On Friday, May 24th @ 2:30PM, the Mayville School District plans to formally dedicate the Alex Hilber name to the Mayville JR/SR High School fitness center. The School District of Mayville invites Alex Hilber’s family, friends, former players, and fans of Mayville athletics to a ceremony to be held outside of the Fitness Center on the north end of the school. Guests are asked to arrive no later than 2:25 and park in the north parking lot.
Alex Hilber coached football at Mayville from 1985 to 2002. In his 17 years at Mayville High School, his football teams won 12 conference championships, had 9 undefeated regular seasons, and went to the WIAA playoffs 15 times. Under his direction the team made it to the semi-finals 6 times, and in 1991 and 1992, Mayville was State Runner-Up. In 1994, Mayville completed a perfect 13-0 season with a 47-0 victory in the state finals and won the WIAA Division 4 State Championship. While at Mayville, Alex's teams won 161 games and lost only 30, making him the winningest coach in Mayville football history.
Alex came to Mayville after serving 8 years in Cassville, Wisconsin. After finishing 4th, 2nd, and 3rd during his first three seasons, his teams then won four consecutive Black Hawk conference championships. In 1980, Cassville finished with an 11-1 record and was State Runner-Up, and in 1982 Cassville won the WIAA Division 6 State Championship, finishing with a 12-0 record.
Alex Hilber was inducted into the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2002, and the National High School Athletic Coaches Hall of Fame in 2006. His career record of 224-45 (.833) is currently one of the top 5 all-time winning percentages for football coaches in the state of Wisconsin. One key to Alex Hilber’s success was his dedication to player development through strength training. When he came to Mayville in 1985, there wasn’t a designated weight room and athletes had zero access to free weights. Alex’s first weight room was his classroom, where at the end of the day his desks and chairs were replaced with benches, racks and dumbbells. From the classroom, Mayville’s weight room progressed to its own designated space in the school’s third locker room, then to the Mayville High School gymnasium stage, and finally to its current and perhaps final resting place, the Alex Hilber Center.