet, 5 inches, always had height on her side . . . but not much else. She was uncoordinated and inexperienced.
It wasn't until the eighth grade, when Hillsman received her first college offer from Southern Illinois that Hillsman began taking the game seriously. It's also when she found love for the game.
Hillsman worked overtime with her high school coach in learning how to run straight. It took work . . . and patience. A lot of work and a lot of patience.
Basketball in the Windy City is akin to football in Texas. Its history dates to the days of Amos Alonzo Stagg at the University of Chicago in the late 1800s. Tamika Catchings, Kevin Garnett, Dwyane Wade, Shawn Marion, Isiah Thomas and Mark Aguirre stand among the basketball legends in the city.
Hillsman's basketball career unfolded against that backdrop of history.
''Basketball is the main sport there," said Hillsman, who is close to NBA player Jabari Parker, Sonny's son. "You play year round. I was on two or three teams, so I played a lot of basketball. Sometimes I would play eight games in a day. The more I played, the better I got. I wasn't doing anything else."
Hillsman traveled 90 minutes one way by bus to attend Whitney Young Magnet High School, one of the most prestigious schools not only in Chicago but in the country. It counts Michelle Obama and the children of Jesse Jackson and Michael Jordan among its alums. It doubles as a basketball powerhouse, with Dominique Canty, Jahlil Okafor, Quentin Richardson and A&M assistant Bond among those who played for the Dolphins.
That exacerbated Hillsman's growing pains on the court. Kids made fun of her awkwardness, her height and her lack of skills. She was ridiculed, laughed at and bullied.
Yet, Hillsman refused to quit.
"Me being so horrible, it was crazy that I was there with all these elite players," Hillsman said. "Sometimes even my high school teammates didn't like me because I was so bad. But my coach always stood up for me. She saw it in me when I really didn't see it. She believed in me and kept pushing me, and even on our rough days she was still pushing me and standing up for me, and that created a desire to be good not only for myself but for her.
"People were telling me I couldn't do this, couldn't do that. She shut them down and uplifted me, so I could be able to shut them out and be able to work on myself."
Hillsman also wanted to do it for her mother, her hero, who sacrificed to make sure Khaalia had everything necessary to succeed.
Hillsman has a biological brother, but Bianca, as a single parent, knew she couldn't care for two children. So, she did what she felt was best for both: Bianca put her son up for adoption.
"I didn't want to sacrifice her life. I didn't want to sacrifice his life," Bianca said. "It was so she would be OK, and he would be OK. That was the hardest thing we went through."
Bianca worked multiple jobs, but there still were times she fell in bed hungry and times her bank account was drained. Still, Khaalia never went without.
"It's crazy what she sacrificed," Khaalia said. "She always gave me money for our [basketball] trips, so I wouldn't be that person who couldn't go to the mall and get stuff. Now that I'm older, I understand how much of a toll that took on her. I'm like, 'How did you do that?' It was a lot."
Hillsman, 21, turned into a five-star recruit that everyone in the country wanted. She strongly considered Ohio State, DePaul and Syracuse, but Bond's ties to Whitney Young didn't hurt in Hillsman picking A&M.
"We were open and honest with them all the time in the recruitment of her," A&M coach Gary Blair said. "I think that really helped. I think a few schools fed her a lot of bull. She knew she was going to have to come in and be developed, and that's what she did her first year, and then in her sophomore year she just kept getting a little bit better and a little bit better. She really worked on toning her body and really worked hard in the weight room and started eating healthier."
"I just think our whole coaching staff has done a good job with her on and off the court. She loves to go by coach Bond's house and play with Kelly Bond's daughter. She's just a family person. She misses her family up there. I'm sure her mom would have loved for her to have gone some place right close. All mommas want their babies right there. But this was a kid who fell in love with A&M, and sometimes to grow, kids need to get a little farther away from home."
Hillsman, who averages 14.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, graduates in May with a degree in business marketing. She hopes to play in the WNBA before a career "impacting people's lives," whether that's in coaching, corporate communications or something else.
Hillsman's struggle was "real." The outcome – a decorated career, a degree and a future in the sport – is just as real.
"It's not surprising because her mom worked and Khaalia worked to put her in position to understand who she was around," Bond said. "But if you look at Khaalia's story, wow! If you look at the big picture of Chicago, it's extraordinary. It's just another volume of Whitney Young, because that's what we produce. That's what's expected of you. It's the bare minimum, and I remind her of that all the time. When she's not having good days, I'm like, 'You know what? Don't tell anybody you're from Whitney Young. Don't tell anybody where you're from if you don't feel like working.' It's the expectation.
"So, to me, it's just another volume, another chapter of the Whitney Young story. But when you look at the big picture of Chicago, it's unbelievable. It's absolutely unbelievable."
She couldn't catch, couldn't dribble, couldn't shoot, couldn't-even-run-in-a-straight-line bad.
Hillsman, though, always had someone who believed in her. In elementary school, it was former A&M star Sonny Parker at his Sonny Parker Youth Foundation (SPYF). In high school, Mac Irvin, the godfather of Chicago's basketball community, and his wife, high school coach Corry, served as mentors. Later, it was Aggie assistant coach Kelly Bond, who graduated from the same Chicago high school. Finally, it was A&M head coach Gary Blair and assistant coach Bob Starkey.
Of course, Hillsman's biggest supporter was and remains her mother, Bianca Hillsman, who worked two and three jobs to make sure her daughter never went without.
"I was horrible when I first started," Khaalia said. "I'm sure they still have some videos of me crying somewhere. That's a really big deal for me is when I'm struggling to find some way to lift myself out of a slump, you need those people who believe in you and know you can do it."
