Mr. and Mrs. Coach Hall: A conversation with the Halls

Football coach Bill Hall and instructional coach and testing coordinator Kim-Marie Hall have been married since 2007. Recently they spoke separately regarding their connection to the school and each other. Responses have been edited for length.

On the ways their spouse supports them inside and outside of school:

Mrs. Hall: Well, that’s probably why we get along so well; this is a very time-consuming and a mentally and physically demanding profession. It’s a “takes one to know one” kind of thing, so he has a great appreciation for my level of tired and my level of needs…. I always have done stats for the football team, because it’s one of those “If you can’t beat them, join them” [situations], so you might as well find a way to be a part of it. This is our second marriage for both of us, and one of the things that we talked a lot about was the fact that our former spouses kind of resented the fact that we spent so much time at school. And even at home you’re grading papers, you’re doing lesson plans, you’re researching. You know, just that sort of thing, to really understand that and appreciate it unless you’ve been there. Because people with real jobs go home every night and get to do whatever they want and they don’t bring their jobs home with them like educators do.

Coach Hall: I honestly don’t know how I would have made it all these years as the head football coach without her. She did my stats, she was my secretary, anything I needed to get done as far as paperwork or that kind of stuff, she would help me with. When I had a bad practice or we had a bad game, I could talk to her, or she would just leave me alone. You know, sometimes that’s what I needed. And even when we had great games and great practices, [she was] somebody to talk to, and [she] leveled me back off, calmed me down a little bit and that kind of thing.

On how working at Northwood makes their relationship different:

Mrs. Hall: Northwood is a very special place, and it gets in your blood. And the best thing about this environment is the students, so we both fell in love with this place a long time before we fell in love with each other….  I would not be as happy if he wasn’t here, because he makes part of the work even more fun. It’s easier to go, “Can you believe what so-and-so said,” you know, things that happen, and we have that connection… and again, because of the time that we’ve both spent, at least we’re able to do it in the same place. I know where he is, whereas if he was at a different school or if I was at a different school, then those hours would just be more hours apart.

On their peaceful marriage:

Coach Hall: We’ve never had a fight. We’ve had disagreements, but we were both in a previous marriage where arguing and fighting was part of it, and we both made a conscious effort that that’s not going to happen in this one.

Mrs. Hall: I think part of it is just maturity. We’re just old. There are just some things that aren’t worth fighting over. Now that’s not to say that we don’t yell and pick at each other and stuff, but really we have the same goals. We want the same thing, and we both want to live in a household that is free of conflict. And in a relationship, it takes two to create conflict. He does things that drive me crazy, and I do things that drive him crazy, and you have to own that and say, “Well, it doesn’t bother him. I’m the one with the problem.”

On working with his spouse:

Coach Hall: I can’t imagine I would have stayed this long without her being here. I’ve heard horror stories about other couples working together and how it just didn’t work, but honestly I can’t imagine working without her being here.

On their proudest in-school moment with their spouse:

Mrs. Hall: It always comes back to football. I just think every season had its moments, but his last season at the end of the year get together… being able to have people say how much they appreciated him. I did a retirement party for him after that, and just the number of people that came back, former players and stuff like that, all coming and saying how much he impacted their lives. And he’s really good at keeping up with former players…. There is not one of them that if they called and said that they needed something that we wouldn’t be in the car going to do whatever we needed to do.

Coach Hall: One of my proudest moments for [Mrs. Hall] was last year at the state DECA conference when she got a lifetime achievement award from North Carolina DECA. It had to be a secret, so I got her mom and dad and brother and his wife here, and all of her friends here, at Greensboro. We had to hide out, and she didn’t know I was there, so when she got the award up on stage in front of everybody, we walked out in front, which made it even a bigger deal for her.

On their favorite in-school memory with their spouse:

Coach Hall: [Mrs. Hall] was a first-year Northwood teacher, and I don’t remember the year—it was 2000, ’01, ’02, somewhere in there—I’m old, I can’t remember this stuff. But she was in charge of DECA, and they were going on a field trip to Charlotte, and she was going to take one of my football players. And again, we weren’t dating, we were just teachers then. She was going to take one of my football players, and we knew each other well, and we were becoming good friends. But I told my football players, “This is the state playoffs. You are not missing practice to go on a field trip.” And she came down, halfway picking and halfway serious, she yelled at me down the hallway, and told me I didn’t have the right to not let the football players go on the field trip, and I got loud with her back…. That was kind of one of our funny moments together.

Did the kid end up going on the field trip?

Oh no. He stayed for football practice.

Mrs. Hall shared her memories of that event.

Bill said, “If he goes, he misses practice, he won’t start tomorrow night.” [I said], “That’s not fair. This is a field trip!” [And he said], “Well, I’m sorry. That’s the rule.” I said, “Well, that’s a stupid rule.” [Coach Hall] was walking down towards the gym, and I’m yelling, “But that’s not fair! That is ridiculous! How can you punish a kid for wanting to do something that’s educational?” and the student standing behind me was like, “People don’t yell at Coach Hall. People don’t yell at Coach Hall.” And I was like, “I’ll yell at him!” And I think it was that next season that I got involved with doing the stats. He only asked me because I was the only one that he knew that could operate a computer, but then I kind of got it. Then it was like “Oh, he’s right. That kid should not have gone.” Because part of the success of that team and that program is the discipline involved, and everybody has to be held to the same standard. But at the time, I was worried about my standard, and I wanted to offer this student this opportunity. I was so angry with him.

Any final comments?

Coach Hall: Let everyone know it’s not too bad being married to Coach Hall. I’m not mean all the time.

Mrs. Hall: One of the questions I get a lot from students is, “Is [Coach Hall] this mean all the time?” and I always say, “Yep. He’s just as mean at home as he is here.”

Is that true?

Mrs. Hall: “No; he’s not mean at all. And the other thing that you probably wouldn’t believe is that our house is very quiet. We are both very quiet people. You would never believe that knowing either one of us, probably. But when it’s just the two of us in the house, it’s a very quiet place—unless he’s got wrestling on television—in which case, it’s loud.”

– By Adrianne Cleven