Shadow Ridge football player says mom is No. 1 coach, inspiration

By Rob Miech

Friday, Sept. 25, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

Shadow Ridge High senior tailback Zakary Hill sometimes shocks friends and peers when they inquire about his father.

Virgil Hill held the WBA light heavyweight title belt for 8 1/2 years. He was 30-0 when he sustained his first loss, to Thomas “Hit Man” Hearns, at Caesars Palace in 1991.

Wow, they tell Zak. Your dad is the boxer Virgil Hill? I can’t believe it! The world famous Virgil Hill?

Zak’s star, however, is his mother, Denise Moorman, the former UNR point guard and a Las Vegas native who stood out, as Denise Harris, on the Rancho High basketball court.

Zak still hasn’t beaten her, one-on-one, in their driveway.

“I tell him all the time, I’ve played basketball all my life,” Denise says. “He gives me a good game. I just don’t give up. I’m just determined. That’s what he has.”

Zak Hill, one of the valley’s top running backs and Shadow Ridge’s leader, will need to be determined tonight when powerful Palo Verde (4-0) visits the 0-3 Mustangs.

Over the summer Denise ran the track with Zak, helping him lower his center of gravity and tightening his grip on the ball. She threw passes to him in their spacious backyard.

Before each of his games, they review tape of his previous performance. He calls his mother his main coach, manager and trainer. More than anyone, he says, his mother has shaped and honed him.

“She’s the main inspiration in my life,” says Zak Hill. “Without her, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Ringside

Virgil “Quicksilver” Hill and Denise Moorman divorced when Zak was a toddler, but they vowed to remain friends for Zak.

Zak speaks with his father, who trains mixed martial arts prospects in his New Jersey gym, maybe twice a month.

“I don’t like to bother him too much,” Zak says. “He’s a very busy man.”

Quicksilver stayed busy in the ring, holding onto his WBA championship belt from September 1987 to June 1991 and again from September 1992 until June 1997.

The blip in that span was Hearns, who won a unanimous decision against Hill at Caesars on June 3, 1991.

Hill won his next 13 fights, the 13th coming in a split decision over Henry “Gentleman” Maske in Munich in 1996, before losing his belt for good against Dariusz Michalczewski in Oberhausen, Germany.

More than 10 years after fighting Maske, the German southpaw came out of retirement to meet Hill again in the same Olympiahalle in Munich on March 31, 2007.

Zak Hill and other friends and relatives of Virgil’s were in the arena, one of about 10 times Zak has seen his father box.

“Wow, you don’t know how to explain what it’s like watching your dad fight,” Zak says. “You want him to beat (a foe) up bad … but you don’t want him to get hit. When he gets hit you feel like crying.

“When he knocks someone out you’re overjoyed. It’s a mixed feeling, but I don’t want to see him get hurt.”

Zak saw Muhammad Ali and former NFL running back Marcus Allen at the fight, and he came home with the black satin robe his father wore into the ring.

Maske’s unanimous decision – two judges scored it 117-110, the other had it 116-113 – was curious to Virgil and the rest of his entourage.

“We thought it was kind of staged,” says Zak Hill. “(Maske) wanted to win back his glory … He got a couple good shots in, but my dad did, too. I remember being frightened because the dude was way bigger than my dad.

“I was scared the whole time.”

Virgil Hill fought once more, a unanimous decision defeat to Firat Arsian in Dresden, Germany, on Nov. 24, 2007. He finished his career at 50-7, with 23 knockouts.

Zak Hill showed some promise as a young boxer, but Virgil steered his son away from the sweet science.

“We both have that fighter’s mentality,” says Zak Hill. “We hate losing. One thing, we’re good at everything we do. We’re all-around athletes.”

Inspiration

Denise Moorman protects her privacy like she shielded the ball from Wolf Pack opponents in 1986-87 and 1987-88.

She declined to have a photograph taken beside Zak for this article. She didn’t want to talk about her relationship with Virgil. She wanted this piece to be about Zak.

She relented, to being quoted, when told how Zak beamed when he spoke about his guiding light — her.

“His father is a star, as far as the athletic world,” Moorman says. “As far as day to day … when Zak has to work out, I’m his coach. We have a routine in the summer. He doesn’t really get a lot of rest.”

Moorman didn’t rest in Reno. After junior college, she walked onto the UNR basketball team and sat on the bench. When the starting point guard got hurt, Moorman took over and never relinquished the position.

Twice she swiped seven steals in a game, which are fifth in UNR’s record books.

“There’s always a time to shine,” Moorman says. “There’s always a door that opens for you.”

She earned a master’s degree, and she works with and guides low-income families and teaches a parenting class. Zak wants to get a master’s, too.

“We talk all the time about his future,” Moorman says. “His main priority is school. He makes sure he keeps his grades up.”

Faith

Zak tallied 1,196 yards last season, Moorman says, but they worked on running lower so he could be even more dangerous. Vice grips have helped him clamp onto the ball.

“He has very strong hands,” Moorman says. “I told him, if you don’t hold onto the ball you’ll sleep with it if you have to. He never fumbled a lot, but one fumble is too much for me.”

Remember, Moorman says, Zak also has big goals on the track. He took fifth in the state in the 400 meters last year and was part of an 800 relay team that finished fifth. He wants to win both this season.

In Shadow Ridge’s first two football games, the 5-foot-8, 170-pound halfback tallied 228 total yards and two touchdowns. Last week against Centennial, he ran for 190 yards and two TDs.

Watching Hill on tape, Palo Verde coach Darwin Rost wouldn’t know that he plays on a winless football team.

“Last year we beat them, 42-6, and he ran hard the whole time,” Rost says. “He’s a tough kid. I just like watching him. Kids like that are the reason why I coach high school football.”

Northern Arizona, Southern Utah, Georgetown and UNLV are among the programs interested in Hill, but he wanted to talk about tonight’s game.

“We’re 0-3, but I have a lot of faith in this team,” says Zak Hill. “Compared to last year, we’re way better. I have to put it into these guys that we can actually come out and beat Palo Verde. We have the talent.”