Hickory soccer coach chooses daughter over coaching boys

Brian Gillings, who has led the team for 18 seasons, announced he will be stepping down from his position as head coach at the school.

Gillings plans to continue teaching at Hickory High School and coaching the girls' team, where his daughter, Piper, will be a sophomore next year.

Jillings said it was a difficult decision to move on from the program and she felt she needed the flexibility to focus on her daughter's athletic goals. In addition to being a standout athlete on the soccer field, Piper plays volleyball for Carolina Select Club and Hickory High School and is also a competitive distance runner.

“It didn't really make sense to me that volleyball and soccer would be on the same night,” Jillings said, “so I'd have more time to play. She's my favorite player.”

Piper also plays club soccer and has competed in several international tournaments. Last spring, she played for the under-15 national team in a tournament in Costa Rica. She hopes to play Division I soccer in college, and Gillings said he would like to be able to travel more to see her play as many games as possible.

Jillings came to Hickory in 2006 after coaching at East Burke High School for eight years. During his time at Hickory, he compiled a record of 355 wins, 71 losses and 33 ties. He coached 14 conference champion teams, five regional championships and the 2022 state title. He was named the conference's Coach of the Year nine times. He was named NC Coach of the Year five times and United Soccer Mid-Atlantic Coach of the Year three times.

Before coming to Hickory, Jillings played Division I soccer at Appalachian State University until 1993. After his eligibility expired, he began working as an assistant for the Watauga High School football team. After a stint as a semi-pro soccer player in Louisiana, Jillings returned to western North Carolina and began teaching and coaching at East Burke.

Gillings believes he has built a program that will continue to be successful as it moves into the next era, and thanks to his assistant coaching staff and the support from the school and community, he said he believes the program has everything it needs to remain highly competitive for years to come.

“Hickory football is going to continue to be Hickory football,” Gillings said, “and will continue to be one of the better programs in the state.”

He noted that it takes more than one person to build a perennial powerhouse like Hickory. Everyone involved in the program has a role to play, he said.

Bruno Ramos, an assistant coach at Hickory since 2009, agreed and said the program Gillings built will continue even after he's gone.

“You don't go beyond the basics until you feel like you've reached a certain level of proficiency,” Ramos said. “The drills are all the same. Very basic things like 'lock your ankle,' 'catch the ball on the inside of your foot,' 'kick the ball with your heel,' you have to get the fundamentals down.”

Ramos said Gillings' focus on empowering coaches and players to do their jobs is what sets him apart and will have a lasting impact on the program. Ramos said Gillings has the confidence to know he won't always be right, which he said gives coaches and players confidence.

“We have five coaches,” he says, “and we rotate. We do scouting, but there's a lot of overlap. We focus on what we're looking at together. It's very complementary, very comfortable, and that's the environment Brian has created.”

Ramos said the appealing environment extends far beyond the football field, as he, Gillings and the rest of the Hickory coaching staff still keep in touch with players who played for Hickory years ago.

“We follow up with these boys and girls. They get married, they start businesses,” he said. “They still contact us.”

One former player even appointed Gillings as godfather to his first child.

Ramos said Gillings invests in his players far beyond the game on the field. That investment has led to long-term support for Gillings and the program. Ramos said several of Hickory's assistant coaches are former players, and other coaches regularly return to watch games and cheer on their former coaches and their teams.

“It's great to have the players come and see me,” Ramos said. “We have a lot of people behind the bench and they're all former players.”

Ramos said after 16 years, he still feels that same loyalty to Gillings and the Hickory football team, which is why he agreed to stay on as an assistant with the Hickory football team following Gillings' retirement.

“I always thought we'd ride off into the sunset together,” he said, “but he asked me to continue this journey, so I stayed.”

That's why he dedicated his 2022 state championship to his coach. As the players were getting their wrists taped before the game, Coach Gillings told them to write a favorite quote or saying on one wrist and the name of someone they wanted to dedicate the victory to on the other. Ramos also had his wrists taped.

“On one wrist I wrote in Latin, 'Soli Deo Gloria,' which means 'Glory to God,' and on the other I wrote '$400 for Jillings,' which shows how much I love this man,” he said.

The team won the game, marking Hickory's fourth state title and the first under Coach Jillings, who has won 400 games overall. Including his time at East Burke, Coach Jillings has won 424 games in boys soccer over 26 seasons.