The hero football coach who chased Chardon High shooter from building, preventing more deaths

Of course there’s no way of knowing for sure, but an assistant football coach who was acting as a study hall monitor may have saved several lives when he chased a teenaged gunman off campus during a tragic shooting incident in Ohio on Monday. Frank Hall, 38, is described by students and teachers as someone “who would take a bullet” for his students, and in fact he did rush a shooter who was aiming a gun at him, say police. The Cleveland Plain Dealer:

“As horrifying as everything was, when you hear about kids in that situation and you hear a coach did what he did, we all knew it was Frank right away,” said Jefferson High football coach Jim Henson, who has known the burly, 38-year-old Jefferson resident for years and coaches one of Hall’s four sons.

Hall confronted and chased the gunman out of the Chardon High School cafeteria after five students were shot, witnesses said.

“It doesn’t surprise me he put his body in front of other people’s bodies and saved lives,” Chardon assistant football coach Don Navatsyk said.

Hall is a study hall and cafeteria monitor and the football team’s offensive coordinator. He is widely admired by students and coaches alike.

“If you talk to 100 kids at school, all 100 would say, ‘We love coach Hall.’ He’s an inspiration,” Navatsyk said in a phone interview from Orlando, Fla., where he was visiting family.

The 17-year-old under arrest in Monday’s attack, T.J. Lane, faced an afternoon hearing in juvenile court.

It’s unfortunate that we have to hear about Hall under these circumstances: aside from taking on the often thankless jobs of assistant coach and classroom monitor, Hall and his wife, Ashley, have adopted four boys — one who lettered on the Jefferson football team this past fall. Hall is certified to teach social studies but doesn’t currently have a teaching job. He’s a 1992 graduate of Ashtabula Harbor High, where he was a lineman on the football team and made the state wrestling tournament.

Don Navatsyk, a Chardon attorney who is the father-in-law of head football coach Mitch Hewitt, said Hall was uninjured but was shaken up by the ordeal.

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Assistant football coach’s heroism no surprise to his peers [Cleveland Plain Dealer]