FAMU's Hall named Big Bend girls Player of the Year

The season was long over, but Precious Hall still thinks about the distance between her basketball team and a state championship.

Making it to Lakeland is not good enough for the leader of a FAMU High team that fell a game short of returning to the state semifinals this year.

The trophy is a tease for the Rattlers sophomore who is the Tallahassee Democrat's All-Big Bend Player of the Year for girls basketball. Hall's two previous attempts at the title have fallen short with the championship trophy from the FHSAA in the near-distance.

"I'm proud to be the Player of the Year, but I would rather be a state champion," Hall said. "Individual awards are good, but I would rather have a team award."

FAMU High played three state champions — including Columbia, a AAA champion in Georgia — this season and 3A state semifinalist Rickards en route to a 20-8 record. Hall was the team's leading scorer and was routinely assigned tough defensive assignments on the perimeter.

"Precious Hall has meant a great deal to us, since she came to our school," said FAMU High girls basketball coach Ahmad Aliyy. "This is her second year and her second time as an All-Big Bend player. We probably wouldn't have gone as far as we did."

Past glories and honors only mean so much to Hall.

Sitting on a pair of bleachers in the summer heat, the rising junior itemized her offseason to-do list to erase two years of playoff tears when one of the area's premier teams was eliminated.

Whether it's working out almost daily, turning into a better leader or tempering her on-court frustration, it was evident Hall was already thinking about the 2010-11 season and how she could get her hands on that state championship trophy.

"Keishara (Green) was telling me about winning a state championship," Hall said of the team's 2010 captain who was on the 2004 FAMU High state title team. "Every night before a playoff game I dreamed of winning the playoff game and going to state so I could get the ring, the jacket and the notoriety of being a state champion."

What may separate Hall from her peers at this stage of her career is her willingness to know what is required from a situation and execute it.

Aliyy mentioned a game against Rickards in the preseason. FAMU High had given up a 16-point lead, but was bailed out by a 3-pointer by Hall as time expired to give the Rattlers a two-point win.

"People were shocked because Rickards was up one. They knew they had us," Aliyy said. "To be aware of what you need and have that confidence to take it, that says a lot."

As does being the Big Bend's Player of the Year.