With any sports team comes the inevitable revolving door of players. But that doesn’t just apply to athletes: here at Camosun, the Chargers women’s volleyball team has a new coach. Brent Hall is a former Camosun Charger himself and, having been around in the coaching scene for a few years, is returning to Camosun not as a student or an athlete, but as a mentor and a man on a mission, looking to bring home some more accolades for the college.
Hall says his position with the Chargers will pose new levels of difficulty for him, but that’s a challenge he takes on in pursuit of becoming a better coach. He says that without the support and guidance of some of the previous staff, he might not have accepted the position at all.
“Obviously, it’s a new challenge,” he says. “I’m always up for something new that challenges me to grow, and this is the case here. It’ll be a cool opportunity to grow as a coach, but also to be involved in coaching at a higher level. I haven’t coached at a collegiate level before this, so it’ll be a cool experience to work with that calibre of athlete. Part of the reason I accepted was because some of the former staff—Chris Dahl, the former coach, included—agreed to come back and help make the transition as seamless as it can be.”
With a new coach comes a new method and style of teaching. Hall says that he looks forward to helping both the new and the returning athletes learn new tricks while also remaining true to what’s made the Chargers women’s volleyball program so successful previously.
“I’d be a fool to reinvent the wheel completely, but I have some ideas for things I want to implement,” he says. “I’m going to put my own spin on things, for sure. I think that a fresh set of eyes can help any athlete. I hope the returning ones right from the get-go will be able to benefit from some new input. But I would like to borrow and steal some core things that made the program so successful in previous years.”
Camosun College recreation and athletics coordinator Graham Matthews says that Hall’s experience playing for Camosun will help the new coach contribute to the team.
“Hall will bring a fresh outlook, for sure,” says Matthews. “He’s very knowledgeable about his work and he has the experience from playing with us and at university that could be a great addition to the program, since he already knows about our program. The fact he coached quite a lot in the community is great for him, since he’s quite aware of a lot of the students coming into the program. He’s also well known throughout the community, so that also speaks for itself.”
Hall says that being a Charger could mean a lot of different things; he hopes to help Camosun athletes explore what being a Charger means to them.
“I think it would be nice to work as a team toward a unified definition of what exactly it means to be a Charger. I would hope it means you’re dedicated to personal growth and development,” says Hall. “To each individual I think it could mean something a little different. To me, it’s about always pushing to improve in an array of areas. My hope is that would become the culture.”