USD Magazine, 1993 Winter-Spring 1994

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Hill's high school friends had typical teen-age concerns: clothes, dates and grades. . Hill, on the other hand, worried about getting dinner on the table for his 2- and 6-year-old nephews. "When my parents lost their house, we all had to separate, and I was the only one who could care for my nephews," he explains quietly. Instead of allowing that responsibility to overwhelm him, Hill approached the task with the same attitude he dis– plays today on the USD basketball court. "I told the boys that we were like a team, and that we could get by if we just worked together," he says. Knowing that his recruit had forfeited a high school social life to raise two children impressed Hank Egan, USD's men's basketball coach. Dis– covering that he writes poetry and dreams of one day becoming a doctor impressed Egan even more. "The minute I met Val, I knew he was different," Egan says. "He is one of the most driven, focused people I have ever known." Hill's drive can be traced to a childhood defined by great financial struggle and great spiritual strength. "Even as a five-year-old, I was very conscious of my parent's struggle to make it day to day," he explains. "But there was also a strength there, I'd say more spiritual than religious, that kept things going." Discovery of the written word also kept Hill going when times got tough. "As a child, I didn't know the words 'discrimination' or 'oppression,' but I knew the feelings that came along with them," he says. "When I started keeping a journal, that allowed me to express those feelings of frus– tration in a healthy way." Hill's journal-keeping led to an interest in the works of black authors such as Countee Cullen, Malcolm X and Alice Walker. "Reading their work helped me realize the power of words, and helped me understand that as a young black man, I could have a voice, too." That voice has come to Hill through poetry. This spring, a collection of his poetry, "The Last Applause," will be published by Third World

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• ot1on

L A S T

T H E

APPLAUSE

Tbedame

To my AncedtoN, who are hidden from the pagu of bi.Jtory and are bei11g de11ied from the etJed of the you11g ge11eratwlld, I will help f u/fill your Ladt Grand Guture your la<1t Great effect and renw,,e the mu=led from my peoplu 11wuthd giving you the abilihJ to ditzg agauz a11dfinally liberating your dhackled dotdd - from the doiu of thid nation. It'd 11ot until your dOUU a<1cend

d Ull wbicb I a<1k to 11ouridb my garden bring warmth to my dki11 or reflect it.J beauty through a rainbow (011 rai11y dayd) held no mercy formy Ancutord, ad thetJ i11dividually died died to durvive - in the fie!dd of the great plantatiolld. Tbedame ocean which I rely 011 to di1zg to me and rid me

(temporarily)

from my toildome

that thede great walld

life ofopprudwn - brought my Ancutord to theiN. will crumble but whe11 thetJ do

will that thi11 dound I hear be your applatue 1

-Val Hill

MAGAZINE