— Maryland's new lacrosse coach raised some eyebrows while meeting his players last summer.
"Wow, you coached at Harvard?" they said. "You must be smart."
Maybe not, John Tillman replied:
"When I was a kid, I liked to eat dirt."
There's truth to that. As a player, Tillman had to scrap just to get into the lineup. A walk-on at Cornell, he never started, played in 12 contests overall and lettered once, as a senior. He played three positions in college, reinventing himself time and again in an effort to launch his career.
Tillman's struggles shaped a dogged mindset that has served Maryland's first-year coach well. He is passionate, demanding and resilient, those who know him say — a man who values the last one on the bench as much as he does the star players.
"One thing that hurts great players, in terms of coaching, is that they can't relate to guys with limited abilities," said Tillman, 41. "I appreciate guys who aren't major players, because I was one myself. Small and slow is no way to go through life, but if you work hard and bust your butt, you'll find some peace in knowing that, hey, I gave it all I could."
This is the man the Terrapins trust to take them to the top (Maryland's last NCAA championship was in 1975). The Terps, 12-4 last year, open Saturday at Byrd Stadium against Detroit Mercy (1 p.m.).
At the helm is a coach with thin credentials as a player. Tillman never touched a lacrosse stick before high school, and was too small even to play freshman football in his hometown of Painted Post, N.Y.
" 'Till' was the runt of the litter," said Charles (CB) Mayer, a lifelong friend. "If he weighed 85 pounds, he was lucky."
But that part of his resume isn't indicative of Tillman's savvy on the sidelines.
"If I were in college, I would walk from my home on Long Island to Maryland to play for John," said Hall of Fame coach Richie Moran, 73, for whom Tillman played at Cornell.
"Till is a dedicated, tenacious guy who makes all those around him better," said Tony Morgan, a teammate at Cornell in 1991. "I have four boys, and I want them to approach practice the way John does. If I can instill that in them, then I'll have done my job as a father."
Tillman's hands-on grasp of lacrosse — having played goalie, defense and midfield — gives him a unique perspective as coach, colleagues say.
"At Cornell, John figured, 'If I can't play this, I'll try this,' " said Joe Stratton, his coach at Corning West High. "He was a 'Rudy.' He had a dream and decided to keep climbing the hill until he got his chance."
In college, Tillman never got that opportunity. Coaching? That's a work-in-progress.
He joined Maryland after three years as Harvard's head coach, where his teams won 20 of 39 games. Despite fielding just one All-American, the Crimson scored upsets of Duke and Princeton, both top 10 teams. But Harvard also lost 10 of 11 one-goal games during Tillman's tenure.
Were those defeats the result of (a) Harvard overachieving or (b) some flaw in Tillman's coaching?
"He's a thinker, to the point where, sometimes, you can overthink things," said Navy coach Richie Meade, who had Tillman as an assistant for 12 years. "Sometimes, you've got to make a decision and go."
Tillman is quick to admit shortcomings.
"If people wanted the best player for this job, they should have picked (former Syracuse All-American and Hall of Famer) Gary Gait," he said. "I kind of like the fact that I'm flawed. I tell these guys, 'If we play our unselfish, disciplined butts off, we'll make mistakes — but we'll overcome so much else because of our passion that we'll have success.'
"I tell them, 'I appreciate your flaws because, if any of you were perfect, the rest of our self esteem would go down.' "
'Tireless' worker
His work ethic is legend. At Harvard, officials insisted Tillman not sleep in his office. Eighteen-hour days there earned him the nickname of "Cyborg."
"He was tireless. I'd see him working at 5 a.m., watching every game tape he could get his hands on," said Billy Geist (McDonogh), Harvard's captain who graduated in 2010.
Long practices led players to gripe about missed meals. Others grumbled that mandatory weightlifting clashed with morning classes. One recruit told the coach that he'd heard rumors the Harvard team worked out with Navy Seals at 5 a.m.
A bachelor, Tillman once told a friend that he would marry "when I meet a woman who knows how to defend a 3-3 zone."
