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Having spent his entire coaching career involved with winning programs, Danny Hall's tenure at Georgia Tech has been his most successful, as he is the all-time winningest baseball coach in Yellow Jacket history with 652 victories at the school. He has led Tech to the NCAA Tournament on 13 occasions and guided the Yellow Jackets to the College World Series in 1994, 2002 and 2006, the only head coach in the program's storied history to reach the promised land of Omaha.
Since Hall took over the program, Georgia Tech has averaged 43.5 wins per season, the ninth-highest figure in the nation over the last 15 years. In this decade alone he has directed the Yellow Jackets to two College World Series appearances, three Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament titles (2000, 2003, 2005) and three ACC regular season championships (2000, 2004, 2005) while averaging 44.3 wins per season.
Since Hall's arrival at Georgia Tech in 1994, a staggering 79 Yellow Jackets have been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft a total of 87 times, while 35 MLB Draftees have chosen to attend Georgia Tech to play for the Yellow Jacket skipper. Ten of his student-athletes have been selected in either the first or supplemental rounds, while he has coached 43 players that have been taken in the first 10 rounds of the MLB draft.
Hall's no-nonsense, professional approach to baseball has given his players the fundamentals they need to be successful after leaving Georgia Tech, as is indicated in the number of his former players that have appeared on Major League rosters. Current major leaguers Brandon Boggs and Marlon Byrd of the Texas Rangers, Kevin Cameron of the San Diego Padres, Nomar Garciaparra of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Matt Murton and Eric Patterson of the Chicago Cubs, Micah Owings of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jay Payton of the Baltimore Orioles, Mark Teixeira of the Atlanta Braves and Jason Varitek of the Boston Red Sox all played for the Yellow Jacket skipper. Since his first head coaching job in 1988, Hall has coached no fewer than 18 players that have appeared on Major League rosters.
The success of Hall's former players in professional baseball is molded by their accomplishments at Tech, as his Yellow Jacket teams have advanced to 13 NCAA Regionals in his 15 years at the school. Georgia Tech has posted 33 NCAA victories since his arrival in 1994, winning regionals in 1994, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2006 and super regionals in 2002 and 2006. The Yellow Jackets have posted a .500 or better record in Atlantic Coast Conference play every year since his arrival, and have finished third or better in the league in nine of his 15 seasons. Georgia Tech has been ranked as the top team in the country six times for a total of 22 weeks under Hall, and in five of the last nine seasons.
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In his first year at Georgia Tech, Hall guided an extremely talented and veteran unit with four All-Americas and three first-round draft choices to the brink of a national championship, Georgia Tech's first-ever appearance in the College World Series, and a 50-17 record. Hall was recognized by his American Baseball Coaches Association peers as Coach of the Year in the Atlantic region, and may have won the national honor if not for the unranked-to-national title season put together by Oklahoma's Larry Cochell. Three Yellow Jackets earned consensus first-team All-America recognition and those three players finished in the top three in the conference batting stats, a first in ACC history.
Hall guided Tech back to the NCAA's in 1995 and 1996 with teams dominated by freshmen and sophomores. His 1997 squad captured its first ACC regular season title in just his fourth year on the Flats and played in the NCAA Mideast Regional. In addition to earning his first ACC Coach of the Year accolade in 1997, the Yellow Jacket skipper was named the National Coach of the Year by The Sporting News, the first such honor for any Tech baseball coach.
After the Yellow Jackets failed to earn an NCAA Regional bid in 1999 for the first time since his arrival at Tech, Hall guided the Jackets to one of their most successful seasons in 2000 - capturing the ACC regular season and tournament championships in addition to the NCAA Atlanta Regional title. The team concluded the year with a 50-16 record, and Hall was tabbed the ACC's Coach of the Year for the second time in his career.
