By now, everyone knows about the shooting at Chardon High School in Ohio a few days ago. Chardon is located in northeast Ohio, about a half hour east of Cleveland. Three students were killed and another injured by a 17 year old shooter, which makes this story hard to tell.
It could be asked what does this have to do with football and that explanation is coming. In fact it is better explained by student Sebastian Diaz-Rodriguez, a firsthand witness to what happened that fateful morning.
“I hit the ground and heard Mr. Hall yell ‘hey’ at the shooter. I saw the shooter turn toward Mr. Hall and he ran out. Mr. Hall chased him”.
Frank Hall is now the most famous assistant high school football coach not only in NE Ohio, but possibly all of the state and the country. Hall is a big, husky football coach for Chardon that before the incident was a jolly hall and cafeteria monitor. It was that job that put him in the right place to save more lives.
Hall is being hailed as he chased away the gunman that opened fire at the Chardon cafeteria, killing one and injuring four others. Hall put his life on the line as he charged the gunman, who took aim at him. Hall refused to stop and chased the gunman from the building where he was later apprehended by police.
Police officers who spoke about the incident said Hall may have saved lives, and that his bravery was instinctive and exemplary. Afterwards, the students thanked the coach in an outpouring of emotions on social media.
Hall has stayed away from the media, but the social outpouring brought him into the public Thursday afternoon. A deeply religious man, Hall said in a brief statement directed to the parents who lost their loved ones, they weren’t alone and that he “prayed with them and wiped their tears, and I know God was with them.”
In trying times, we find that character reveals itself. Sometimes we don’t even realize it’s happening at the time. Hall relied on his heart to know what to do. He trusted what he believed and it led to many others being saved.
We throw around the title of hero far too often. We make sports icons out to be heroes just because of what they do on the field. Firemen and Soldiers are two groups that get called heroes regardless of their actions, and deservedly so. It is deeds that make heroes and not title.
Frank Hall is indeed a hero.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jlwdC0N2B0
