Impact Of A Scholarship: Shane Hall

Growing up in Edgewater, Maryland, less than 30 miles from the University of Maryland campus, it would be easy to assume that Maryland was always the desired destination for Shane Hall. But that would be an incorrect assumption.

“Maryland was not always my school,” says Hall. “And what I'm about to say is going to be blasphemous, but the school I grew up loving and watching and wanting to go to was actually Hopkins. And that is a hard thing to admit out loud. But I remember growing up, watching them and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, that's what I want to do. I want to play lacrosse.’”

With aspirations that high, one would think Hall was a natural, a coveted recruit from the get-go.

Once again, that line of thinking would be false.

“I remember my freshman year in high school, I was not very good,” recalls Hall. “I was a pretty bad lacrosse player, to be honest. I had been playing for like three or four years, but before that, I was a football guy, so I was basically transitioning to lacrosse. It was not good. It was hard to watch. But I remember the very end of my freshman year, I started on JV and it was a great experience.

“The more reps I got, the better I got and I thought to myself ‘I think I could do this.’ And I got to watch some older guys at school do really well and they were like the kings of the campus and I want to be like those guys. So I kind of put all my effort into lacrosse.”

Those efforts started to pay dividends when his high school coach approached the upperclassmen at South River High School and asked for a list of schools they would consider going to. Hall certainly set his sights high.

“So like the far too confident kid that I was, I just took a screenshot of the Top 20 list was at the time and sent that as my list,” says Hall. “And he told me that might be a bit too ambitious. ‘Why don't we start thinking about maybe sprinkling a few Division II or III schools in there?’ And I said, ‘Nah. Trust me, that's the list. I'm going to make it to one of these.’

“And I got better and better and better and trained hard. And with my coaches help, I got there.”

But Maryland wasn’t the first school to take notice or show interest in Hall. That would be Towson, which just happened to be the alma mater of Hall’s father, Clay, who played football for the Tigers from 1987-89.

“Towson was the first program that reached out and started following me,” says Hall. “And at first, it was a little tepid, like, ‘Hey, we're kind of interested in you.’ And all I could think of was, ‘Oh my God, this is amazing. Are you kidding me?’

“Then at the end of my sophomore year or beginning of my junior year, they told me ‘We'd love to have you.’ And I couldn’t believe it. It was incredible. It was my first taste of somebody actually wanting me. And that kind of went to my head. And then the thought crossed my mind, ‘Well, if they really want me, I wonder if any of those other schools do too?’

“And then I started doing more camps and more showcase stuff, and sure enough other schools started calling. And all of a sudden those Townson calls were nice, but I’ve got Maryland and Hopkins interested in me now, so we're on a different playing field.

“I remember actually meeting with Towson at XFINITY Center during a Top 205 camp and they tried to offer me and Scott LaRue a spot at Towson. They said we'll give you X amount and we'll give him X amount. We need you guys. And we were like, ‘Okay, yeah, that sounds good. But then we talked to each other and we're like, ‘But it ain't Maryland.’”

Like most high school recruits Hall enjoyed the process of being recruited, which included campus visits. He’ll never forget stepping onto the College Park campus.

“When I started getting recruited and taking visits I was taken aback by the environment at Maryland because it seemed to me it was the total package,” says Hall. “I've always preferred a bigger campus, bigger pond, bigger environment.

“And you're not getting that in any of the other places that recruited me. I was considering going to a smaller school, like Towson or Navy or UMBC or Loyola or Hopkins, and there were a couple of other schools from out of state, but Maryland was the biggest fish out there. 

“And I thought, ‘Hey, do you want to maybe not shine as bright on a bigger stage or shine really brightly on a smaller stage?’ I've always chosen the bigger stage because I’ll find a way. I'll make it. I'll find a way to make it happen. I've always been attracted to that.

"When I visited I just knew, ‘This is the place.’ I don't know why I never thought that it was going to be. Maryland was always like the local school and growing up I never really thought about it as the place that I would go to until I came on my visit and just had an amazing time and saw everything it had to offer.

“And that was it. I knew this was the place for me.”

