At first, Davie Gill says, his post at St. Petersburg College felt like “an arranged marriage.”
By XAVIER JAMES
USFSP Student Reporter
ST. PETERSBURG – Twenty-five years ago, Davie Gill was a three-sport athlete at Jeffersonville (Indiana) High School with aspirations of becoming a sports star.
His grades were not good enough for the scholarship offers that came from Division 1 schools. So Gill went instead to Garden City Community College in Kansas to play basketball, run track and earn an associate degree in education.
He then transferred to Eckerd College in St.Petersburg, where he was a three-year starter for the basketball team and got a bachelor’s degree in American Studies with a concentration in sports American culture.
When Gill’s sports career was eventually derailed by hernia surgery, he began a career in higher education administration at St. Petersburg College, where he is now athletic director with responsibilities over six teams.
In that role, he oversees budgets and fundraising, game day operations, broadcast media arrangements, and the eligibility and conduct of SPC’s student athletes.
“When I started this journey at my job it felt like it was an arranged marriage,” said Gill, 42. “But in this case I actually realized the (job) is amazing and fell in love with it all.”
Gill was hired by SPC in July 2000 to coordinate the Brother to Brother program, an endeavor designed to enhance the college experience of African Americans. The program encourages students to get involved through school activities or community service.
Gill helped develop the program and enjoyed the experience. “The cool part about it was how different the approach was. We took tremendous pride in creating interracial relationships and bonds for people who have never done so before,” said Gill.
Brother to Brother gained national recognition for its efforts and success, he said, and “graduation rates (around the country) quadrupled from 20 percent to 81 percent.”
Despite that success, SPC eventually decided to drop the program.
Gill, who was named athletic director in May 2015, describes his job as team oriented. “I would say some of the challenges we face is that we lack resources. Finding students or citizens who want to get involved and enjoy is always helpful.” said Gill.
Being an athletic director has its strange moments.
“Flies keep flying around my peer’s office, and now they have assigned me to find whatever dead animal is causing it,” said Gill.
Gill also served a term as state adviser for the Florida College System Student Government Association.
“I went to one of the parties and gave them a suggestion. The next meeting I come to realize I was nominated to be the state adviser unanimously.” said Gill. In September 2019 he was inducted into the Florida College System Student Government Hall of Fame to acknowledge his contributions.
Gill is now working to bring the Brother to Brother programs back to St. Petersburg College.
“We already have scheduled meetings happening soon,” he said. “The program may seriously return in spring of 2020. The mission the program represents holds value and the results have spoken for themselves.”
Gill, who is pursuing a master’s in sports administration at Troy University in Alabama, has been married to Kim Pogonowski-Gill, a chiropractor, since October 2005. They have a daughter, 9.