Following another 40-win season in 2001, the sixth since Hall took over the reigns in 1994, the Yellow Jacket coach guided Tech to just its second College World Series appearance in 2002 by turning in one of the best coaching jobs of his career, leading a Tech team that included 17 freshmen and only three seniors back to Omaha. The Yellow Jackets swept through the NCAA Atlanta Regional and NCAA Atlanta Super Regional with a perfect 5-0 record before finishing fifth at the College World Series. They concluded the 2002 campaign with 52 victories, establishing a new school record for wins in a season.
Hall led Georgia Tech to its sixth ACC championship in school history, and second in four years under his direction, with an improbable run to the title in 2003. An early round loss, combined with weather issues, forced Tech to play a triple-header on the final day of competition, with Hall guiding the Yellow Jackets to a 10-6 win over North Carolina, a 10-7 win over Florida State and a 6-5, 10-inning victory over NC State to claim the title in the first triple-header sweep in league history.
In 2004, the Yellow Jackets captured their third ACC regular season title under Hall while the team made its fifth-straight NCAA appearance, and 10th since Hall's arrival on the Flats. Tech hosted a regional for the fourth time in five years, and advanced to a super regional for the third time since 2000.
From 2004-05, Hall directed Tech to an ACC-record 25-straight conference wins, and the Yellow Jacket skipper was awarded with his third ACC Coach of the Year award after guiding Tech to the 2005 ACC regular season and tournament titles.
Georgia Tech, which earned a top-eight national seed in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth-consecutive year, made its third-straight NCAA Super Regional appearance the following season and advanced to its third College World Series since Hall's arrival. Hosting an NCAA Regional for the fifth-straight year, Tech swept through the Regional and Super Regional with a perfect 5-0 record before ending the 2006 season in Omaha with a 50-10 overall record.
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Hall became Georgia Tech's winningest coach in 2005, earning his 505th victory at the school March 27 at Miami. His Georgia Tech teams have posted a 652-294 (.689) record in 15 years and he owns a 860-411 (.677) record in his 21 seasons as a head coach. Hall has also led the Yellow Jackets to a 242-137 (.638) record in ACC regular season games.
Each of Hall's Tech teams has been powered by a potent offense, leading or finishing second in the ACC in batting or run production in 10 of his 15 years as the Yellow Jackets' head coach. Tech established a school record with a .342 team batting average in 2000, and then eclipsed that mark with a .347 clip the following season.
Hall has had 71 players earn all-conference honors in his 15 years, while his players have received 27 All-America nods since 1994. He has coached two National Players of the Year, two National Freshmen of the Year, one ACC Player of the Year and three ACC Rookies of the Year.
The Yellow Jacket head coach had a school-record 10 players selected in the 2005 Major League Baseball draft and matched that total just two years later when 10 more were selected in the 2007 MLB Draft. Over the last four years under Hall, Tech has had 34 players selected in the draft.
Hall's teams have been equally successful in the classroom, as 104+ student-athletes have been named to the ACC Honor Roll (with a 3.0 or higher grade point average) and six have earned Academic All-America honors on eight occasions.
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From a pair of conference titles and NCAA regional appearances as a player, through six Big Ten championships and four College World Series teams as an assistant coach, to two conference titles and a pair of NCAA regionals as a head coach, Hall was well-prepared for the task that faced him when he took over the reigns at Georgia Tech in December, 1993.
All of Hall's teams have been winners, and he has had a hand in developing some of baseball's best talent over his coaching career. Eighteen of his players at Kent State University were drafted by major league baseball organizations. The 54-year-old Hall came to the Flats after building a strong program in his six-year stint (1988-93) at Kent. Hall led the Golden Flashes to Mid-American Conference championships and bids to NCAA regionals in each of his last two seasons, compiling an 86-28 record during that time.
He forged a 208-117 (.640) record in his six years at Kent State, twice winning Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year honors. He also won more games than any other MAC school from 1989-93.
Before becoming a head coach, Hall served as an assistant coach at one of the nation's powerhouses - Michigan - where the Wolverines won the Big Ten six times and participated in seven NCAA regionals and four College World Series. During his tenure, Hall coached future major leaguers Jim Abbott, Scott Kamieniecki, Barry Larkin, Hal Morris, Chris Sabo and Gary Wayne.
