Brent Hall resigned as Houston High School boys’ basketball coach last week after two years on the sidelines.
Hall said his biggest reason for resigning was the Tigers’ 22-30 record under his watch.
“We were sub .500 for two years. I felt like we could have done better. It all comes back on the coach,” Hall said. “If we can get somebody in there to run the program, we need to do that.”
Hall accepted the job in the summer of 2008 when he was approached by the school after coach Wayne Jessen left for Van Buren. He was named the interim coach, and he was given the job permanently this past season.
For two years Hall, who is also the head baseball coach, juggled two sports that sometimes overlapped each other. Although it wasn’t the biggest factor, Hall said that coaching basketball did take away from his time as a baseball coach. He was forced to give up working with players individually during the winter and the weeks leading up to the baseball season.
“There’s no getting around it — it did take a toll of some kind. I can’t clone myself and be two places at one time,” Hall said. “Even though baseball is my passion, I put all my heart and soul into basketball. I didn’t cheat the kids on any time.”
Houston’s next coach will be its fifth coach in the past seven years. Hall said stability would be a key for the program, which hasn’t won a conference title since 1989. The last district title came in 1984.
“Me resigning probably doesn’t help in that manner,” Hall said. “They have to get someone in there and build the program from top to bottom. It’s not a one-year thing. I think it could be three, four and beyond. It might takes some patience, but the kids are here that will work hard.”