Brian Hall, my father, is now in his 30th year of teaching, but not all of his teaching has been here at Jacksonville High School. Upon graduating from Monmouth College (he is proud to be a Fightin’ Scot!), he got a job at ROVA (now ROWVA) High School in Oneida, IL north of Galesburg, teaching special education and also coaching the football team. He left ROWVA after four years to become the head football coach for VIT High School in Table Grove, IL and was instrumental in forming the coop-agreement for sports with Astoria High School, forming South Fulton for all athletics. He would come to JHS in 1992.

Hall says that he had always considered teaching from an early age. He says that he had several teachers in his family growing up, and it gave him the opportunity to continue in athletics. At Monmouth College, his original major was psychology, something he had always had an interest in. At the end of his freshman year, he changed his major to history and secondary education, so he could coach after college. His first experience in a classroom was in a special ed classroom. He said, “I became immediately aware that this was what I was ‘supposed’ to do.”

Hall says he loves teaching, interacting with both students and colleagues. However, he does not particularly care for the paperwork, which he says seems to be ever increasing. Hall is currently a special education teacher, as well as the head wrestling coach and senior class sponsor and is a former assistant football coach and girls track coach.