That tunnel vision failed to win over all of Harvard.
"Tills was totally immersed (in lacrosse), and a lot of guys didn't like that," said Zack Widbin, who played for Tillman in his senior year (2008). "He drives everyone hard, that's for sure. At Harvard, sometimes, the harder he would push, the slower it would go. But I developed more in one year, under him, than I did in the previous three."
Said Tillman: "Some Harvard people thought I was too hard on them. There are always people who are resistant to change because it makes you uncomfortable. You just have to push through it."
It's a mantra he brought with him to Maryland.
"As a player, if I didn't go hard, I wasn't very good," Tillman said. "I didn't have a lot of raw, natural ability in anything. I've been successful because I hold myself to a high standard, and expect the same from others. But I'm not an ogre. I want them to lead balanced lives."
Smooth talker
Tillman always had a silver tongue, friends say. His father was a New York State Supreme Court Justice; his mother, a teacher.
In grade school, Tillman would talk kids into playing pick-up football before the first bell rang.
"Till would say, 'Let's meet at 7 a.m. and play a game of tackle for an hour,' " said David Jensen, a childhood friend. "And we'd do it."
In high school, he ran for class president and won — three times. In college, Tillman worked as a bartender, where he would break up brawls before they began.
"I watched him talk people out of fights several times," Mayer said. "They'd be talking trash and squaring off, and Till would buy them a beer, get them redirected and convince them there were other things to do. He's very smart that way. It's probably why he's such a good coach and recruiter."
It was ninth grade before Tillman discovered lacrosse. Tired of baseball, he and his friends tried the game.
"We stunk at it," he said. But Tillman persisted and became a starter at goalie as a junior. Accepted at Colgate, he mopped up in three games before the jump to Cornell in 1988.
There, he plugged away.
"He only stepped on the field 12 times (in games) but he never ever took a play off, in practice," said Scott Burnam, of Arnold, a Cornell teammate. "To watch him during the week, you wouldn't know he wasn't a four-year starter."
Tillman had found his calling. After college, armed with an Ivy League degree in hotel administration, he found work as an assistant coach at Ithaca College for $2400 a year. He lived in a storage room in the basement of a friend's house.
"It was nothing luxurious, but what did I need? I was focused on lacrosse," he said.
Four years later, he accepted a similar job at Navy and stayed 12 years before heading to Harvard in 2008.
Minding his Xs and Os
He fashioned his coaching style at Annapolis, Midshipmen said.
"No one was better at Xs and Os," said Billy Looney ('07), an All-America. "Tills would say, 'You may only use this play once, but it could lead to a ground ball that leads to a fast break that leads to a goal that could win us the game.' "
A star midfielder, Looney recalled fretting, before his senior year, that Tillman would leave to coach at Brown.
"I called him almost every day, asking him to stay (at Navy) one more year," Looney said. "When Tills finally said he would do that, I gave him a hug. I felt like I'd convinced my girlfriend not to break up with me."
It's that sense of brotherhood that Tillman demands at Maryland to put the Terps over the top.
"He says that we're a team, during practice and outside of practice," said Maryland's Grant Catalino, a senior attackman.
Tillman himself put it more eloquently.
"You want teammates who can call you at 2 in the morning, when their car breaks down — and it wouldn't cross your mind to say no," the coach said. "That's the type of guy you can count on, both off and on the field."
Sun reporter Edward Lee contributed to this story.
John Tillman
Age: 41
Hometown: Painted Post, N.Y.
Family: mother, Elizabeth, 73, Athens, Pa.
Father, Mike, deceased
Brother, Mac, 46, Petaluma, Calif.
Brother, Tim, 42, Manhattan
Alma Mater: Cornell, 1991
Degree: Hotel Administration
Coaching experience: 2011 – Maryland (head coach)
2008-2010 – Harvard (head coach), 20-19 record
2002-2007 – Navy (head assistant coach)
1996-2001 – Navy (assistant coach)
1992-1995 – Ithaca (assistant coach)