Meet Ben Hall! Ben is a Hall County resident, Furman University graduate and head football coach at Flowery Branch High School. When he’s not coaching the Falcons, he enjoys traveling and adventures with his family.
Coach Hall’s office is full of memorabilia from past football games at The Branch and Furman University, as well as pictures of his friends and family.
We’d like to thank Coach Hall for taking the time to speak with us about his life in Hall County.
Question: What inspired you or led you to your current career?
Answer: “I grew up as the son of educators, my mom’s a teacher and my dad was a teacher and a coach; my grandparents were actually educators. My grandfather was an elementary school principal for 40 years and my grandmother taught the third grade. It’s something I tried to steer away from in college, I planned to go to law school following college, but one thing led to another, and Bobby Johnson, the head football coach at Furman University, where I played, came to me following my senior year and wanted to know if I’d be interested in accepting a position on staff at Furman. I thought it through, and decided to do it and I stayed there for four seasons and loved it. I met my wife, got married, and then I tried to get out of coaching. I moved to the Tampa Bay area, and worked in private business for two years. Then I came back and had an opportunity to get back into coaching here at Flowery Branch in 2008, and I did.”
Q: Can you tell me the most interesting person you’ve met here in Hall County?
A: “There are a lot of interesting people, that’s a hard question. I go to church at First Baptist Gainesville and I’ve made a lot of friends there. I live here at Sterling on the Lake, and I meet interesting people every day, so it’d be hard to pinpoint the most interesting person.”
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would it be and why?
A: “I’ve been overseas several times. I actually chaperoned a World War II trip twice while at Jefferson, we would go for two weeks in the spring. We flew into Paris and traveled up to Normandy and then over through Belgium and around Germany and did a complete World War II trip. I really enjoyed that so much that my wife and I flew into Munich last summer and stayed in Bavaria for a week. That’s one of my favorite places I’ve been to. So, if I could go anywhere in the world it would probably be Germany.”
Q: What piece of advice would you give to a crowd of people?
A: “Well, it depends on the crowd, but here in this setting I would encourage students at Flowery Branch High School to: one, get to class on time and two, treat teachers how they want to be treated and three, that everything will work out as long as long as you do what you’re supposed to do.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: “I would like to skydive. My dad was a member of the 101st Airborne, and that’s something that’s always intrigued me. The foundation of this program (FBHS Football) is built on the idea of a Band of Brothers. That’s part of the World War II experience, and I definitely think I would like to skydive, to honor that. Not necessarily over Normandy, but just the same.”
Q: What is your favorite thing about Hall County?
A: “The people, there’s good people. This is a great community, and the location’s great, too. You’ve got Lake Lanier three miles down the road and the proximity to Atlanta without being too close. But in general, the people are really nice.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in the next five to 10 years?
A: “I have children ages 9, 7, and 4. So I see myself right here, hopefully as a successful coach and watching my kids grow up and grow through the school system here in Hall County and hopefully working them into successful careers themselves.”
Q: What are three words or phrases that come to find when you think of the word HOME?  
A: “Right now; family, Flowery Branch and love.”
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Hall County?
A: “It would have to be Papa Jack’s, for sure. I eat there three or four times a week.”
The Faces of Hall County is a project to showcase the amazing people that live or work in our community. If you would like to nominate an interesting person to be featured please email babernathy@gonorton.com.