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Hall heads to the front of the class

FLC names longtime Skyhawk new women’s soccer head coach
The Fort Lewis College soccer team always has a great support group. New women’s head soccer coach Jimmy Hall, front left, will rely on that support as he embarks on his first head coaching job, though it comes on an interim basis after former head coach Damian Clarke, center rear, announced his resignation Monday after accepting the same position at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Fort Lewis College had to be quick on its feet to find a new women’s soccer head coach.

One day after Damian Clarke surprised the Skyhawks’ soccer community by submitting his resignation after accepting the women’s soccer head coach position at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas, FLC announced the promotion of Jimmy Hall from assistant coach to interim head coach.

“This is a great opportunity, and not everyone gets a chance to coach at the college level,” Hall said. “I feel very fortunate.”

Hall has served as an assistant coach on the women’s team since the 2011 season at FLC. He was an easy choice for athletic director Gary Hunter to promote on an interim basis.

“We think he has earned an opportunity to be named the head coach. He has been a significant part of the success Damian Clarke and the girls have had in the (Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) and nationally the last three years,” Hunter said. “He has been a big part of the coaching, scheduling and recruiting, and he deserved an opportunity to continue the tradition of Fort Lewis College women’s soccer.”

Hunter said the late notice of Clarke’s resignation just six weeks before the team’s regular season begins made the decision to announce an interim coach all the easier.

“We didn’t have time to go through a national search. Girls are on campus, and in a few weeks they will be going through practices,” Hunter said. “We have named Jimmy as an interim head coach, and then we will probably, pursuant to school policy in human resources, open that up for a search at a later time. Certainly, Jimmy will be a strong candidate.”

Hall’s predecessor, Clarke, also said he believes Hall will continue to lead the FLC women’s program to great success.

“At the end of the day, he has developed a fantastic skill set as an assistant coach that he can carry into being a head coach,” Clarke said Tuesday. “He has a great rapport with the kids, and he is ready.

“You look at everyone who has been really successful with Fort Lewis soccer, and they are all people cut from the same cloth. He’s one of those guys who understands the system, the way we play and the success we’ve had. We believe in what we do, and that’s why we like to maintain people who understand it.”

Hall said Clarke’s resignation came as a surprise, but he is happy to assume the position. He knows his style will be a bit different than Clarke’s, but he hopes to take pieces of what Clarke did and implement it into his own philosophy.

“Damian had been here for a long time and was Fort Lewis family. I know it was a very tough decision for him,” Hall said. “I am more of a director-type personality than Damian, and I will have a bit different structure, but one thing I want to maintain that Damian was so good at is keeping it fun. I want to take his energy and enthusiasm into my coaching.”

Before becoming a coach, Hall played collegiate soccer for FLC from 2000 to 2003. As a player, he won two RMAC titles and went to the NCAA Tournament in 2001.

“While I was playing on the men’s team, I dreamed of coaching,” Hall said. “I knew there would be a chance for me to coach in women’s soccer, and it is a job I always aspired to.”

He played semipro soccer in Albuquerque and Bakersfield, California, and returned to Durango to serve as an assistant coach on the Durango High School girls team in 2008. He also was a club director for the Durango Youth Soccer Association from 2009 to 2010, and he coached several DYSA teams.

Hall went on to volunteer as a coach on the FLC men’s team from 2004 to 2006, including the 2005 national-championship winning team.

He spent the 2010 season as a graduate assistant on the women’s soccer team at Eastern New Mexico University before returning to FLC.

Hall inherits a young squad that is without a senior and features just three juniors this year. Clarke said the team is set up to have years of success with the group of girls who will play together the next several seasons.

“Having young kids on the team is great,” Hall said. “They can fly on energy, and they don’t know any better than to work as hard as they can every day. We have a great platform to build with the girls we have now.”

Still, Hall knows playing in the highly competitive RMAC will be a challenge all in its own.

“Our conference is difficult – one of the best in the country, for sure,” Hall said. “It would be arrogant to say we will be at the top of the conference, but we definitely will strive to be right there.”

Hall is married to former FLC women’s player Samantha Scales, who played from 2005 to 2009. The two have a newborn child, and Clarke said Hall’s family will give him the perfect support as he embarks on his first year as a head coach.

“That’s the biggest thing you have to have as a head coach. Jimmy has a great family, and that support system will be huge for him,” Clarke said. “I know he will have a lot of success.”

jlivingston@durangoherald.com

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