Adam Hall heading for
the Ivy League
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September 5, 2011 |
 By
Mike Weland
After
stellar academic and athletic careers at Bonners
Ferry High School, where he graduated with
academic honors and as one of the most decorated
high school wrestlers in state history,
including three state championship titles, in
2006, and Boise State University, where he
ranked second all-time highest ranked wrestler
in school history was named the 2011 PAC-10
Scholar/Athlete of the Year, Adam Hall, the son
of Roland and Linda Hall, has been named
assistant head wrestling coach at historic
Columbia University in New York City.
While the opportunity has meant a big change in
plans, Adam said he couldn't turn down all the
opportunities such a position entails.
"I was planning on staying at Boise State to
finish pre-requisites for veterinary school,"
Hall said, "but this is a great opportunity that
I just couldn't turn down. The best part of the
deal is that I'll be able to continue my
education at an Ivy League School."
Now, instead of focusing on a career in
veterinary medicine, following in his father's
footsteps, he's backing up just a little to see
where this new opportunity can take him.
"Next semester, I'm just going to focus on my
GREs (Graduated Record Examinations) to enter a
Master's program at Columbia," he said. He's
also looking to remain active as a competitor,
with his sites set on competing for the World
Team and qualifying for a berth at the Olympics.
Before he departs for the Big Apple, though,
he's due to arrive in Bonners Ferry later
tonight, where he'll be able to spend time with
friends and family and get in a little hunting
before he returns to Boise, and from there to
New York, where he's scheduled to begin
September 21.
Columbia University was founded as King's
College in 1754 by a Royal Charter of King
George II, while America was still a British
Colony. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784,
and renamed Columbia College in 1896.
Notable alumni include John Jay, one of the
Nation's founding fathers and first Chief
Justice of the United States, founding father
Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Secretary of
the Treasury, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Barack Obama, and that
young man from Omaha, Warren Buffett, a
financial wizard and one of the world's richest
men. The list of notables with Columbia degrees
is a veritable who's who in the fields of
science, finance, politics, law, literature and
more.
"If I can do well there," Hall said, "the future
is wide open."
He said that serving as a full time assistant
coach will have its challenges, as recruiting
talented athletes is made more difficult at Ivy
League schools, where athletic scholarships are
not offered, but he said he's excited by the
prospect.
"They have a young, very energetic coaching
staff," Hall said, a staff to which he'll add
immeasurably.
And while he's off the the biggest city in the
world, he said, he'll never lose his Bonners
Ferry roots.
"I am what my parents and my town made me," he
said, "and I've appreciated the contiuous
support of the people of this community. It
means a lot the way they are so appreciative
when they see someone move up and find a measure
of success." |
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