Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 24, 1994 TAG: 9403240085
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Doug Doughty
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Hall, who played football at Virginia Tech and later worked in sales, is hoping to keep his position on the basketball staff at Coastal Carolina despite the resignation this week of head coach Russ Bergman.
"That's my first priority," said Hall, a standout athlete at Cave Spring High School in the 1970s. "We've got a unique situation here, in that none of us was involved in the things that gave Coach [Bergman] his problems."
Coastal Carolina's other full-time assistant, Adam Preyer, was a co-captain at Roanoke College in 1988. The Chanticleers have another Roanoke connection in November signee Reggie Reynolds from William Fleming High School.
"Reggie's all set," said Hall, 35. "He knows there's no guarantee I'll be here, but he's feeling a little more comfortable with the situation."
Hall remains on salary and continues to recruit for Coastal Carolina, with the hope that the new coach at least will give him an interview.
"I think it all comes down to who they hire," Hall said. "If it's a head coach from a mid-major program, he would be more likely to bring his staff."
Some potential applicants might be scared off by the threat of NCAA sanctions. An NCAA investigation already was in the works when Bergman, after watching the movie "Blue Chips" at a Radford theater, decided to go public with violations.
The most serious charges state that former Chanticleers staff members completed course work for Mohammed Acha and that Coastal exceeded the allowed number of paid recruiting visits.
"I would think it would make some difference [to the NCAA] that the school voluntarily pulled itself out of the Big South tournament," Hall said.
Hall said he plans to attend the NCAA coaches' convention next week in Charlotte, N.C., but will not go with resume in hand.
"It's been frustrating," he said, "but I wouldn't necessarily say it's been stressful. If I was involved in the allegations, it would be one thing, but they're talking about two or three years ago."
Hall taught and coached at Cave Spring and William Fleming before leaving coaching in his late 20s. He returned as a volunteer assistant at Roanoke College before becoming Page Moir's top aide.
"When they went 26-2 this year, I felt I had a little something to do with it," he said, "but I have no regrets at leaving [Roanoke]. This place has a world of potential."
\ KEYDETS POSSIBILITIES: Former VMI assistants Pete Strickland and Dave Manzer are among those said to be interested in the vacancy created when Joe Cantafio left this week to become head coach at Furman.
Strickland, who has not made a secret of his interest in the opening at William and Mary, is in his third year on the staff at Old Dominion. Manzer left VMI last year to accept a position at Miami of Ohio.
Among those who have been linked to the VMI opening are head coaches Walt Ayers of Bluefield College, Bob Johnson of Emory & Henry and Gary Edwards of Charleston Southern; former Citadel head coach Randy Nesbit; and former Virginia Tech assistant Bobby Stevens, now at Winthrop.
\ COACHING GRAPEVINE: On the night his team won the Sun Belt Conference tournament, Southwestern Louisiana coach Marty Fletcher put in a phone call to Furman athletic director Ray Parlier to push Joe Cantafio, his one-time assistant at VMI.
New Catawba appointee Jim Baker is one of at least seven college head coaches with Virginia Tech ties. He joins Frankie Allen (Tennessee State), Don DeVoe (Navy), Mack McCarthy (Tennessee-Chattanooga), Ron Carr (Longwood), Page Moir (Roanoke) and newly named McNeese State coach Ron Everhart.
Former Alabama head coach Wimp Sanderson is said to be one of the leading candidates at Auburn, along with Cliff Ellis, who announced earlier this season that he was stepping down after 10 seasons at Clemson. . . . Nebraska coach Danny Nee is the favorite to fill the vacancy at Pittsburgh, and Western Kentucky coach Ralph Willard is the front-runner at Providence.
\ CAVALIERS' LOSS: John Gamble, popular and respected strength coach at Virginia for the past 10 years, has taken a similar position with the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League, where he will be reunited with former Cavaliers Terry Kirby and David Griggs.
"It was a great loss," said Jim Copeland, UVa's athletic director. "He was a good strength coach and a better person. He worked primarily with football, but he had as good a relationship with our athletes, program-wide, as anybody in the department."
Sources indicate Virginia offered to make Gamble the highest-paid strength coach in college football. Associate athletic director Craig Littlepage will head the search for a successor. Former UVa football player Eric Fears, strength coach at South Carolina and now Washington State, is an obvious candidate.
by CNB