Meet Coatesville High’s Maxwell and Colton Hiller, who are rising stars in different sports

The Hillers are used to being busy, but this summer brothers Maxwell and Colton have barely been at their home in Chester County — and for good reason.

In June, Colton won a gold medal with the 16-and-under U.S. national basketball team in Mexico, while his older brother, Max, competed at the Under Armour’s Future 50 event in Florida, which included the nation’s top football standouts from the class of 2027.

The two are rising stars in different sports, and they are in the midst of quite the breakout summer.

Max is a junior-to-be who is ranked as one of the best offensive tackles in the country, holding more than 40 college scholarship offers. Colton, who recently turned 15, is a 6-foot-6 shooting guard and is ranked by ESPN as No. 4 in the nation in the class of 2028. Both play for Coatesville Area Senior High School.

“It’s been crazy,” Max said. “We rarely get to be home to hang out with friends or just go out to dinner as a family. But we take advantage of that when we are home. … It’s stressful, but it’s super enjoyable and fun.”

The Hiller brothers are accustomed to running from practice to practice. From early on, their parents, AJ and Amy, supported their sons’ athletic desires.

Whether it was driving Colton to Philadelphia to play for Team Jacko, an organized AAU team run by former 76er Marc Jackson, or taking Max to morning and evening football practices, their parents just wanted to see their children “happy in whatever they do.”

What they didn’t expect, however, was seeing how successful Max and Colton would become in football and basketball, respectively. Now their sons are traveling from state to state to compete.

“Nothing that they do anymore kind of surprises us at this point,” AJ Hiller said. “But we don’t expect it. As long as they’re having fun, putting in the effort, not complaining, then it’s great. They constantly blow us away, and we’re super proud. Not in a million years I thought I would have one kid getting this much attention in athletics. To have two, it’s just wild.”

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Colton and Max come from an athletic family. Both parents attended Coatesville High, and AJ went on to play soccer at Coastal Carolina, while Amy played field hockey at Millersville.

The two brothers, who were always bigger for their age, tried just about every sport besides baseball, and their parents had one rule: Once you start, you have to finish the season.

“Colton had always been drawn to basketball,” Amy said. “Both of them were so much taller than kids their own age, so we would call the [YMCA coach] and say, ‘Can Colton play up with his brother?’ They always kind of let him because Max was a year and a half older, but size-wise, [Colton] was competitive enough to kind of jump in.”

And while Colton has moved on to play travel ball for the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League’s New York-based PSA Cardinals, they still find time to play hoops together.

The first league Colton and Max played in was Coaching Victory, based in Coatesville, before Colton made the switch to Philly. Last year, playing for their high school, was the first time they’ve competed on the same team since childhood.

“It was really exciting to watch him play and live up to the hype,” Max said. “When we were playing Downingtown West, our rival, he got a rebound and ran all the way down the court and dunked on like three people coming down the middle of the lane.

“That was probably my favorite time, just to see him make the whole crowd jump. I didn’t know he could jump like that, but he did.”

The 6-6, 295-pound Max likes using basketball as a way to stay in shape during the football offseason, but he’s talented in both sports — he even received a college basketball scholarship offer from La Salle.

Colton played football for three years, but it ultimately wasn’t for him. That hasn’t kept him away from the game, however. During Coatesville’s football season last year, Colton was on the sidelines serving as the ball boy and had the chance to see some of his older brother’s athleticism.

“I don’t even watch the play, I just watch [Max],” he said. “I definitely like when he gets people on the ground, just pancakes, and that’s probably my favorite part.”

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Colton and Max are competitive with each other, but also close friends. It made sense, their parents said, that Max gravitated toward football while Colton best meshed with basketball.

“It kind of worked out based on their body types,” Amy said. “Max was always a little bit bigger and stronger, so playing football, he felt more comfortable doing that and leaned into it. Colton always loved basketball since he was small.”

AJ added: “I mean, Max, to this day, loves to hit and get hit, and Colton, not so much. There’s been lots of wrestling and a lot of holes in the walls.”

Max, a five-star recruit who was named an Under Armour All-American second-team selection, received his first scholarship offer in the eighth grade from Penn State. He now has offers from several high-major programs, including Clemson, Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio State, South Carolina, and Georgia, which are among his top choices.

Colton is starting to experience the recruiting process entering his sophomore year. After his stint with Team USA, when he scored a game-high 23 points in the semifinal against Puerto Rico, and a dominant 40-point outing at Philly Live, he has landed on the radar of college coaches.

He has offers from La Salle, Villanova, Missouri, and Syracuse, among others, and has leaned on his older brother for advice on how to manage it all.

“When I got my first couple offers, I didn’t really know how to post and how to handle my Instagram and Twitter stuff,” Colton said. “He’s really good with that, so I went to him. He helped handle my Twitter and posted everything. I learned from him now and took it over by myself.”

Family means everything to the brothers. Max even has Hiller tattooed on his forearm as a reminder of where he came from.

Their family connections to the area are also why the two decided to play for their public school rather then go to the Catholic League or a powerhouse outside the state.

“This isn’t really a big [town], so everybody knows each other and everybody, they want you to stay close,” Colton said. “ … It’s like a family, even the fans and stuff, people in the city, they love it. They look forward to watch good talent coming up. There’s no point of leaving.”

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Despite playing different sports, they hope there’s a chance to attend college close to each other. Max likes the state of South Carolina, while Colton said his dream school is Duke.

There’s still more work to be done for Max and Colton, who know that this is only the beginning. But watching each other thrive on the court and field has also motivated them to work harder.

“I’m trying to be better than him and he’s trying to be better than me,” Colton said. “It’s always [been] like that since we were young.”

“But it’s a good problem to have,” Max added.