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A former president of the American Baseball Coaches Association, Hall now sits on its Board of Directors and is directly responsible for future elected officers within the ABCA as a member of its Nominations Committee. Hall is also a contributing writer on baserunning techniques in Baseball Strategies, a book produced by the ABCA in 2002.
Hall was selected to the Miami (Ohio) Hall of Fame in 1998 and inducted into the Miami Cradle of Coaches in 2007. He is married to the former Kara Zufall and has three sons, Danny III, Carter and Colin.
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Hall's Accomplishments at Tech
(Graduate assistant coach, Miami, two years, 69-26, .726)
1980 Michigan 36 18 .664 14 2 .875 1st Big 10 Champs, NCAA Mideast Champs, CWS
1981 Michigan 41 20 .672 10 4 .714 *1st Big 10 Champs, NCAA Mideast Champs, CWS
1982 Michigan 44 10 .815 13 3 .813 *T1st Third in Big 10 Tournament
1983 Michigan 50 9 .847 13 2 .867 *1st Big 10 Champs, NCAA Mideast Champs, CWS
1984 Michigan 43 20 .683 11 5 .688 *1st Big 10 Champs, NCAA Mideast Champs, CWS
1985 Michigan 55 10 .846 14 2 .875 *1st Third in Big 10 Tournament, NCAA Regional
1986 Michigan 47 12 .797 13 3 .813 *1st Big 10 Tournament Champions, NCAA Regional
1987 Michigan 52 12 .813 13 3 .813 *1st Big 10 Tournament Champions, NCAA Regional
(Assistant coach, Michigan, eight years, 368-111-1, .768) *Denotes Eastern division finish
1988 Kent State 27 25 .519 14 18 .438 6th
1989 Kent State 26 24 .520 10 17 .370 8th
1990 Kent State 35 18 .660 17 10 .629 3rd
1991 Kent State 34 22 .607 19 11 .633 2nd
1992 Kent State 45 13 .776 24 7 .774 1st MAC Champions, NCAA South II Regional
1993 Kent State 41 15 .732 22 10 .688 T1st MAC Co-Champs, NCAA South Regional
(Head coach, Kent State, six years, 208-117, .640)
1994 Georgia Tech 50 17 .746 16 8 .667 T2nd NCAA Midwest I champs, CWS runner-up
1995 Georgia Tech 38 22 .633 16 8 .667 3rd NCAA Mideast Regional
1996 Georgia Tech 40 24 .625 13 11 .542 T3rd NCAA South II Regional finalist
1997 Georgia Tech 46 15 .752 19 4 .826 1st ACC Reg. Season champs, NCAA Mideast
1998 Georgia Tech 41 22 .651 14 9 .609 2nd NCAA Midwest runner-up
1999 Georgia Tech 38 20 .655 12 12 .500 5th --
2000 Georgia Tech 50 16 .758 18 6 .750 1st ACC Reg. Season & Tourn. champs, NCAA Super Regional
2001 Georgia Tech 41 20 .672 13 11 .542 4th NCAA Athens Regional
2002 Georgia Tech 52 16 .765 14 9 .609 5th NCAA Atlanta Reg. & Super Reg. champs, CWS 5th place
2003 Georgia Tech 44 18 .710 17 7 .708 2nd ACC Champions, NCAA Atlanta Regional
2004 Georgia Tech 44 21 .677 18 5 .783 1st ACC Reg. Season Champ., NCAA Super Regional
2005 Georgia Tech 44 19 .703 22 8 .733 1st ACC Reg. Season & Tourn. champs, NCAA Super Regional
2006 Georgia Tech 50 18 .735 19 11 .633 4th College World Series
2007 Georgia Tech 32 25 .561 15 14 .517 7th --
2008 Georgia Tech 41 21 .661 16 14 .533 5th NCAA Athens Regional
(Head coach, Georgia Tech, 15 years, 652-294, .689 overall -- 242-137, .638 in ACC)
Overall Record as a Head Coach (21 years): 860-411 (.677)
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