HALL OF FAMER?
Former U.Va. dynamo Vic Hall only had 10 or so plays on defense his entire high school career. Now, he’s joined HU as a defensive backs coach.
HAMPTON — Vic Hall keeps his athletic past to himself.
Total yards: 13,770.
Players may search the internet to find out about their coach and ask questions, but Hall will never bring it up first.
Total touchdowns: 171.
“One of my biggest things I don’t do is compare what I did to what they’re doing,” Hall said. “… Some kids will look on YouTube and say, ‘Hey, Coach, I’ve seen your highlights,’ and I kind of brush it off ‘cause I had my time as a player.”
Forever intertwined with Hampton University’s new assistant defensive backs coach is his legacy of one of Virginia’s best high school players of all time.
His total yards are the most in Virginia High School League history, and his total touchdowns rank second.
He was the ultimate dualthreat quarterback who led Gretna to two straight state Group AA Division 3 championships in 2003 and 2004, the latter with a win over Poquoson.
An offensive juggernaut, Hall admitted he played only 10 or so plays on defense his entire high school career.
But here he is, back in the state as a rising young defensive coach. How did that happen?
Hampton coach Robert Prunty remembers a young Hall from the small town of Gretna, 55 miles southeast of Roanoke. Prunty was Gretna’s head coach for Hall’s freshman year, but Prunty had seen him work out since seventh grade.
“The first thing that I saw from Vic Hall was his leadership,” Prunty said. “From him playing youth league to junior varsity, he had the ability to lead people and people would follow him, so quite naturally I was drawn to that.”
Hall stepped in immediately as Gretna’s starting quarterback and led the Hawks to an 11-1 record.
“As the success continued to grow with the program, you started to see — it was almost like the town shut down (to watch the games),” Hall said.
With a town population of 1,200 people, Hall gained 11 yards for every citizen during his four-year career.
However, upon moving to the University of Virginia, Hall would never really get a shot at quarterback except for one game against Virginia Tech when, to no surprise, he dazzled in a 17-14 defeat.
The Cavaliers were thin at defensive back during Hall’s first season, so he transitioned to defense in a redshirt year. But he’s never harbored ill will about the move, and except for a short time post-graduation when he had what-if thoughts, Hall accepts the time as a positive one.
“When I was transitioned, looking back on it, it was a blessing in disguise,” Hall said, “because I was able to, from a quarterback standpoint, I was able to learn defensive play. Now as a coach, I’m teaching through defensive techniques and coverages, and I can teach it from the mindset of a quarterback.”
Hall’s defensive career with Virginia was strong, and he was signed by the Chicago Bears as an undrafted free agent in 2010. When that didn’t pan out, Hall headed to Washington, D.C., for a career in the education system.
During his six months as an aide in the special education department, former U.Va. teammate Chris Gould pestered him about trying the Arena Football League, where Gould was a kicker for the Chicago Rush.
Hall’s passion for football eventually won out and he had instant success. He was named the AFL’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2011 but suffered a knee injury the following year that nagged him enough to force retirement after his third season.
“I will say about playing arena, one of my biggest takeaways was that I learned so much more about defensive back play because of the style of having to cover guys who get a 15-yard (running) head start,” Hall said.
Hall’s football hunger satiated — or so he thought — and he returned to D.C. and became a behavioral technician at a middle school.
“There was still something in me that wasn’t happy,” Hall said. “… I started to feel the itch again. And I knew where I was with my knee, I couldn’t play. So I decided I would help out with the middle school where I was working at.”
Coaching was a new venture for Hall. It’s not a career he had thought about during his playing days.
He later joined the staff at National Collegiate Prep and spent several seasons as a co-offensive coordinator, quarterbacks and wide receivers coach. At that time, he set firm goals for his new journey.
“I set a three-to-five-year goal and it was to be an assistant coach at the FCS or FBS level,” Hall said. “And I was able to accomplish that in a three-year window.”
Hall traveled to Western Illinois University to be a graduate assistant cornerbacks coach in 2018 and served in a similar capacity at Howard in 2019. Coaching collegiate athletes was an eye-opener.
Hall realized “that you have to be a teacher first. And building relationships is always gonna be at the core, because you can’t effectively teach and push young men and women if you don’t build relationships.”
When Howard made a coaching change, Hall wasn’t retained and Prunty, who had kept in touch with his former player, quickly scooped him up.
“His players played hard,” Prunty said. “I always grade my guys on stance, alignment and assignment, and Vic’s players checked all the boxes. They were very fundamentally sound and played with great technique.”
That Hall immediately connected with the Hampton players, even during quarantine, was no surprise to Prunty.
“Three weeks ago, I heard him talking to one of our players and I stopped to listen in the hallway,” Prunty said. “Then I walked off and started smiling. It made me so proud to see this is where his growth has gone. I’m proud of Vic Hall.”
Hall’s goal at Hampton is to build an unwavering foundation of trust and communication, “not only saying that I care but showing that I care.”
He has reset his long-term goals in hopes of eventually becoming a coordinator or head coach at any level that would have him. Hampton, though, is the current priority.
“I never want my ambition to outweigh my knowledge,” Hall said. “So for me to accomplish those goals, I have to learn as much as possible. And I never want to put a limit on what I want to do.”
Hall’s used to lofty goals. He achieved some of the most eyepopping ones in high school, and that origin story is molded to him and a source of pride.
“Gretna, Virginia,” Hall said, “made me who I am today.”