He Wins $3.76 Million, Then Plays Game : Prep football: Boron tight end-linebacker Terry Dill, 18, hits the lottery and that night helps his team improve to 8-1.

California’s newest and youngest lottery millionaire had more important things on his mind last week than turning in his winning ticket. The 18-year-old high school senior had a football game to prepare for.

An hour after being awakened by the news that his “quick pick” Super Lotto ticket was the big winner in the weekly jackpot drawing, Terry Dill was sitting in the local coffee shop in tiny Boron eating a traditional game-day breakfast with teammates.

“I love football more than anything,” said Dill, who won $3.76 million, or $135,360 a year after taxes for the next two decades. “I’ve been playing since I was 8, and I wasn’t about to stop for a day just because I won the lotto. First things first.”

Moments after Boron’s 14-0 victory over Community Christian of Bakersfield last Thursday night, Dill and his parents took off from Bakersfield for a weekend trip to Sacramento to claim the prize.

“I gave Terry a hug after the game like I always do, and he whispered in my ear that he now was ready to collect his money,” said Vicky Dill, Terry’s mother. “It had been a pretty emotional day on all of us.”

Dill, the youngest of Tharold and Vicky Dill’s four children, became eligible to play the lottery when he turned 18 on Nov. 6. Two days later, while dining at the Frosted Mug restaurant where his girlfriend is a waitress, he bought his first four lottery tickets after finishing his hamburger and french fries.

On one of the tickets, Dill tried picking the six winning numbers himself. The other three were selected by the computer, and it was the last “quick pick” ticket he bought that turned out to be the winner.

Dill received the good news early last Thursday when an older brother in Stockton called to say someone in Boron had the winning ticket. As Vicky Dill recited the numbers--15, 30, 34, 35, 50 and 51--she realized Terry had a perfect match.

“We were just all screaming and yelling,” she said. “It’s something you just can’t believe.”

Despite the commotion, Dill did not forget he was to meet his teammates and coaches at the Coffee Mug restaurant for breakfast, something the team does the morning before every game.

In Boron, a mining community of 3,000 in the Mojave Desert near Edwards Air Force Base, football is king. The school has lost only once the last two years, and the 5-foot-11, 160-pound Dill is a starting outside linebacker and tight end for the 8-1 Bobcats. The victory over Community Christian clinched a berth in the upcoming CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Vicky Dill is a cook at the Coffee Mug and Terry works there part-time as a waiter and janitor. After informing the team of the news, Dill was told by Coach Paul Kostopoulos that he would have to attend school that day to be eligible for the game.

“Although we were anxious to turn in the ticket, we are superstitious not to break from tradition,” Vicky Dill said. “I’ve had two other sons who played football, and they always ate breakfast with the team when there was a game. My husband and I never miss a game. None of that was going to change.”

Although Dill had trouble concentrating at school that day, he said his mind cleared when he entered the locker room at Community Christian.

“All I could think about was football once I got my uniform on,” he said. “Our team really needed this win, and I wasn’t going to put myself first. We’re a family.”

Dill and his parents left for Sacramento after the game and turned in the ticket Monday. Vicky Dill guarded the ticket in a fanny pack she hid under her blouse.

Dill said he is supposed to receive the first check before Christmas and plans to help his parents pay off their mortgage and car payments and “buy some new chrome rims” for his truck.

He wants to attend Victor Valley Junior College then study veterinary medicine at the University of California at Davis his junior year.

“None of this is reality yet,” he said, “so I just have to go about my life like I did before.”