WAUKEE - Smiling at the crowd and clutching the hand of his granddaughter, Kira Draeger, as he stood just to the right of the pitcher's circle at the Waukee High School softball diamond Monday night, Dave Hilton looked right at home.
That's because he was.
Finally.
Hilton, a head softball coach at Webster City and Northeast Hamilton during a career that has spanned 27 years, was formally inducted into the Iowa Girls Coaches Association Hall of Fame during the 26th annual all-star softball series.
With more than enough victories and postseason accomplishments to warrant induction a decade ago, Hilton said he was honored, excited and even a little humbled to join the prestigious group of softball coaches in the Hall of Fame. He was enshrined alongside Jim White of Clear Creek-Amana and Gaylen Tann of Waterloo West.
"It's really exciting," Hilton, who was a member of the inaugural Webster City Athletics Hall of Fame class, said just minutes before he walked onto the field with his granddaughter and wife, Rosemary, to accept his plaque. "It's just nice to be included."
Hilton's numbers speak for themselves. In 25 years at Webster City from 1983-2007, he compiled a record of 724-329. His Lynx teams won 15 North Central Conference championships, highlighted by runs of eight straight from 1990-97 and four more in a row from 2002-05. And then there are the two state championships Webster City won under his guidance - the first in 1988 when the state tournament was just one class, and again in 2001 in 2A.
Webster City also qualified for state in 1994 and 1995, finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
The state Coach of the Year in 1988 and a five-time district Coach of the Year, Hilton averaged 29 wins per season while at Webster City. His teams won at least 20 games in each of his final 17 seasons.
"We accomplished a lot at Webster City, and now we're trying to get there at Northeast Hamilton," Hilton said. "I think we're turning the corner, and if we can do that then it would be a heck of an accomplishment to close out a career."
Hilton - 745-363 overall during his career - took over at Northeast Hamilton in 2009. This past season he directed the Trojets to a winning season, just their fifth in the last 30 years.
Hilton, White and Tann own a combined 2,076 victories. No softball coach in Iowa has generated more success than White (723-143) over the past 15 years; his Clear Creek-Amana teams have made 11 straight state tournament appearances, seven trips to the state finals and have won five championships.
"Gosh, when you talk about Jim, he's probably the crme of the crop when it comes to Iowa softball coaches with what he's done and still doing," Hilton said. "He's a great coach and I'm just glad to be a part of this with him."
Ironically enough, one of White's two losses in the state finals came against Hilton's 2001 Webster City squad. The unranked Lynx stunned the top-ranked Clippers, 3-1.
Hilton said he will return to the field in Williams next summer in the hopes of continuing to build the Northeast Hamilton program into a contender in the Iowa Star Conference. In the dugout and standing inside the third base coach's box is where he's always felt most comfortable.
"Accomplishments are great, but rather than walking out and accepting this award, I'd rather be coaching third base against Don Bosco," he said. "That's the fun of it, the competition and the kids. I just really like it."
