Overview:
Hill has led the 5-1 Hawkeyes to a pair of victories since taking over for injured starter Cade McNamara
Big Ten Conference football can take Deacon Hill out of Santa Barbara, but it can’t take the Santa Barbara out of Deacon Hill.
The new starting quarterback for the Iowa Hawkeyes has kept a hometown spirit by resisting even the Taylor Swift craze that’s swept every NFL stadium in which boyfriend Travis Kelce plays.
Hill made that clear during a media session on Tuesday when he was asked to name his favorite “Swifty” song.
“I don’t know about Swifty … I’m more of a Katy Perry guy,” he replied.
“Fun fact: She went to high school in Santa Barbara (at Dos Pueblos High School), so I’m more of a Katy Perry guy.”
Hill then treated the media to another fun fact from home: Randall Cunningham, one of the most dashing quarterbacks in NFL history, played at Santa Barbara High four decades before his own turn with the Dons.
“Both Cunninghams did,” he added, bringing Randall’s older brother, another NFL alumnus, into the conversation. “Rest in peace Sam Cunningham … He just passed away (Sept. 7, 2021).”
Hill may play his rear off for Iowa, but he left his heart in Santa Barbara.
The sports reporters couldn’t help but chuckle at the innocence of his final factoid from the left coast: “My grandparents were high school sweethearts at my high school.”
Hill became the “under-center” of attraction amid the cornfields of Iowa City after taking over at quarterback during the Sept. 30 Michigan State game.
The third-year sophomore led the Hawkeyes to a 26-16 victory after Cade McNamara, the senior starter, suffered a season-ending knee injury during the first quarter.
“It was pretty surreal, especially in a night game at Kinnick (Stadium),” he said. “That’s what dreams are made of. It was a lifetime experience that I’ll never forget.
“The best part was being with my team … us pulling it through and winning.”
A Finishing Touch
Hill was admittedly “too excited” while making his first collegiate start in Saturday’s homecoming game against Purdue.
He struggled during the first half, completing just 3-of-14 passes for 28 yards.
He settled down after halftime, however, with three big passing plays totaling 82 more yards. His last one was a clutch, 22-yard touchdown strike to tight end Erick All in the fourth quarter.
The scoring play proved to be the difference in the Hawkeyes’ 20-14 victory.
“He put that right on the money, and I wanted to catch it for him,” All said. “He put that thing right there, it was perfect, and coming down with it, I thank the Lord on that one.”
Hawkeyes head coach Kirk Ferentz said he could sense that Hill was pressing at the start.
“I’m certainly not an expert on quarterback play,” he began. “From throwing baseballs, I know this: If you press or try to do too much sometimes, the ball sails, and I’m guessing that’s probably what it was.
“But I thought he kept his composure, and a couple of them, we didn’t help him on again … He hung in there, kept doing a good job, and the last one he threw down our right side, it looked pretty good to me.”
Ferentz considers Hill to be a different kind of leader than McNamara, who was known by the Iowa media for carrying “a vocal, commanding presence” at quarterback.
Hill’s approach in managing Iowa’s offense has been more a camaraderie of “Cali-cool” calmness.
“The players were responsive,” Ferentz said. “He’s very popular with the players.
“Night and day difference in terms of personality, and that’s one of the beautiful things about this sport.
“So, yeah, he’ll do just fine. The guys want to play for him. They respect him, and they’re all pulling for him.”
The Samoan Spirit
Hill is the youngest of four children in one of Santa Barbara’s most athletically prominent families.
His mother, San Marcos High graduate Cindy Battistone Hill, was an All-America basketball player at BYU. She earned induction into the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Hall of Fame in 1999.
His father, Pe’a Hill, was a versatile athlete who played both football at Fresno City College and basketball at BYU-Hawai‘i.
“I’m half Samoan … My dad is full Samoan,” Deacon said. “Being Polynesian, we’re thicker than normal people.”
All three of Hill’s older sisters — Dos Pueblos graduates Sami, Kodi and Abbi — were All-America water polo players at UCLA.
Abbi is in her senior season with the Bruins. Kodi is now coaching in the Corona del Mar Club Water Polo Program while Sami is an assistant coach at the University of Michigan.
Sami won a gold medal as a goalkeeper for Team USA at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She joined her mother in the SBART Hall of Fame when she was inducted last month.
She said her three siblings were “my biggest cheerleaders and, at times, my harshest competitors.”
“I wouldn’t be who I am today without you,” Sami told them during her induction speech at the Cabrillo Pavilion. “We played every sport under the sun … Basketball at the Page Center, AYSO soccer, junior golf, junior lifeguards at East Beach … The list goes on and on.
