“There are no bad kids; they all have potential,” Vic Hall passionately asserted to this writer during a phone conversation this past Tuesday. It is a tenet he has held since embarking on a decades-long journey as a coach, mentor, and youth development specialist. It is this mindset, buttressed by heartfelt, tireless work, that earned Hall the 2025 Jr. Knicks Coach of the Year Award, sponsored by the Hospital for Special Surgery, this past February 26, at Madison Square Garden when the Knicks hosted the Philadelphia 76ers.
With the honor, Hall was gifted $20,000 and entered as the Knicks’ representative in the Jr. NBA’s National Coach of the Year Program. The Jr. Knicks is the Knicks’ youth program designed to introduce children to the game of basketball through clinics, camps, and leagues. Hall, who began coaching as a 21-year-old, could be aptly characterized as an oracle. The 69-year-old head of the Bronx-based non-profit Keep Youth Dreams Alive, which he founded in 1994, has helped shape the lives of a plethora of young people, many that today have achieved notable success in various professions. KYDA is housed at Earl Monroe High School.
“Accountants, lawyers, medical field professionals, actors,” listed Hall. “I am extremely proud of the men and women they have become. They used basketball as a tool to go to learn life lessons, how to serve their communities, interact with people that may have grown up differently than they did, in a different culture, they have traveled the world. I still look at them as my babies even though they are successful adults.”
Some of the names are well known in New York basketball circles including former St. John’s standout Billy Goodwin, who Hall refers to as “my little brother.” Durand Scott, who played at Rice High School and the University of Miami, and is balling professionally overseas. Justin Burrell, the 2011 Big East Conference Sixth Man of the Year for St. John’s who is in his 15th pro campaign, most recently in Japan. And Toni Belafonte, who spent four years playing for iconic coach Dawn Staley at Temple University from 2000-04 before embarking on a career as an actress.
Omari Rambert, a program director for the New York Junior Tennis League and South Carolina State alumnus, credits Hall with imparting foundational life skills that he has carried with him well into adulthood.
“Coach Vic always talked about the value of discipline,” said Rambert. “Whether on the court or in the classroom. It’s because of him that I wanted to work with youth.”
Hall’s basketball roots were planted at Columbus High School in the Bronx prior to attending and playing for Westchester Community College and one year as a freshman on the squad at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His coaching resume has lines at Columbus, Our Savior Lutheran, and St. Raymond’s (Bronx), where he guided the girls’ varsity to the 2024 Tier 4 championship.
Next Thursday at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Hall will be inducted into the Grass Roots Hall of Fame along with legendary basketball figures Sonny Vaccaro and Boo Williams.