WS Chronicle

The name Anthony Hill graced the pages of The Chronicle newspaper for seven years. During his tenure, he was a six-time North Carolina Press Association award winner and his impact on the paper still resonates through the halls of The Chronicle.

Hill is a graduate of the University of Alabama and was writing at a daily newspaper prior to coming to The Chronicle. A mutual friend connected Hill with then-owner Ernie Pitt and after what Hill called “one of the greatest conversations I could have with someone that was going to potentially be my boss,” Hill was soon on his way to Winston-Salem.

“I was intrigued about working for an African American newspaper because of just the way things were going for me at a daily newspaper,” said Hill about why he chose The Chronicle. “I was getting my articles, but I just wasn’t feeling like I was getting a fair shake.

“I felt like Ernie Pitt was very successful, he had his own newspaper, and coming from Alabama, I had never heard of any African American owning a newspaper. After I talked with him over the phone from Alabama, I moved from Alabama to Winston-Salem off of a conversation over the phone with Ernie Pitt. And that’s how it all started. I can’t say anything but good things about my years at The Chronicle.

Coming from a daily newspaper to a weekly brings a different set of expectations and challenges. Hill came to The Chronicle wanting to make the sports section his own, while also bringing new and exciting content to the people of the city.

“When I got there, my expectations were to just run my show and be a one-man operation, do everything and create my own content, and that’s what I was able to do,” he said. “I had a managing editor that was fully backing my vision because I didn’t come with a bunch of ideas, I came with a platform with ideas on how I wanted to do it.  

“The thing that made it successful was the community. I came in there wanting to do Q & A’s, I came in there wanting to do features, I came in there wanting to do categories like JV and Pop Warner, and it was the community that helped it.”

Hill says he built a great partnership with the employees of the local recreation centers who helped connect him with coaches, players, and others in the sports scene around the city.

“I would go to places like barbershops and rec centers, especially rec centers,” he said. “Shout out to Aaron Bailey, because when I was there, Aaron Bailey was the assistant director at the Carl Russell Community Center and we immediately became friends. He was one of the main people that connected me to any- and everybody I needed to talk to about any- and everything I needed to do my first year there. Andre Gould was a big help as well.”

While at The Chronicle, Hill was able to interview some of the biggest names connected to the city of Winston-Salem. Big names such as Stephen A. Smith, Clarence “Big House” Gaines, and Chris Paul were just some of the stars Hill interviewed.  

“It was people that I made connections with in Winston-Salem that pretty much opened up the doors for me to do a lot of the things I was able to do,” Hill continued.  

Hill says he was welcomed with open arms upon arriving at The Chronicle. He says the staff at the paper during that era helped ease him into his new role.  

“The people I was around, especially the people at The Chronicle, felt like I was what was needed, so I was kind of pushed into a position like, ‘Oh, you’re perfect,’” he said.  

For Hill, he came into the position not thinking of the paper as the ‘Black paper’ of the city, but rather just the paper that covered the stories that were not being touched by the Journal.  

In 2009, Hill parted ways with The Chronicle and continued in the world of journalism through creating his own blog. He moved to Charlotte and went to work for the Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“I ended up getting a job at the speedway, so that’s how I ended up moving to Charlotte,” he said. “I did that for a year and a half. 

“And it’s funny because I have always been a gym rat, I was always in shape, even when I was in Winston-Salem working at The Chronicle, I was always working out.

“I was bored, so I got my personal training certification and used to train women after I got off work. I was making so much money that I was contemplating quitting my day job.”

Hill trained for a year and soon quit his job and began working with a friend of his at a local gym. He worked there for a year and learned everything he could about the business. He then left that position and connected with the same friend to open their own gym. From there he bought out his friend and now is the solo owner of the gym, concentrating on boxing workouts.

“I still do fitness training, but it’s mainly boxing training,” he said. “The reason I even started doing the boxing is because I know it, but also I was looking at a niche. One of the things about me, I am not a person that likes to follow the crowd, I like to look at what can I do to differentiate myself from this crowd. I knew that I had this skill that was becoming more and more popular in the world of fitness. More and more people wanted to do mitt work and not necessarily boxing or look like a boxer, but they wanted to punch their mitts while they worked out. So, I would do that with my clients and that’s what I did until I got to Title Boxing Club and I just turned it up.”

Hill has taken his personal training to another level. At first, he was training women wanting to get fit; now he is working with professional athletes and celebrities. He has worked with big name clients such as P.J. Washington, Dwight Howard, Chad Johnson aka Ochocinco, Ivory Latta, Douglas Middleton, and Denzel Rice.

“The big one for me was Dwight Howard,” he stated. “When I started training Dwight Howard, that was the one that really just opened up so many other doors. Once I got his stamp of approval, so to speak, it wasn’t even a question of is he good; it was more like, how can I get with you?”

Hill credits God for the success he has enjoyed over the last few years. He says he never thought he would have been in this place 10 years ago, but he was never satisfied with just a regular nine-to-five job.

“I knew that my lifelong goal was to change life and to make a difference,” he said. “As long as I’m doing that, I feel like I am on pace and I am successful. I do that with my classes, I do that with my personal training, and I do that with my boxing.”

Hill does not want to stop with just having his own gym. His future goal is to have a smoothie truck to travel around and sell them.  

Hill’s gym is named Title Boxing Club in Charlotte. For more information about Hill and his club, please contact him at Anthony.hill@titleboxingclub.com. He provides services such as group classes, youth programs for kids 6-12, and personalized workouts.