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Turner's Love For Players, Family Grows

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 7, 2009

Updated: 03/07/2009 12:34 am

TAMPA - He wrote the letter himself. It wasn't easy, with his emotions and all. But Billy Turner finally finished his retirement letter after 49 years of football coaching. "My wife made a few corrections and the school secretary showed me how to spell 'camaraderie,'" Turner said with a grin.

That's him - Billy with a grin.

Friday morning, Turner sat in his cluttered office at Chamberlain High School. It was done. Granted, his wife of 48 years, his beloved Lucy, had called an hour earlier, telling him to tear up the letter - stay.

"I want my Billy young," Lucy said later. "I told him he's not going to sit around and become an old man. When you're around all these kids, it keeps you young."

Billy Turner, 71 years and 254 victories young, a silver-haired joy, is the winningest high school coach in Hillsborough County history. He won 204 games in 30 seasons at Chamberlain. He told his team Thursday. His voice broke in front of his Chiefs, as it did Friday morning. Billy's health hasn't been what he wanted the last few seasons.

"I have a pacemaker now, but the year before that, it was like I couldn't cough, I couldn't sleep at night, my lungs were filling up with water," he said. "I just didn't have the strength or energy since that."

He sat at his desk, surrounded by team photos and pictures of his ballplayers. You don't get rich coaching high school football. Payment, in full, is every kid who comes back a year later, 10 years later, 40 years later, to say "Hey, Coach."

"It's not why you do it, but there's no better feeling than having kids walk in that door," Turner said.

Family is everything to Billy. He and Lucy raised eight children, six girls and two boys, most of whom live within a few miles of Billy and Lucy's rambling house and acre of land up on the west side of Lake Magdalene. Every Sunday, an army descends, all the kids and their spouses and the grandkids (there's 20 grands), all over to Billy and Lucy's place for dinner. "Not once in a while, every Sunday," Billy said proudly.

"I still get excited when Billy walks in the room," Lucy said. "Love can wear off, but if you like someone - I always liked Billy - you keep it going. Love, it grows. Billy means more to me now than ever. That's why I tell his doctor, you better keep him well or you're going to have a wild woman on your hands."

Billy had 25 winning seasons as a head coach. His 2001 Chamberlain team played for a state title. Those aren't the victories he thinks about. It's any kid he ever reached.

Billy told you about the one who went to Harvard and the one who's a multi-millionaire - and the one he thought was lost to the streets, but who stuck with the football and the books and got his high school diploma. You can't tell who makes Billy more proud. Yes, he lost his share of kids. "But maybe I helped a little," Billy said.

He's thinking about Ollie - Oliver Hoyte, a recent star for Chamberlain. He went on to star at North Carolina State, too, and was an NFL fullback. And one day at Chamberlain High School, Oliver Hoyte wrote a paper for English about how he wanted to be a coach one day, a coach just like Coach Turner. Billy still has a copy of the paper. "That's the stuff that makes it worth it," he said.

Coach Billy Turner worries some about retirement. Will he stay busy? But he knows there's life after football, he just knows. "I love golf more than Tiger Woods," Billy said. And he never gets tired of picking up his grandchildren from school, sometimes four of them running to his arms at once.

"What's better than that?" Billy asked.

One of Billy's kids sat outside the office Friday. His name is Dontae Aycock. He was the star quarterback on Billy's final Chamberlain team. He'll go to Auburn next season on a football scholarship. And he'll be back to say Hey, Coach. "He's like a father," Dontae said. He joined the army at Coach Turner's house for Thanksgiving once. "He cares so much," Dontae said.

That will always be Billy Turner's world. It doesn't have a single thing to do with winning football games. It has to do with caring. Billy says he has two sons. We say he has hundreds.

Love, it grows.

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