It wasn’t long after Brooks Hall stepped on the University of Dayton campus as a registered student for the first time that he read in the school newspaper that he was the “Savior.” That was just the beginning of the pressure that would be applied to Hall during his four years at UD by the overwhelming foe called Expectation. He was expected to lead the Flyers to the promised land of NCAA tournaments and top 25 rankings. He was to average 25 points per game and begin a steady flow of top 50 players to the red and blue. Imagine being 17 and having the success of a multi-million dollar program thrust upon your shoulders.

Brooks Hall was the first of two children born to Chuck and Lisa Hall. His first few years of school were not unlike many; he received good grades and did all of the right things. However, shortly after he turned eleven, his whole world turned upside down. Divorce is a terrible thing for all of those involved, including the children. Lisa and Chuck felt that they could no longer stay together as a couple and Brooks and his brother, Michael went to live with their mother.

The divorce started an odyssey over the next year that Brooks would rather not remember. Although his parents remained friends, Hall did not react well to the separation from his father. Grades began to suffer as he continually tried to stretch the envelope. Although he never entered the world of alcohol and drugs, he spent too much time with his friends “hanging out.”

In Brooks’ own words, “It was a traumatic experience. I was an A/B student up until that time. Just getting used to the fact that your parents aren’t together any longer is hard. My grades began to suffer and I began to hang around with the wrong crowd. I started to abuse my privileges when I was living with my mom during that first year. It is still tough to this day.” Lisa began to become concerned in the changes that she saw in Brooks and after discussions with Chuck, Brooks moved back in with his father.

“We always had that level of fear of my dad that all kids should have of their parents. That is why my mom had me move back with my father, although it hurt her a great deal.”

Although the move back to living with his father had a long term positive effect, the turmoil in his life continued as Chuck changed jobs and Brooks had to move from city to city before they finally settled in Tro.

“I lived with my dad in Trotwood after living in Piqua with my mom. I started seventh grade in Trotwood. Right before basketball season that year, I moved to Troy. Three weeks after we moved to Troy, we moved back to Piqua. We then moved back to Troy for good when I entered eighth grade. My first few years back with my dad were somewhat unstable.” Once they finally settled into a home in Troy, a true partnership began to form with Brooks and Chuck. Although still very close to his mother, Brooks cemented a bond with his fathe.

“My dad and I are really close. Living one on one with my dad really brought us together. We shared duties at home for a while, but my dad really turned into Mr. Mom. I’m not so sure that was a good thing, because I’m lazy now when it comes to cleaning. He’s always gone out of his way for me.” It was during this time that Hall’s basketball skills really came to the forefront. Although he had played football, baseball and soccer growing up, it was in high school that he went with basketball full time.

Brooks related, “I gave the others up when I got to high school because I felt at the time that basketball was going to be my ticket to college if any was.”

Chuck had been a pretty good basketball player himself as a young adult and averaged over 30 points per game while going to Edison Community College in Piqua. “My dad was going to go to a four year college, but he and my mom got married while he was still at Edison and then she became pregnant with me. With that, he gave up his dream of college.” With a good deal of talent of his own, Chuck worked with Brooks on an almost daily basis to help him refine his skills on the court.

“My dad has been the biggest influence in my life both on and off of the court. He worked with me a lot on my game. We used to play one on one and I was able to beat him for the first time when I was 15. He didn’t like that at all. After I beat him, we would play every other day. He is very competitive. It really helped me a lot with my game. It really helped us bond. We don’t shoot as much now but we do talk about what is right or wrong.”

Brooks began to receive letters from colleges when he was in the eighth grade. Hall remembers, “I got my first letter in eighth grade. I was a young eighth grader at that and I was really excited about getting it. It was overwhelming. I didn’t realize what was in store. It gets old. You get from 10 to 40 letters a day. If I could change things it would be the phone calls. In a fantasy would I would require all of the coaches to go through your high school coach. There are a lot of people that aren’t genuine; they tell you what you want to hear.”

The recruiting became much more intense after he averaged 11 points and 10 rebounds per game as an out PF position center his freshman year. The 6′ 4″, 150 pound Hall was the tallest player on the team and as a result had to guard the tallest player on the opposition.

Barry Egan, his coach at Troy, realized that Brooks had abilities that he could not utilize at center so he began to have Hall handle the ball more and more. After he moved to an outside position, his game really blossomed. He averaged 24 points as a sophomore, 23 as a junior and 22 as a senior. The numbers declined every year because the team improved and it allowed Brooks to become a complete player and not just a scorer.

After his junior year, the level of recruiting pressure became even more intense. Hall was not your everyday basketball player. When asked where he could have gone to college he responded, “It would be easier to say that they only ones that weren’t interested were Duke and North Carolina.”

The recruiting process takes a good deal of time for both the coaches and the players involved. It is both an enjoyable and difficult process. The smarter players look at everything involved and don’t get caught up in the hype of what this coach says or where this school has been. Often it is just how they interact and just how honest they care to be.

“I knew that Coach Purnell was genuine. I knew that Coach Izzo was genuine. In fact, I was headed to Michigan State. It was about a week away from committing to Michigan State when I went to the Nike Camp. I stopped by the Arena for an unofficial visit the day before I was to leave for the camp. They really made me feel wanted. They came across as genuine. I went to the Nike Camp and just couldn’t get the visit out of my mind. David Young, who just recently transferred from Xavier, and I talked a great deal during that week and at the end of the week he said that all I was talking about was Dayton. When I got home, I called Coach P. and told him that I had decided to come to UD. I wanted to either go to a place where I could make a difference in the program or go somewhere that was already prominent. I’m sure I made the right choice.”

Speculation had run rampant that Hall was headed to the University of Cincinnati. Rumors were everywhere that Barry Egan was in the hip pocket of Bob Huggins and Hall would be heading south for his four year matriculation. However, none of that was true.

Brooks sets the record straight. “Coach Egan is friends with Huggins. He didn’t push me in that direction but he was more likely to talk about UC than other schools. I know the rumor was that I was going to UC but that was never the case. My dad told me that he wasn’t going to tell me where I was going to go, but he did tell me that I wasn’t going to UC. Huggins is a very good guy and we still have a good relationship.”

Shortly after his conversation with Purnell, Hall made public his desire to attend the University of Dayton. All was good in his life. He had made one of the most difficult decisions that he would ever make in his life. The next four years would take place close to his home in a place that he felt comfortable in with people that he enjoyed being around. His fairy tale trip was about to being. The only problem was that the fairy tale was about to run into the Wicked Witch of the West.

Part II of II comes tomorrow.