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Monday
March 15, 2010 Since 1922 |
No stranger to coaching
By MikeFinley
Baytown Sun Published March 1, 2004 When Edie Cunningham left the Barbers Hill softball program last spring, it didn’t take Don Price, dressed this time in his athletic director’s suit, long to find a replacement.
He knocked on the door of Barbers Hill Middle School principal Cindy Price, his wife, and asked to speak to Kirk Hall, who teaches for Cindy at the school.
“It was a no-brainer,” Price remembered. “He has plenty of coaching experience and he’s the first one I thought of to take the job.”
Price can attest for Hall up front and personal.
“We coached together at Joshua.”
Price recalled a time in his life when the pair coached for Bruce Taylor, who was the head coach then and now is the assistant principal at Barbers Hill High School.
Hall remembers Price wanted an immediate decision on whether he would take the job, but Hall did have to think about it.
(It should be pointed out here the results have been as near immediate as one can expect. The Lady Eagles were 7-1 going into a tournament at Kirbyville this past weekend.)
Hall has coached football and baseball in four stops prior to Barbers Hill. He coached at Spring, Aldine Nimitz and Galena Park in addition to his assignment at Joshua. He was the head baseball coach at Joshua and spent the last five years of a 10-year stint at Galena Park as the Yellow Jackets‚ head coach.
He retired from coaching in 2000.
Hall hinted that things would have to be near perfect for him to resume his coaching career. It is.
“The kids (at Barbers Hill) are great,” Hall said. “The administration is good, the school board is behind you. It‚s great also to have the parents behind you. It’s good to have everybody behind you. These kids had been getting good coaching (from Cunningham, who is now the head coach at Vidor and owns a 3-1 victory over the Lady Eagles earlier this season).
“I have been the beneficiary.”
His first big test when he got the job was talking to his daughter, Taylor, a senior, about joining the team. She is a top-notch athlete in volleyball and tennis and has not played softball in at least three years before her senior campaign.
What did the coach/father say to his daughter about playing for the Lady Eagles?
“I told her she was going to play,” Hall said, smiling all the way.
Case closed.
“But we really have great kids at Barbers Hill,” he continued. “Really great kids. Winning is ingrained in them.”
Hall lives with a family of athletes. Wife Donna was a marathon runner in her earlier years and three other daughters; Amber, Chandler and Summer are well on their way to lofty heights.
In fact, Amber plays softball at the University of Texas, where she is a sophomore and hit the winning home run against Louisiana-Lafayette in the first game of last year’s NCAA Final Four. The Lady Longhorns finished third, losing to UCLA in the finals.
Chandler, an eighth-grader, is currently sidelined with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee. Amber played high school softball at Deer Park, but Hall said the search is on to find a house and move the family to the Barbers Hill ISD.
“We’re looking,” Hall said. “Right now, there is no timetable.”
And with that it was off to softball practice.
Baytown Sun Published March 1, 2004 When Edie Cunningham left the Barbers Hill softball program last spring, it didn’t take Don Price, dressed this time in his athletic director’s suit, long to find a replacement.
He knocked on the door of Barbers Hill Middle School principal Cindy Price, his wife, and asked to speak to Kirk Hall, who teaches for Cindy at the school.
“It was a no-brainer,” Price remembered. “He has plenty of coaching experience and he’s the first one I thought of to take the job.”
Price can attest for Hall up front and personal.
“We coached together at Joshua.”
Price recalled a time in his life when the pair coached for Bruce Taylor, who was the head coach then and now is the assistant principal at Barbers Hill High School.
Hall remembers Price wanted an immediate decision on whether he would take the job, but Hall did have to think about it.
(It should be pointed out here the results have been as near immediate as one can expect. The Lady Eagles were 7-1 going into a tournament at Kirbyville this past weekend.)
Hall has coached football and baseball in four stops prior to Barbers Hill. He coached at Spring, Aldine Nimitz and Galena Park in addition to his assignment at Joshua. He was the head baseball coach at Joshua and spent the last five years of a 10-year stint at Galena Park as the Yellow Jackets‚ head coach.
He retired from coaching in 2000.
Hall hinted that things would have to be near perfect for him to resume his coaching career. It is.
“The kids (at Barbers Hill) are great,” Hall said. “The administration is good, the school board is behind you. It‚s great also to have the parents behind you. It’s good to have everybody behind you. These kids had been getting good coaching (from Cunningham, who is now the head coach at Vidor and owns a 3-1 victory over the Lady Eagles earlier this season).
“I have been the beneficiary.”
His first big test when he got the job was talking to his daughter, Taylor, a senior, about joining the team. She is a top-notch athlete in volleyball and tennis and has not played softball in at least three years before her senior campaign.
What did the coach/father say to his daughter about playing for the Lady Eagles?
“I told her she was going to play,” Hall said, smiling all the way.
Case closed.
“But we really have great kids at Barbers Hill,” he continued. “Really great kids. Winning is ingrained in them.”
Hall lives with a family of athletes. Wife Donna was a marathon runner in her earlier years and three other daughters; Amber, Chandler and Summer are well on their way to lofty heights.
In fact, Amber plays softball at the University of Texas, where she is a sophomore and hit the winning home run against Louisiana-Lafayette in the first game of last year’s NCAA Final Four. The Lady Longhorns finished third, losing to UCLA in the finals.
Chandler, an eighth-grader, is currently sidelined with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee. Amber played high school softball at Deer Park, but Hall said the search is on to find a house and move the family to the Barbers Hill ISD.
“We’re looking,” Hall said. “Right now, there is no timetable.”
And with that it was off to softball practice.