One high school basketball victory may be just as important as win No. 499 or 500, said a member of a prominent sports family on the verge of stepping into coaching immortality.
Nevertheless, William Hiltner, 58, brother to ACHS sports  standouts Yogi and Tommy, can join the exclusive 500-win club during the upcoming days when his Sterling High School boys varsity team prevails for a 500th time for Hiltner.
Sterling, located in Somerdale, Camden County, defeated visiting Seneca 59-54 in a non-league contest on Monday, Jan. 8, to inch Hiltner closer to the mark and give him win No. 491.
“I really don’t know if win No. 500 is any more important that win No. 499,” Hiltner said. “What really is important is winning our next game so we can stay in the thick of a race for the conference championship.”
Currently, Sterling High School is 6-2 and trails only undefeated Collingswood and Haddonfield in the Colonial Conference.
“It will probably be among us three teams for the title this year,” he said.
Hiltner graduated from Atlantic City High School in 1966 and received his teaching degree from Franklin and Marshall.
He began his head coaching career at Millville before moving to Sterling in time for the 1978 season.
“I think we played Overbrook in my first game at Sterling,” he said. “But I don’t remember the score. My primary thoughts were just getting familiar with a new school and a new team and its players.”
At that time Bill Deibert roamed the Holy Spirit sideline and Bill Swain coached in Atlantic City, Hiltner said.
“These guys were all hall-of-fame-type coaches,” Hiltner said. “So it was a little bit intimidating.”
But soon Hiltner was the one wracking up wins as his Knights claimed eight Colonial Conference championships during his 29 seasons at the helm.
Sterling won the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association South Jersey Group II title in 2000.
“You coach because you like coaching,” he said, “and not necessarily because you are looking for wins. I don’t think anybody looks that far ahead.”
Still, to earn 500 wins your team has to be able to win almost 20 games a year for almost three decades in a sport where programs and coaches seemingly come and go like the tide.
His career has offered many fond and not-so-pleasant memories.
“You remember the incredible highs and the terrible lows,” Hiltner said. “The championship season in 2000 was an incredible high.”
His terrible low: a double overtime loss his Millville squad suffered to Atlantic City.
“And that was one of the few times you could beat an Atlantic City team,” he said. “That’s what made it so terrible.”
There probably won’t be a win No. 600, however.
Hiltner said he would like to coach perhaps one more year before retiring.
“I think 60 is a nice round number to go out at,” he said. “We have a nice junior class of players and I would like to be with then during their senior year.”
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