One coach is battling cancer. Another had a stroke. They inspired BTW’s unlikely title
They say the roughest days battling cancer are about three or four days after having chemotherapy. The symptoms crush a patient in those first handful of days and Earl Tillman Jr. was the typical patient. The Booker T. Washington coach had his latest round of chemotherapy Friday and the last few days were difficult.
His doctors didn’t think he would be able to make the trip up from Miami to Daytona Beach to watch the Tornadoes play in the Class 4A title and, on Tuesday, he couldn’t have blamed them.
“I had a rough day yesterday,” Tillman said. “I was miserable yesterday.”
He got permission from his doctor, though. He decided he wasn’t going to miss Booker T. Washington’s latest state-championship bid. As the Tornadoes celebrated a 25-21 win against Jacksonville Bolles at Daytona Stadium, Tillman stood just feet away, leaning on a walker and fending off tears.
Associate head coach Ben Hanks said Tillman probably spent too many days around Booker T. Washington this year considering he has battled pancreatic cancer since March. Wednesday was maybe one of those days, but Tillman couldn’t have missed it.
“Being around the guys,” Tillman said, “made me keep fighting more than anything. I wouldn’t trade these guys in for the world.”
Adversity has defined the Tornadoes’ run to the 4A championship this year. Tillman, who was then working mostly as Booker T. Washington’s offensive line coach, was diagnosed with cancer in March. In August, legendary coach Tim “Ice” Harris abruptly left to become the first coach at Florida Memorial University, a new National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics program in Miami Gardens. In October, defensive line coach Lathario Wright Sr. suffered a stroke on the eve of a win against American.
The Tornadoes (13-2) fought deficits all postseason. They needed a furious comeback to beat Gulliver Prep in the Region 4-4A semifinals last month and they needed another Wednesday. Their offense had entirely halted in the third quarter and a 21-10 deficit started to seem insurmountable until Booker T. Washington scored with 5:25 left, forced a fumble on Bolles’ next drive and scored again with 2:50 left to win 25-21.
“Coach Tillman couldn’t even watch the games, so we played for Coach Tillman, Coach Wright, even Ice. Even though he left, we still played for him,” said quarterback Torey Morrison, who ran in the game-winning touchdown. “We fought through adversity all year.”
Although Harris was at the helm for the Tornadoes’ last state title in 2015, Tillman held the official title of coach for administrative purposes. When Harris left in August, Tillman likely would have truly taken on the head job, Hanks said. Instead, Tillman’s health forced him into the background and forced Hanks, his childhood friend, into the head role.
They grew up together in South Florida and have worked together at Booker T. Washington for years. When the Tornadoes won the national championship in 2013, Hanks and Tillman were the coaches up in the booth — Hanks coaching linebackers and Tillman coaching the offensive line.
“Me and him was the dynamic duo up in the press box,” Hanks said. “We worked well, so that jell — that relationship — is unbreakable.”
Jacorey Brooks remembers clearly the day in the summer when Booker T. Washington first saw Tillman at his most vulnerable. The Tornadoes were in the midst of summer workouts and Tillman, confined to a wheelchair, wheeled his way into the weight room.
He couldn’t have predicted what was going to come for his team in the next few months. He had spent enough time at Booker T. Washington, however, to know the system was in place for the Tornadoes to be successful no matter what. Buy in to what the rest of the coaches say, Tillman told the players, and they would all be wearing medals in December.
“It touched us,” said Brooks, who caught two touchdowns, including one with 5:25 to keep Booker T. Washington alive. “We’d never seen him down like that. We’d never seen him so weak, so he came in there talking to us, talking about the state championship, and now we’re here just because of him and his dedication.”
Tillman still came out to practice two or three times a week to chip in however he could.
“He gave us motivation. We know he’s fighting cancer and he continues to come to practice. He even tells his doctor that he wants to go just to be with us, motivating and pushing,” Morrison said. “Anytime he can come, he comes. He even argues with his doctor to be with us and that motivates us a lot.”
It was this sort of community which brought Macho Arza back to the Tornadoes for his senior year. The wide receiver, who is orally committed to the FCS East Tennessee State Buccaneers, grew up in the Overtown neighborhood, but moved up to Tallahassee ahead of his sophomore year. For his final year of high school, he wanted to come back to play with the kids and coaches he grew up with, so he moved in with his grandmother to play at Booker T. Washington one more time.
For three quarters, he was nearly the goat. He dropped a couple passes, including one costly drop on a second-half fourth-down attempt. He was beating himself up on the sideline.
When the game was on the line, Morrison trusted him, though. The junior threw a fourth-and-18 prayer to the receiver, who made a spectacular catch with the Tornadoes trailing 21-18. On the next play, Morrison dashed 15 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.
“People only hear all the bad stuff,” Arza said. “They don’t see what happens off the cameras.”
This season, the community rallied around Tillman. It rallied around Wright. It rallied around everything it faced.
The struggle Wednesday was nothing new for Booker T. Washington.
“He stuck with us,” Brooks said. “He’s still fighting. We hope he beats it.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 12:06 AM.
