'Wouldn't miss it for the world': Being there shows love of parents for Oklahoma State lineman Josh Sills
Jacob UnruhSTILLWATER — For the better part of the past three months, John and Kim Sills’ lives have been in a suitcase.
They repack each Thursday and hit the roads of southeast Ohio in their black 2013 Nissan Altima. The destination: a Big 12 town.
“Oh, we rack up the miles on the vehicle,” John said with a hearty laugh. “Let me tell you.”
Try more than 232,000 miles on the dependable mid-size car.
Trips of roughly 2,100 miles to Stillwater — where their son, Josh Sills, has played left guard for Oklahoma State the past two seasons after transferring from West Virginia — add up quickly.
They’ve flown to three games, but they’ve driven to 45 others. They’ve been to conference games, non-conference games and bowl games over six seasons.
The family has no idea how many miles to be exact.
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“I think if I saw it in black, I’d probably have a heart attack,” Kim said.
In that span, the Sills have missed just one game that Josh has played, either with West Virginia or OSU.
“We’re just along for the ride, living his dream with him,” John said.
Josh is the stabilizer for the OSU offensive line, giving quarterback Spencer Sanders the time he so needs and opening the holes for running back Jaylen Warren and Co. Thursday, Josh was honored as an All-Big 12 first-team selection, too.
And as the fifth-ranked Cowboys prepare to face ninth-ranked Baylor in Saturday’s Big 12 Championship Game, there might not be a better story about love and dedication. John and Kim will make the 18-hour drive, beginning Thursday evening from their home outside Sarahsville, Ohio. They’ll rotate driving and arrive in Arlington, Texas, early Friday.
They will spend little time with Josh. But the brief visits are meaningful.
“It’s huge,” Josh said earlier this week while fighting back emotions. “I don’t really know how to explain it. There’s not enough words to describe what that means to me, just the love, willingness, caringness and compassion that they have is unreal.”
The 6-foot-6, 325-pound redshirt senior with a bald head and bushy beard paused to gather his thoughts.
“Yeah, it means a lot to me.”
Saturday will be Josh’s 50th collegiate game and 46th start. It’ll be the biggest game to date in his career.
But win or lose, it’ll mean the most to see his parents afterward.
“I soak it in as much as I can, cherish it as much as I can, because it’s genuine,” Josh said.
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Next level
John and Kim were thrilled when Josh picked West Virginia.
Since he had started playing football when he was 9, they hadn’t missed a game. John was his first coach.
He went back to being just a dad when Josh entered Meadowbrook High in Byesville, Ohio. The high school is located in a large village 15 miles from Sarahsville, a no-stop-light town with less than 200 people on the 2010 census that is Josh’s hometown.
Josh started to quickly grow and grab attention from recruiters in an area not known to produce Power 5 football players.
“We always just kept talking with him and our verbiage was always next level,” Kim said. “We knew he had physical measurables, but we didn’t know if he would get an offer, because no one comes in our area of our state looking for Division-I athletes.
“So, it’s been a really cool experience.”
Morgantown was an easy drive, too, just 2 hours from Sarahsville.
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The family could keep their commitment alive. They went to every game — even flying to games at Texas and Texas Tech.
“I think it really does matter at the end of the day,” Kim said. “When you see how hard your kid works, you do what you have to do, knowing they want you there and you want to be there.
“So, you do what you have to do to make it happen.”
Even when your kid transfers to OSU, like Josh did ahead of the 2020 season.
“It wasn’t a hard decision for me because I knew what I wanted to do with school and that kind of thing,” Sills said. “I knew that my mom and dad didn’t care where I went to school, and they made that evident from Day 1.
“They wanted to go wherever I wanted to go.”
And they have.
A 2-hour drive for home games became a 14-hour, overnight adventure.
Josh said Kim — an X-ray tech — picked up a second job to help with travel expenses. She reworked her schedule and so did John, who remanufactures diesel engines.
“Love it,” John said. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
‘All I’ve ever really had is my family’
Two weeks ago, Josh was convinced he wasn’t going to play at Texas Tech. He was recovering from a foot injury and was only suiting up for emergency purposes.
And Lubbock, Texas, is the farthest Big 12 trip for the Sills family.
So, he told his parents to stay home.
“It sucked,” Josh said.
It got even worse when Tyrese Williams suffered an injury. Josh was forced into action.
John and Kim were shocked when they saw Josh in the game on TV. Kim ultimately broke down in tears on the phone with Josh after the win.
“I’m one of those droopy mammas,” she said. “I try not to be, but in that moment, I was.”
Each week, the family enjoys breakfast together on Friday. The Sills get maybe an hour together in the team hotel that night. They spend around 20 minutes talking and hugging after the games before John and Kim hit the road.
And they all missed that chance for the first time.
“I know how much it means for them to be there,” Josh said. “So, it hurt me for them, especially when I called my mom after the game. She was crying, of course my dad and all that stuff, and then I teared up, too.
“But I wasn’t mad, I wasn’t upset, I wasn’t sad or anything like that. I was just hurt because I knew they hurt because they weren’t there.
“I’m glad we won, but it was kind of a s----y feeling.”
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That’s why Josh loved the postgame celebration on the field following last Saturday’s comeback win over OU on Senior Night. Thousands of fans stormed the field. But he got to hug his mom and dad along with his older sister, Nicole Johnson, who has moved to Florida with her husband and two young children.
His parents now refuse to miss another game. It hurt too much the last time.
And it’s important to be there for Josh.
For the Sills family, there is no better display of love.
“All I’ve ever really had is my family and they’ve been there” Josh said. “They’re my biggest supporters. I know that at the end of the day, I can look up in the stands and no matter what, I’ll see my dad, I’ll see my mom, my sister, my brother-in-law, my niece and my nephew.
“No matter what the outcome is, no matter how I play, no matter how bad I play or anything like that, they’re always going to have a smile on their face. That just gives me the reassurance that everything’s all right, it’s fine. I got everything in the world I need sitting right there looking at me going, ‘You know what, I’m proud of him.’
“That’s what means the most to me.”
Jacob Unruh covers college sports for The Oklahoman. You can send your story ideas to him at junruh@oklahoman.com or on Twitter at @jacobunruh. Support his work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.