MUSKOGEE — Travis Hill refers to the 2021 football season as the most distasteful thing he’s ever been through.

His first year as Muskogee’s head coach, few things went right for the Roughers as they finished 2-8.

Hill is used to having success, and the season made him re-examine things.

“Personally, it was like a little ego check,” Hill said. “Are you any good? Are you doing this the right way?”

Oklahoma HS fall sports: 2023 All-State, All-City teams in football, softball & more

Hill’s struggles didn’t last long.

Muskogee had a breakout year in 2022, finishing 10-2 and advancing to the Class 6A-II semifinals, where it lost to Choctaw.

This past season was even better as the Roughers went 11-2 and claimed the title, beating defending champion Stillwater 28-26 in the championship game for their first state crown since 1986.

Hill has engineered a remarkable turnaround, and he’s The Oklahoman’s 2023 All-State Coach of the Year.

“I’ll give all the credit to the kids,” Hill said. “They’re the ones that had to make the decision to do it the right way.”

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Hill is no stranger to success as a high school football coach.

A former defensive back at Tulsa East Central and Northeastern State University, he began his coaching career as an assistant at Stillwater and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College before becoming the head coach of his high school alma mater.

Hill took over at East Central in 1998 and remained for 14 seasons.

The Cardinals went 138-34 under Hill, winning the Class 5A state title in 2005 and also making championship appearances in 2010 and 2012. Those three title game appearances are the only ones in school history.

East Central didn’t have much success before Hill took over and hasn't had much since he left.

He knows how to build programs and has once again proved that, this time in Muskogee.

“We had to delete some of the problems. … There was a lot of issues in the program where people didn’t understand what it took to win,” Hill said of his debut season as Muskogee’s head coach. “The sacrifice it took, the toughness it took. So that’s what we found out the next year when we go 10-2. We change how we go about our approach.”

Muskogee has talented athletes.

Look no further than players like star junior quarterback and The Oklahoman's All-State Offensive Player of the Year Jamarian Ficklin, senior receiver and UNLV signee Kayden McGee and senior offensive lineman and TCU signee Wesley Harvey.

More: Meet The Oklahoman's 111th All-State first-team defense and special teams unit

But raw talent doesn’t necessarily always equate to success.

“Freshman year, we weren’t a very good football team, but we had all the athletes,” Ficklin said. “Coach Hill realized that. But he knew we had the wrong type of athletes. We had athletes who didn’t want on the team and athletes that we knew we couldn’t make with the team.”

Hill served as Muskogee’s defensive coordinator in 2020, the year before becoming the head coach.

The Roughers went 0-7 in 2020, and Hill knew he wouldn’t immediately have tons of success.

“I knew we were young,” he said. “And one of the reasons why we had to keep some of the kids my first year there was because I didn’t want to put a bunch of babies on the field and ruin them. So yet they were talented kids — size, run, jump, all the skill set was good — they had no clue how to play football. No clue.

“Did not understand technically, understand all the schematic, just the little things that goes into being a championship football team. They weren’t football smart. Didn’t understand the game. And so those things were taught and demanded, and we call them non-negotiables. This ain’t talked about it. This is just done.”

Muskogee’s players bought in to what Hill and his assistants were preaching.

They believed in the new leadership.

“It’s very high-tempo, highly intense,” Ficklin said. “But it’s also one of the greatest feelings you could ever (have), playing for Coach Hill.”

More: Meet The Oklahoman's 111th All-State football first-team offense

Hill is enjoying leading Muskogee, but there was a time when he wasn’t coaching.

Following his run at East Central from 1998-2011, he entered the oil and gas business.

Hill returned to coaching a few years later, first serving as Muskogee’s defensive coordinator before holding the same position at Broken Arrow, where he helped the school in 2018 win its lone state title in football.

Now back at Muskogee, Hill is doing what he loves.

“Went out and made a lot of money,” Hill said. “But Lord said, ‘You’re a football coach. Get your butt back in football.’”

Hill followed that voice, and he’s back.

He wouldn’t want it any other way.

Nick Sardis covers high school sports for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Nick? He can be reached at nsardis@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @nicksardis. Sign up for The Varsity Club newsletter to access more high school coverage. Support Nick's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma All-State football 2023: Muskogee's Travis Hill is Coach of Year