Troy administrator recognized with prestigious achievement

The R. Douglas Hawkins Tower sits on the west side of Veterans Memorial Stadium with every floor of the six-story building offering a unique maze for new visitors. On the third floor sits academic offices and an inconspicuous office, numbered 315.  

The office is decorated with old Troy memorabilia, graduation cards from old students and some surprisingly comfortable chairs -- it also boasts a beautiful view looking over campus. Yet the most impressive part of the office is the woman sitting at the desk, typing away at her computer, Dr. Hilary Parkin.  

Parkin holds many roles at Troy: senior woman administrator, associate athletic director and Troy alumna. However, the newest and arguably most impressive one comes from Converse University, where she played soccer. She now joins the Valkyrie Hall of Fame.  

“I couldn’t believe it,” Parkin said. “Jen Bell, the athletic director there, called me just before the holidays, and I honestly thought she just wanted to connect from a professional standpoint. 

“I was just totally shocked to know that the effort and the care and the love that I have for my alma mater is seen. I wouldn’t change any of it.” 

The accomplishments for Parkin at her alma mater, a school nestled in the heart of Spartanburg, South Carolina, is a long list. She was the president of the school's Student Athlete Advisory Committee and was named to all-conference teams twice, all while being a four-year starter and three-time captain for the Valkyries soccer team.  

Add a most valuable player award and a Weisiger Cup awarded to a female student athlete with “a proven record of leadership and community-building skills, a valuable member of the campus community, and an asset to her team,” into the mix, and you can see how Parkin became the first women's soccer player inducted into the Valkyrie Hall of Fame. 

“I’m still speechless about it because going there, it wasn’t about titles,” Parkin said. “It wasn’t, and our losing record shows that in my first three years, but I went there and I just wanted to have an amazing experience and camaraderie.” 

The lessons learned in the South Carolina heat helped Parkin far beyond her time as a Valkyrie and are a driving force in how she approaches each situation here at Troy.  

“The community I had there was amazing,” Parkin said. “I think that is one of the amazing gifts of being a student-athlete and your college experience are the people you meet along the way. 

“What I look for in the team here is camaraderie because it means so much in success and what we do, not only in a team aspect. I strongly believe that if you get a group of women together and they have camaraderie, they’re unstoppable.” 

In Parkin’s very long list of accomplishments from her undergraduate career, there was one internship that escaped her but would still end up changing her life and shaping her future. 

“The internship for Conference Carolinas at the time I competed was big,” Parkin said. “My senior year at Converse, I went for that internship, and I didn’t get it.” 

The intern chosen instead of Parkin would be Santiago Pinzon, the former Senior Associate Athletic Director of Compliance and Student-Athlete Success at Troy, and he would soon make that jump over to the cardinal, bringing a resume with him. 

“Back then I didn’t know that Santi, at the time, had accepted a job at Troy,” Parkin said.

“He brought my resume to Troy and brought it up to his supervisors at the time and said, ‘Hey if you’re looking for a graduate assistant, you should call her.’ 

“I got a call from Troy, I looked at my dad and said, ‘Do you know where Troy, Alabama is?’ and he’s like ‘I have no idea, are you going?’ and I said, ‘I’m going to go check it out.’” 

For Parkin, it’s only over a month until she’s officially inducted into the Hall of Fame, yet it’s still unbelievable for the doctor from Guelph, Ontario, who started playing soccer because her parents thought her older sister's softball games were too long.  

“I didn’t direct my path in that way to get this,” said Parkin. “[The Converse Hall of Fame] wasn’t even a thing -- they just started it last year.  

“I just so wholeheartedly felt, especially during my undergrad and still to this day, like taking the opportunity and giving it everything I had.” 

Back on the third floor of the tower, amidst the sounds of keyboards clicking and feet shuffling from the hall, you can find memories if you look in the details, like the Converse plaque in the corner that belongs to the women with many names sitting behind the desk.  

Hilary, associate athletic director, PhD, and now, future Hall of Famer.