It's not how you start but how you finish, and Hillsman ranks in the top 10 in A&M's history in blocks, field-goal percentage, double-doubles and rebounds. She recently earned second-team All-SEC honors for the second consecutive season and expects to begin a professional basketball career next season.
"Most people never get to do what she's done on the level she's done it," Bianca Hillsman said. "I mean, who would have thought? All the people laughing at her and teasing her, they never believed she would be SEC player of the week, All-SEC second team. I mean, who's laughing now?"
Hillsman succumbed to peer pressure in giving basketball a try for the first time in elementary school. It did not go well.
"The first game I go to, I'm like, 'Oh! Oh, my!' I asked her, 'Have you thought about swimming or piano or something?'" Bianca Hillsman said. "I just didn't think she was athletic at all. She was like a baby giraffe out there. But immediately after the first game, the coaches were like, 'Oh, my God, can she play on our team?' I'm like, 'Doing what? Did you not see what I saw?'"
Khaalia, now 6 feet, 5 inches, always had height on her side . . . but not much else. She was uncoordinated and inexperienced.
It wasn't until the eighth grade, when Hillsman received her first college offer from Southern Illinois that Hillsman began taking the game seriously. It's also when she found love for the game.
Hillsman worked overtime with her high school coach in learning how to run straight. It took work . . . and patience. A lot of work and a lot of patience.
Basketball in the Windy City is akin to football in Texas. Its history dates to the days of Amos Alonzo Stagg at the University of Chicago in the late 1800s. Tamika Catchings, Kevin Garnett, Dwyane Wade, Shawn Marion, Isiah Thomas and Mark Aguirre stand among the basketball legends in the city.
Hillsman's basketball career unfolded against that backdrop of history.
''Basketball is the main sport there," said Hillsman, who is close to NBA player Jabari Parker, Sonny's son. "You play year round. I was on two or three teams, so I played a lot of basketball. Sometimes I would play eight games in a day. The more I played, the better I got. I wasn't doing anything else."
Hillsman traveled 90 minutes one way by bus to attend Whitney Young Magnet High School, one of the most prestigious schools not only in Chicago but in the country. It counts Michelle Obama and the children of Jesse Jackson and Michael Jordan among its alums. It doubles as a basketball powerhouse, with Dominique Canty, Jahlil Okafor, Quentin Richardson and A&M assistant Bond among those who played for the Dolphins.
That exacerbated Hillsman's growing pains on the court. Kids made fun of her awkwardness, her height and her lack of skills. She was ridiculed, laughed at and bullied.
Yet, Hillsman refused to quit.
"Me being so horrible, it was crazy that I was there with all these elite players," Hillsman said. "Sometimes even my high school teammates didn't like me because I was so bad. But my coach always stood up for me. She saw it in me when I really didn't see it. She believed in me and kept pushing me, and even on our rough days she was still pushing me and standing up for me, and that created a desire to be good not only for myself but for her.
"People were telling me I couldn't do this, couldn't do that. She shut them down and uplifted me, so I could be able to shut them out and be able to work on myself."
Hillsman also wanted to do it for her mother, her hero, who sacrificed to make sure Khaalia had everything necessary to succeed.
Hillsman has a biological brother, but Bianca, as a single parent, knew she couldn't care for two children. So, she did what she felt was best for both: Bianca put her son up for adoption.
"I didn't want to sacrifice her life. I didn't want to sacrifice his life," Bianca said. "It was so she would be OK, and he would be OK. That was the hardest thing we went through."
Bianca worked multiple jobs, but there still were times she fell in bed hungry and times her bank account was drained. Still, Khaalia never went without.
"It's crazy what she sacrificed," Khaalia said. "She always gave me money for our [basketball] trips, so I wouldn't be that person who couldn't go to the mall and get stuff. Now that I'm older, I understand how much of a toll that took on her. I'm like, 'How did you do that?' It was a lot."
Hillsman, 21, turned into a five-star recruit that everyone in the country wanted. She strongly considered Ohio State, DePaul and Syracuse, but Bond's ties to Whitney Young didn't hurt in Hillsman picking A&M.
"We were open and honest with them all the time in the recruitment of her," A&M coach Gary Blair said. "I think that really helped. I think a few schools fed her a lot of bull. She knew she was going to have to come in and be developed, and that's what she did her first year, and then in her sophomore year she just kept getting a little bit better and a little bit better. She really worked on toning her body and really worked hard in the weight room and started eating healthier."
"I just think our whole coaching staff has done a good job with her on and off the court. She loves to go by coach Bond's house and play with Kelly Bond's daughter. She's just a family person. She misses her family up there. I'm sure her mom would have loved for her to have gone some place right close. All mommas want their babies right there. But this was a kid who fell in love with A&M, and sometimes to grow, kids need to get a little farther away from home."
Hillsman, who averages 14.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game, graduates in May with a degree in business marketing. She hopes to play in the WNBA before a career "impacting people's lives," whether that's in coaching, corporate communications or something else.
Hillsman's struggle was "real." The outcome – a decorated career, a degree and a future in the sport – is just as real.
"It's not surprising because her mom worked and Khaalia worked to put her in position to understand who she was around," Bond said. "But if you look at Khaalia's story, wow! If you look at the big picture of Chicago, it's extraordinary. It's just another volume of Whitney Young, because that's what we produce. That's what's expected of you. It's the bare minimum, and I remind her of that all the time. When she's not having good days, I'm like, 'You know what? Don't tell anybody you're from Whitney Young. Don't tell anybody where you're from if you don't feel like working.' It's the expectation.
"So, to me, it's just another volume, another chapter of the Whitney Young story. But when you look at the big picture of Chicago, it's unbelievable. It's absolutely unbelievable."
Players Mentioned
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