Like so many former athletes, Mark Hall initially just wanted to stay around the game he loved. While that might have been the initial reason behind his move into coaching, his connection with his players and being able to prepare them both on and off the field has become an even larger one.

Hall, who earned both an anthropology degree and his mater’s in education from UVa, is one of a number of former Wahoos are making contributions on the sidelines as coaches these days.

And it’s a place he’s not only loving but thriving in during the first part of his young career.

“I think the immediate driving force was just staying around the game and doing something positive,” he told CavsCorner recently. “I knew I was done playing but I just wanted to be around the game and to be able to do that and help these kids, starting somewhere and starting to coach was an easy decision.”

Hall returned to his alma mater, Green Run, to begin his coaching career. Starting out as a volunteer coach in 2017 right after he got his master’s,

“It just took off from there,” he recalled.

Hall likened being a defensive line coach that first season to being a GA in college. He saw plenty, learned even more, and it provided a great launch point for his career.

“It happened pretty fast for me,” he said. “In 2018, I coached another year with Green Run and then I got an opportunity to be the head coach at Larkspur Middle School. We won the city championship that first year, and it was the school’s first city championship too. So that was kind of cool.

“I didn’t want to leave my kids and Larkspur is a feeder school for Green Run,” Hall continued, “so I took all my kids up to Green Run and joined the staff again and that’s when we went to the state semifinals last year.”

The opportunities continues, as Hall was then offered the job as the defensive coordinator at Salem. It was one he didn’t feel like he could turn down.

“I didn’t want to leave Green Run,” he explained. “I was the co-defensive coordinator there behind Terrell (Whitehead), who is a Hall of Famer from Norfolk State. We worked together real well calling the defense and everything. I talked about the move with him for a long time and he was just like ‘This is an opportunity that you probably shouldn’t pass up.’ So I decided to take the opportunity. It’s all love, man. I love my alma mater and all those guys and I told them that. But I had the opportunity and I took it. I couldn’t pass it up.”

The transition from player to coach, as he looks back on it, has gone well Hall thinks because of his background and getting his master’s.

“I work in the school system so it came kind of easy for me,” he said. “I connect with the kids. Watching my father coach and seeing how he interacted with kids over the years, seeing a different coaching style that certain kids take? That was good for me. Not every kid responds the same. Not every kid like to be fussed at. Every kid has a different situation going on at home.

“So just making that connection with the kid,” Hall added, “and learning what drives them, that’s how I do it. Find what drives the kid and make that connection.”

He considers himself both a player’s coach and student of the game.

“I hold expectations for players,” he said. “I let the kids know that I love ‘em but at the end of the day they’ve got a job to do both in the classroom and out on the field. Teaching them through lessons through football, like being on time and being a leader, it transfers to real life and being out in your community. Being on time to practice is the same thing as being on time for work. If you’re not on time? You get fired, right? So it’s an important and simple concept.”

The experiences he had both on and off the field at UVa also prepared him for these opportunities.

“It was kind of hard to find a job straight out of college so I think it helped me a lot that UVa prepared me for making connections with people,” Hall said. “At the end of the day, those connections help get you where you want to be. You can’t burn bridges. You have to understand that it can come back around and haunt you. So making those connections, networking, talking to people, that was big for me. That was something that I really learned at UVa and one thing I learned in the master’s program. It was a real honor to be in the Curry School of Education and I know that helped me a lot.”

Now, he’s in a very different spot than he was not that many years ago: He’s the one doing the helping as other go through their recruitments.

“Oh yeah, things have changed a whole lot,” he said with a laugh. “I think at first, just talking to them about the recruiting process helps them. But you just have to let them know the experience you have and that you’ve been in their shoes and this road is not easy. It’s going to be a difficult road at times but I love that these kids are getting the opportunity to go to college and a lot of coaches are expressing interest in the 757.

“When you’ve got talent like we do down here,” Hall added, “coaches come through and see you and making those connections with coaches is so important. I’ve spoken to Coach (Anthony) Poindexter, Coach (Marques) Hagans, Coach (Mike) London was at a camp I was at the other day. So it’s really cool to be around guys I’ve been coached by and things like that.”

The new staff in Charlottesville is one that Hall has been able to spend some time with as well, giving Tony Elliott and Co. a chance to make an impression on the former Hoo.

“We had a coaching clinic in Richmond a couple of months ago and I got to meet all of the new coaches, got to meet Coach Elliott for the first time, and it was great,” Hall said. “It was all love. It was exciting to see someone with that kind of vision ready to turn the program around and do it the right way. Coming from a great school and having that great coaching background, it was great to see.

“When I saw Coach Hagans he was so excited to introduce me to everybody,” he added. “To see those former players who are there and to meet the new staff, that was really cool for me. It was like I never left.”

So what is in going to be like when he makes his first recruiting trip to Virginia as a coach?

“We have a couple of kids that they’ve expressed interest in and so our staff took some kids up there but I wasn’t able to make it that day,” he said. “But I’m in contact with coaches all the time. When I finally do get to go up there with the kids, I think that’s going to be such a cool opportunity. I think I’ll get the flashbacks to when I was there and walking around McCue and walking around on Grounds and talking to them about it when I was there and what my college experience was like. “Obviously, there are a lot of changes since then,” Hall added, “and construction is about to be underway and all that. I can’t wait to see it once all the changes are done. I can’t wait to take my guys up there and show them the university.”