Hall arrived at Maryland in the Fall of 2008 as a part of a highly-touted recruiting class that was ranked second in the nation by Inside Lacrosse. But, the transition from 2,000-enrollment South River to the 30,000-plus University of Maryland campus wasn’t exactly a smooth one.

“I'm coming in as a 17-year-old, thinking that these guys are like grown men,” recalls Hall. “There's no way I'm competing with these guys. 

“And then we show up on campus and we suit up and I got butterflies like crazy, thinking ‘Oh my God. Oh my God. These are the names I recognize. I recognize all these names Oh my God, that's Max Ritz and that's Joe Cinoski. Holy s**t.’”

The big stage Hall wanted was daunting, but it only pushed him to get better … and fast.

“Suiting up for the first practice I said to myself, ‘I do not belong here with these guys. I really don't. I should not be here,’” says Hall. “But then it was, ‘You know what? Stop saying that. Let's go. Let's go!’ And then we start catching and throwing and I'm like, ‘Please, God, do not let me drop passes. Don't ruin this drill for everybody. They're going to know you're the rookie.’ There was some of that imposter syndrome. 

“It took probably about a month, month and a half, to get used to the speed of the game. But then that just became the new normal, playing against guys that have been there, done that at the highest level.”

Playing at the highest level pushed Hall even more and the work ethic he developed early on, and would continue throughout his life, continued to pay off.

“Coming in I had none of the lacrosse IQ that some of the Baltimore guys had coming in,” says Hall. “And it took so long to figure out how the game should be played just by watching them and studying the film sessions. I had to play catch up with all that. I could match some guys athletically, but I had to run stadium steps, I had to do extra weight lifting, I had to do all this stuff just to stay on par with the guys that were on the team. I was not as naturally gifted as some of these guys. I had to put in the work to even compete with them.”

The work would continue rep after rep, practice after practice, year after year, but while Hall’s effort wasn’t seen with a lot of playing time on game day, it was his attitude that stood out.

“You don't go to Maryland and think ‘Hey, I'm going to be on the scout team for a couple of years, but then it'd be a starter,’” says Hall. “You think coming in ‘I'm going to be an All-American.’ 

“But, it doesn't matter who you are or what your role on the team is, you practice every practice like that's your game day and you play like you're an All-American. And whether you get on the field once or never or you're a starter, you'll know that you've put your best effort out and in your mind, you're the All-American. And then when you get your shot, you get your shot and you make the most of it.”

The Terps certainly made the most of their shot during Hall’s time in College Park. After quarterfinal exits in the NCAA tournament in each of Hall’s first three seasons, the Terrapins enjoyed the breakout season everyone expected in 2011.

Maryland rose to No. 4 in the nation with an 8-2 record off of back-to-back wins over then-No. 4 Virginia and Navy. A 12-11 overtime loss at home to No. 3 Hopkins could have sent the Terps reeling, but Maryland rallied the following weekend to top North Carolina and host Duke to capture the ACC tournament title for the first time since 2005.

But, the win proved costly as both Grant Catalino and Joe Cummings missed the final regular-season game due to injury, which saw the Terps fall to unranked Colgate at home.

Despite winning the ACC tournament, the loss to the Raiders allowed the NCAA tournament committee to slot the Terps into the NCAA tournament as an unseeded at-large selection and a rematch with the Tar Heels, but this time it would be in Chapel Hill.

Maryland, which squeaked by UNC, 7-6, in the ACC semifinals, rolled Carolina, 13-6, in a game most remembered for the hidden-ball-trick goal pulled off by Catalino, Brian Farrell and Drew Snider.

That set up a showdown with No. 1-seeded Syracuse in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Catalino’s overtime goal gave Maryland a 6-5 win over the high-powered Orange and sent the Terps to Championship Weekend for the first time since 2006.

“Our entire run, senior year, I won't ever forget,” says Hall. “That was the first time we went to the national championship game. We go to Foxborough and beat the No. 1 seed after beating a Carolina team that was far more talented than we were. And then we come back home to Baltimore, beat the hell out of Duke, who was also more talented than we were.”

While Maryland didn’t bring home the championship that year, that’s not what Hall remembers.

