Timothy Christian School in Piscataway, New Jersey experienced a once-in-a-lifetime event on Wednesday afternoon, September 18, 2013. Coach William Bills led the varsity boys’ soccer team to a 6-0 victory against Cardinal McCarrick High School and in the process won his 1000th varsity game as a head coach.
(for video tribute and recap of the 1000th win, click here)
William Bills is the founding father of the Timothy Christian School athletics department. Coach Bills arrived at Timothy Christian School in the fall of 1975 and began to immediately implement interscholastic athletics into a school that only went through the 10th grade. Coach Bills coached varsity soccer, varsity basketball, and varsity baseball for the first 25 years of the athletic department’s existence. Coach Bills gave up being athletics director and varsity basketball coach over a decade ago but has continued to lead varsity soccer and varsity baseball teams while still teaching physical education. The stories of Coach Bills’ efforts to build a fully functioning athletic department are legendary. Building goal posts by the headlights of his car, changing out gymnasium light bulbs on makeshift ladders, and shoveling snow off of outdoor basketball courts before practice may sound like myths, but are actually factual occurrences in Coach Bills’ time here at Timothy Christian.
All of the effort began to pay off as the wins and accomplishments began to pile up for Coach Bills in the late 80’s. Coach Bills’ 39 years here at Timothy Christian School have yielded nine 1000 point basketball scorers, a 54-game soccer winning streak, over a dozen NCAA championship rings won by his alumni at Messiah College, and hundreds of lives impacted. Coach Bills hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down in his 39th season. Timothy Christian School joined the Greater Middlesex Conference in 2010 and Coach Bills has claimed a baseball divisional and his current soccer team is defending its 2012 divisional championship.
Timothy Christian is a fully-accredited school and its athletic program competes in the NJSIAA and is a member of the GMC. The athletic department’s mission is to develop the Christ-like character of its student-athletes through their athletic participation. For Coach Bills, it’s been 39 years of ‘mission accomplished’.