ATHLETICS DIRECTORY
Gary W. Hall enters his 23rd year as Director of Athletics at Barton College for the 2011-12 year, the longest term of service ever in that position for anyone at the institution. He also ranks first in longevity as Director of Athletics at the 48 institutions in North Carolina competing under NCAA or NAIA affiliation. For the first 18 years of his employment at Barton he also served as the Head Men's Soccer Coach, retiring from college soccer coaching in April of 2007. Hall also served as Chair of the Department of Physical Education and Sports Studies from 1989-1991 and as a faculty member in that department through 1997. He is a 1980 magna cum laude graduate of the institution, completing majors in English and Physical Education.
The College's athletic program has enjoyed many successes under Hall's leadership. During the last 20 years of competition for the Joby Hawn Cup, the all-sports award for Conference Carolinas, Barton has won the award three times and placed second on seven occasions. Barton's student-athletes have traditionally achieved a 2.8 or higher grade point average and for the spring semester of 2011, 62 Bulldogs (35% of all letter-winners) were named to the Conference Carolinas Presidential Honor Roll. Barton has been the host site for many conference and NCAA Regional Tournaments, including the NCAA Division II East Region Men's Basketball Tournaments in 2006 and 2007, both directed by Hall. Barton won both events and went on to capture the national championship in men's basketball in 2007. Hall chaired the Athletic Directors of the then Carolinas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference when they recommended in 1991 that the league change its national affiliation from NAIA to NCAA Division II. He then led Barton through the transition process with the Bulldogs first competing as NCAA members beginning in the 1995-96 year. Hall was selected as NAIA District 26 Athletic Administrator of Year for 1990-91 and 1993-94. He has chaired numerous conference committees and is now serving on the NCAA Division II Women's Tennis Southeast Regional Advisory Committee. Hall is a long-time member of the National Association for Collegiate Directors of Athletics and currently serves on the NCAA Division II Athletic Directors Association Board of Directors.
In the 18 years that Hall served as Head Men's Soccer Coach at Barton College, the Bulldogs posted 11 winning seasons and won league championships in 1991, 1993, and 1998. His 149 victories are the most ever for a coach of the program and he has been named as Coach of the Year by both the conference and NAIA District 26. Hall re-established the Barton College Soccer Camp in 1991 and it grew to 260 attendees in 2006. Hall led the campaign to add lighting to the institution's game field and the project was completed in 2006, his final year coaching the Bulldogs. Each player at Barton under Hall who played through his senior season has graduated and 70 per cent in that group were Dean's List students. After announcing his retirement from coaching college soccer in April of 2007, Hall was inducted into the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame in January of 2008.
Hall is a native of Winston-Salem, NC and graduated with honors from Kernersville Wesleyan Academy in 1975, where he was the school's Male Athlete of the Year as a senior. At then Atlantic Christian College (now Barton), he co-captained the Bulldogs to their first ever soccer conference championship in 1978 and first ever NAIA District 26 soccer championship in 1979. Hall was selected as all-conference and all-district both of those seasons, was the team MVP for 1978, and was the College's Male Athlete of the Year for 1979-80.
Hall attended Wake Forest University on a graduate fellowship and completed a masters degree in Sports Psychology in 1981. He served as Assistant Men's Soccer Coach there from 1980-83 and as a full-time faculty member in Physical Education from 1981-84. He then served at Lenoir-Rhyne College as Head Men's Soccer Coach, Head Men's Golf Coach, Assistant Men's Basketball Coach, and as a faculty member from 1984-87. In 1987 he became Head Men's Soccer Coach and a faculty member at Campbell University. He coached the program there to a 17-3 record in 1988, winning the Big South regular season championship and setting a school record which still stands today for wins in a single season. That team went on to become the first Campbell team in any sport to achieve an NCAA Division I national ranking, placing as high as 14th in that poll. Hall was named as Big South Conference Coach of the Year for 1988. He also completed 67 semester hours of advanced graduate study in Athletic Administration at UNC-Greensboro between 1981 and 1987.
Hall has served as a Staff Coach for the North Carolina Youth Soccer Association, instructing coaching licensure courses and working with the Olympic Development Program teams. He served as the Director of Coaching for the Wilson Youth Soccer Association for 15 years, until 2010. He served for its first six years, through 2010, on the Board of Directors for the Brittany Willis Memorial Scholarship Soccer Showcase. Hall currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Ubuntu Sports Outreach, a Christian soccer ministry in Cape Town, South Africa, begun by Casey Prince, a former player under Hall at Barton and on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Soccer Hall of Fame.
Hall is married to the former Jean Daughtrey, a 1990 Barton graduate and teacher in the Wilson County Schools. They have a son Andrew (17) and daughter Ashley (13). The Halls are members of First Baptist Church of Wilson. Hall is also a member of the All-American Kiwanis Club of Wilson, and was named as that organization's Kiwanian of the Year for 2010.