“I just remember being with the guys and having the film sessions, the bus rides, the locker room,” he says. “I remember the team walkthroughs and just being together as a team. It's something that I don't think we fully appreciated it in the moment. I think it's really hard for young guys to do that.

“I don't think you appreciate it fully until you're not allowed to do it anymore. I remember after our last game, we played on the last day of the season. That's the best thing that you can hope for as a team. I don't think I fully accepted we wouldn't be suiting up for probably two years after that. It was hard, not being able to do it anymore.”

The wins and losses come and go, but for Hall, and many Maryland alums like him, it’s everything surrounding the games that matters the most.

“We all remember bits and pieces of games, whether you're a starter or a guy that sat on the bench. What you're going to remember are the bus rides. You're going to remember the locker rooms. You're going to remember hanging out with your teammates. 

“It’s a good reminder that it's not about really the destination. It's more about the journey. That’s what you remember. So focus more on the journey, no matter what sport or business you're in, because your day-to-day stuff might seem monotonous at times, or might seem super exciting, but appreciate the people that you're with while you have them with you and appreciate the journey along the way.”

Hall’s journey has led him to become one of the top real estate agents in the DMV and runs The Shane Hall Group, a team of real estate agents affiliated with Compass. In fact, DC Modern Luxury magazine named Hall one of its “2020 Power Players.”

Admittedly, Hall never envisioned himself in real estate. But, after working for the US Treasury Department as an intern and after graduation, he found himself looking for something else. And that something else fit right into what he’d picked up and learned playing lacrosse.

“I never saw myself in the real estate business,” says Hall. “One thing I’ve learned is who you know matters. That goes for buying and selling, but it also goes for a lot of things in life. 

“If you think about it from a team perspective, the team is more than just the players and the coaches. There are so many different elements surrounding it. It's the same in business. There are ancillary pieces that factor into that business to make it successful. You have to have an admin and an accountant. You probably have a marketing person because your time is best spent doing what your strengths are.

“Your strengths, typically, if you're a top agent, are meeting, networking, being out showing properties, and on listing appointments. But you have to have a support staff with you so that you can focus on doing what you do best. Being a part of a team helps you learn all of that. The cream of the crop rises to the top, always does, but it still takes more than just you to do it.”

That can also be said for college athletics. While the coaches and student-athletes are front and center, there are many behind the scenes that make things work and work well. One of the oft-forgotten cogs in the machine is the donors whose donations provide the scholarships that benefit student-athletes like Hall. Even if those student-athletes don’t know it at the time.

Hall remembers not even thinking about where the dollars that made his scholarship a reality came from.

“At the time I didn’t think about it, but I do now as an adult,” says Hall. “As an adult, looking at how life works and how these programs work, it's incredible what goes into it. But at the time I didn't really think about it.”

Now, with the benefit of hindsight, Hall appreciates what his scholarship meant to him and his family and how it continues to influence his life.

“For me, my scholarship certainly made my family life easier,” says Hall. “The financial burden was just a little bit less. During that time the country was going through a recession; everything was crazy tight. I know that I could feel it from my parents. It was a difficult time and I probably don't get this experience without that scholarship.

“My scholarship changed the course of my life, which doesn’t happen without the generosity of the donors. They allowed me to continue my journey, and without them, I don't have that.”

Hall also wouldn’t have the memories he treasures most without his scholarship.

“Earning a scholarship offer to play at Maryland meant to me that I had made it. That everything I had to sacrifice in order to get there was worth it, knowing I was going to have an opportunity to play on the biggest stage there was.

“I don't think you appreciate it fully until you're not allowed to do it anymore. So I remember after our last game we played was on the last day of the season. That's the best thing that you can hope for as a team. I don't think I fully accepted we wouldn't be suiting up for probably two years after that. It was hard, not being able to do it anymore.

“There's nothing like suiting up for your school with your friends and going to battle with each other. There's just nothing like it. And I will miss that for the rest of my life. It doesn't matter if you played or didn't play in the games, you will miss those moments no matter who you are.

“It didn't work out the way that I planned it to, but I wouldn't take it back at all. I enjoyed the hell out of my time here.”