Moon Township, Pa. – At 25,
Billy Giles is the elder statesman of the
Robert Morris University basketball team. He is the doting father of a 3-year-old son and, undeniably, a picture of resolve and resiliency.
Sometimes, he has to ask himself: "Am I really here?" "Did I make it this far?"
That's because his journey has been equal parts excruciating and exhilarating.
"Looking back at what I've been through, I'm in awe," Giles said. "It wasn't easy."
Since his sophomore year at Douglas S. Freeman High School in Richmond, Va., Giles has resided in 10 different places, including stints with his father (who raised him), brother, sister, aunt, girlfriend's mother and classmates.
A duffel bag once housed all of his belongings.
"I was never sure where I might end up next," he said. "It was place to place to place …"
Throughout high school and beyond, Giles held a number of odd jobs. He was a cashier at both Dick's Sporting Goods and Hardee's, a laborer at a distribution warehouse and an assistant manager with a financing company.
But that's not all. He also became an on-again off-again caretaker to his father, Felix Sr., who was diagnosed with kidney failure and renal cancer, became a dad himself and attended colleges in California, Maryland and, now, Pennsylvania.
These experiences can inspire a man to reflect.
"I think back to walking daily to and from work or barely paying my rent or finding myself staying on someone's couch ... or just being hungry," Giles said. "There was a time when I just didn't know what was going to happen to me and I didn't care. I had seen so much. So to be at a great college like Robert Morris, going to school on a scholarship, it's surreal to me."
At times, Giles observes his younger teammates and is quickly reminded that some were sixth graders when he was out of high school and putting in 8- to 12-hour shifts.
The seven-year age gap, he has learned, can seem like an eternity.
"When you get older, you kind of stop learning the new trends," Giles said. "I see them doing things and I ask, 'Why are you doing that?' An example is the music. A lot of the new artists coming out now I just don't understand what they're saying. It's what older people call, 'Mumble Rap.' They'll play it in the locker room and I won't know a word.
"But on the other side, I love their heart for the game. It inspires me, because they're so hungry to learn and they really want to win. They push me to be the best that I can be."
A junior-college transfer in his second and final season at RMU, the 6'7", 200-pound forward is shooting 64 percent from the field in averaging 6.8 points and 4.1 rebounds off the bench.
In 2015-16, Giles led the NEC in field-goal percentage (.606) and averaged 8.8 points and 5.1 rebounds. He tied for second on the Colonials with 25 blocks, to go with 20 steals and 12 assists.
A perfectionist, Giles said he takes a can't-miss mentality to the court.
"I want all of my shots to go in," he said. "Last year, I think I took like 10 three's and didn't hit one, so I stopped taking three's. I don't like to take shots that won't go in the basket. To me, that's just good basketball."
Coach Andy Toole appreciates Giles' approach.
"He was playing out of position when he first got here and was overmatched physically," Toole said. "But he stepped it up and kept working. He fought like crazy and he put up decent numbers. He got more and more comfortable with Division I basketball. I was really impressed with how he handled everything and how mature he was. He said to me one time, 'Coach, you can do anything you want to me in two hours (of practice). It's better than an eight-hour shift in a warehouse.'"
A strong-willed high schooler, Giles admittedly made poor choices in his teens. One was eschewing his father's rules and moving out on his own in the first place.
It set a trend that took a long time to remedy.
"I thought I knew it all," he said. "Obviously, I didn't."
A highly regarded basketball player, college was not on his radar. He was too busy being "independent," often missing school. His teachers, occasionally, would arrange rides for him so he didn't get too far behind in class.
"I wasn't a bad kid," Giles said. "I just didn't want to live by anyone's rules. I didn't have much direction. So, when I got done with high school, it was about work, not college."
An epiphany occurred on a quiet afternoon while Giles was toiling away in the warehouse. A colleague of his, a man who was just a few years older, quizzically asked why he was spending his days loading boxes onto delivery trucks.
That co-worker would then pass on indelible advice.
"He said to me, 'You're still young, you don't want to be doing this the rest of your life,'" Giles said. "He said, 'You can go out in the world and experience things. And, if you mess up, this warehouse job will still be here 10 years from now.' That really jump-started me. It made me think hard about my future."
As fortune would have it, a friend reached out to Giles a month later and suggested that he join him on the basketball team at Hartnell Junior College in California. So, after saving up $1,200 for a flight and two months worth of rent, off he went.
He played a season there, while also working at a newly opened Dick's Sporting Goods. Many times, Giles would go to class, practice and then walk a half-hour to work. His coach would pick him after Saturday shifts and take him directly to games.
But just when Giles started feeling stability, his girlfriend called and said she was pregnant. This brought him back to Richmond.
A son, Cameron, was born May 5, 2013.
"I was scared at first," Giles said. "But it was the best day of my life."
As he helped to raise a newborn, Giles also took his father to dialysis treatments three days a week. He was settling in to a life without basketball.
Or, so he thought.
Enter Allegany College in Maryland, which offered him a spot on the team. At the insistence of Felix Sr., Giles accepted the offer.
In his only season, he averaged 23.6 points and 14.9 rebounds per game, leading the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I in rebounding and ranking third in scoring.
Robert Morris came calling, but Giles' transcripts were insufficient. He needed 30 credits to graduate.
"It was a whole lot," Giles said, laughing. "When most schools found that out, I'd never hear from them again. Robert Morris believed in me."
Assuring Toole that he would make good on his course work, Giles completed 21 credits in the spring semester and nine in the summer.
The way he saw it, sitting in a classroom and studying was easy compared to what he had already been through.
"I had an incredibly mature conversation with Billy back then," Toole said. "It was easy to determine that he was a great human being and was willing to do all the right things."
An organizational leadership major who will graduate in the spring, Giles' focus is playing winning basketball, getting to the NCAA Tournament and building a stable future for his young son.
He also is an inspiration to his teammates.
"I look up to him," senior forward
Aaron Tate said. "He has a lot on his plate and he keeps pushing and he finds the best in everything that he does. I've learned a lot being around him. We all have."
Follow The Colonials: Twitter | Instagram