“One of the most important aspects of our Samoan culture is aiga, which means ‘family.’”
And their family’s roots run deep into the playing fields of Santa Barbara.
Their grandfather, Sam Battistone Jr., founded the NBA’s New Orleans Jazz before moving the team to Salt Lake City. He also had vested interests in the World Football League’s Southern California Sun, in World TeamTennis, and in the International Track Association.
Sami Hill was actually named after her great-grandfather, Sam Battistone Sr., who was inducted into the SBART Hall of Fame as a community leader in 1978.
He helped establish both the Youth Football League and the American Youth Soccer Association in Santa Barbara. He was also a major benefactor for Santa Barbara’s Boys & Girls Clubs.
“Unfortunately, he passed away just two days before I was born, which prompted my parents to give me the name Sami,” she said. “I always loved my name and the fact that I share it with my great-grandpa.”
Pooling Their Talents
Deacon Hill shares the same sporting interests with his sisters. He played club water polo until his sophomore year at Santa Barbara High.
“I miss water polo — it’s so fun,” he said. “I have a ton of friends who are playing in college. One of my best friends, Ethan Parrish, is a stud at Stanford right now.
“I’ll probably play it when I’m older. We always talked about how we’d do a little siblings team. That’d be fun.”
His 6-foot-3 and 258-pound frame allows him to throw some of the deepest balls in college football. He estimates that his longest throws have gone as far as 73 yards.
“One of these games, it’s gonna be a throw you all will be wowed by,” Iowa running back Leshon Williams said.
Hill credits his arm strength to the decade he spent chucking a more spherical ball in the swimming pool.
“I played my first water polo game when I was 4 years old,” he pointed out.
He headed for water the first chance he got during this year’s summer break from school to surf with a friend.
Hill actually hadn’t yet made it home.
“My flight (to Los Angeles) ended up getting delayed until like 3 a.m.,” he explained. “One of my best friends lives in L.A. He picks me up, we pulled an all-nighter, and then headed out to the beach at like 5:30 and caught some waves.
“We went to Malibu … There weren’t too many people out there, so it was nice to catch a few waves … The water felt great.”
His start in his great-grandfather’s youth tackle football league didn’t feel as great. Although only a third grader, his height and weight placed him in a division with players 3-to-4 years older.
“It was kind of funny because I knew all of them, the sixth-graders, because we played flag football together during recess in elementary school,” Hill said. “But obviously tackle is different.
“My parents ended up pulling me out halfway through the year just because there were some other teams with ginormous dudes. They were like, ‘You’re going to get killed.’”
A Stone’s Throw
He signed up the following year to train as a quarterback at the Big Picture Athletics Camp run by then-Santa Barbara High coach J.T. Stone.
Their partnership flourished over the next nine years.
“He raised me in the football world,” Hill said. “I had a water polo motion that was a lot over the top rather than a (football motion), and he was always trying to fix that.
“He’d get mad when I’d go back to my water polo stuff.”
The football stuff turned out to be pretty good. As a junior, Hill led Santa Barbara High’s “Golden Tornado” to the 2019 CIF-Southern Section Division 8 final by passing for a school-record 3,102 yards and 33 touchdowns.
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed and then shortened his senior season to just a few games during the spring of 2021.
Stone couldn’t hold back the tears when Hill signed a national letter of intent with Wisconsin during a ceremony at Peabody Stadium.
“It’s almost been a decade of our relationship, so this is definitely a hard day for me,” Stone said. “I’m not going to lie to you guys, there was about a good 30-to-45 minutes when I broke down.
“It’s not necessarily the football. I established a relationship with this kid … I feel like I’m losing a son, which is difficult.”
Wisconsin redshirted Hill during the fall of 2021 and then lost him to the transfer portal midway through last season after firing head coach Paul Chryst.
Hill will travel back to Madison to face his old team at 1 p.m. Saturday Pacific time. The Badgers (4-1, 2-0 Big Ten) lead Iowa (5-1, 2-1) by just half-a-game in the league’s Western Division standings.
He originally planned to transfer to Fordham, a New York City university that competes in the NCAA’s Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as a member of the Patriot League. But he opted for Iowa after offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz, son of the head coach, called with a scholarship offer.
It kept Cali-cool Deacon Hill in the Heartland of college football.
It’s no Santa Barbara, he admits. The nearest significant water, the Mississippi River, is 58 miles away and has terrible surf. The frigid winters, he admits diplomatically, felt “very new.”
“But I love the Midwest,” Hill insisted. “Santa Barbara is always sunny — and I love that — but it’s really cool to see the seasons change.”
And he knows that that a change at quarterback is giving him the chance for the biggest season of his life.
