Thayer Hall (20), the 2017-18 Gatorade National Player of the Year, leads the Gators in both points and kills this season.
Do-It-All Freshman Hall Heads Home to Face Gamecocks
Thursday, October 11, 2018 | Volleyball, Chris Harry
Share:
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The way Melanie Hall recalls it, she dropped her daughter off at volleyball practice and decided to stick around a bit. Thayer Hall, 10 years old at the time, was playing for a Under-12 program coached by one of her mother best friends, Angie Thompson, who like Melanie, was a former Division-I volleyball player. When practiced ended, Thayer was invited to stay and put in some overtime hitting with an older team.
Thayer Hall
Together, the two watched.
In wonder.
That's when Thompson turned to her friend and uttered something Melanie has never forgotten.
"I played volleyball and I know if I had been playing against Thayer I would've been ducking most of the time," Melanie Hall said this week. "So, what she meant was that she knew, right then, that Thayer was going to be really, really good. As a friend, she was saying that we needed to keep her humble, grounded and to coach her from the inside out."
So, how'd they do?
Eight years later, Thayer Hall is a fiery, superstar freshman at Florida who has embraced her new teammates and fresh surroundings, all the while maintaining her love of family and faith, along with a sense of gratitude for everyone back in Spartanburg, S.C., who touched her life and helped nurture her along the way. In fact, a heavy contingent from her hometown will make the 100-mile road trip Friday to return the adoration when the 11th-ranked Gators (15-3, 6-0) play at South Carolina (15-2, 5-1) in a key Southeastern Conference showdown. The Carolina Volleyball Center (capacity 1,600), has already sold out the match, which could break the facility's attendance record of 2,041 that was set against rival cross-state Clemson two years ago.
"These are people I've been playing in front of since I was nine years old, and I get a little choked up when I think that I wasn't supposed to see all these people before Christmas," said Hall, who will have friends and family from all over her state, as well as neighboring states making the trek to see her. "Just to know that it didn't all end when I left Spartanburg, that all the support is still there, makes me … ."
That's when Hall started crying.
Humble (check), grounded (check), coached from the inside out (check).
Hall's father played basketball at Wofford and works as a D-I hoops official. Mom played both volleyball and a season of basketball at College of Charleston. Her older brother played basketball at Division-II Anderson University and her younger brother is a blossoming junior star at Spartanburg Dorman High, where Thayer was the 2017-18 Gatorade National Volleyball Player of the Year, led her team to back-to-back state titles and was the No. 1-rated prep prospect in the nation.
Now, the 6-foot-3 outside hitter is doing things at Florida — like playing all six rotations — that have rarely been done during Wise's 28 seasons leading the Gators.
"That's what makes her all the more impressive," Wise said. "A lot of players have come through here to play three rotations, but have not been asked to be a primary passer, as well. Thayer doesn't get a break. She serves, blocks, hits and defends in the key positions. There's no way we could ask her to do all that if she wasn't as physically strong as she is."
Through 18 matches, Hall leads the Gators in kills with 216 (the next-closest teammate has 171), as well as overall points with 254.5, and is third in services aces (16), and fourth in both digs (138) and blocks (40).
In her first collegiate match, Hall had 20 kills, the most ever amassed in a UF debut, as Florida shocked defending NCAA champion Nebraska in the 2018 opener. She had her 50th kill by the third match — the quickest any first-year Gator had reached that number was four matches — and to date has tallied four double-doubles, including a 21-kill, 15-dig effort in a five-set loss to third-ranked Texas.
"Honestly, since I've been here, I've never really felt like a freshman," Hall said. "Obviously, adjusting to the college game and speed of the game was different, but with the way this group accepts everybody, there's no such thing as having to earn your right to be on this team or to earn some level of seniority. You're just part of the Gator family. I walked into this gym and I immediately felt that."
Freshman Thayer Hall leads UF in kills with 219, nearly 50 more than the next-closest Gator has tallied this season.
Hall has done it all with a bubbling confidence and swagger that belies her status as a freshman. Remarkably, she arrived with that sort of attitude last January, after graduating from high school six months early, and instantly announced her outgoing persona to her new teammates.
Their willingness to accept Hall, as is, only made the transition easier.
"When Thayer got here there was just this aura about her. She knew what she was doing and carried herself that way," senior middle blocker Taelor Kellum said. "I'm sure she'd probably say that she didn't, but her appearance and body language looked so outwardly confident and strong, both with her attitude and her game. She wasn't scared to take risks, and she was never afraid to do or say something outside her comfort zone."
Added senior setter Allie Monserez: "She was not afraid to voice things and some people weren't expecting that. When she spoke up, we were like, 'OK, this is who Thayer is and we're going to embrace it.' It allowed some of the other younger players, some of the sophomores and even the juniors, to say, 'OK, let's be really competitive and call people out when they need to be called out and get this right."
It helped, of course, that Hall was really, really good from the get-go.
On a team that graduated SEC Player of the Year and two-time first-team All-America middle blocker Rhamat Alhassan, plus second-team All-America outside hitters Carli Snyder and Shaniah Joseph, Hall was a gift from the volleyball kill gods.
"Those were powerful players, but Thayer puts dents in the floor," Kellum said. "We were like, 'Holy moly! Where did that come from?' "
The answer, of course, is Spartanburg, S.C., a place Hall still holds near and dear to her heart.
As part of an athletic family, she grew up around sports, starting as a cheerleader at five. When she went to her brother's baseball games, she and a friend would pepper a volleyball on the sidelines. As the daughter of two former basketball players, she had a head start on that game and grew into a terror in the post, averaging double-doubles on the varsity team in ninth and 10th grade.
Clockwise from top left: Thayer in fairy costume; as a cheerleader; during in basketball days at Dorman; killing it for her club team; the Hall family (from left: Jerome, Melanie, Thayer, P.J. and Christopher) dressed to the nines for a wedding this summer.
Eventually, though, young Thayer locked in on volleyball full-time, which included year-around club participation and traveling to college camps, such as the one UF puts on each year.
"It was the summer after her eighth grade year," Wise said of her first Hall sighting. "Her shoulders weren't as wide as they are now, but she had a great arm for somebody that young. It only took a couple swings in a camp setting to know it one day would be an elite arm."
Before it was elite for the Gators that arm wreaked havoc for the USA Volleyball Junior National Team, including the gold medal-winning Americans at the U20 Pan American Cup, with Hall garnering Most Valuable Player honors at the competition in China.
"After playing [internationally], it was easier to recognize and deal with the speed of the game when I got here," Hall said.
Try to block a Thayer Hall kill at your own risk.
Now comes the next challenge: Going home.
It will be emotional, to be sure, but Wise was quick to point out that the distraction of a homecoming, once the ball is served, will pale in comparison to playing a very good Gamecocks team in a packed cracker box gym with first place in the SEC on the line. Even with a good chunk of fans in the house pulling for their Palmetto State superstar.
"I'm super excited," she said.
She should be. It's Hall's first trip home in a collegiate odyssey that is only just beginning. What a future this young lady has.
"Because of Thayer's size and strength and how hard she's working in all aspects of her game, she has a chance to be one of the elite not just here, but for well beyond her college career," Wise said.
