Into the Hall: Shauntai Hall
When Shauntai Hall is inducted into the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame on Friday it will mark a first for the organization.
Hall will join her sister, Ellen Guillard, known as Loui Hall in her playing days, marking the first set of sisters to be enshrined.
Both were legendary girls basketball players at Albert Gallatin. Shauntai Hall, who graduated from AG in 1995, totaled 1,937 points and 1,193 rebounds for the Lady Colonials. Loui Hall, a 2003 AG graduate, broke both of her sister’s school records with 2,440 points – which was the Fayette County record until Geibel Catholic’s Emma Larkin surpassed that total this past season – and 1,225 rebounds.
Shauntai and Loui still share the Lady Colonials’ single-game scoring record at 46 points.
Loui Hall was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019.
“I’m so proud of her, very proud of her accomplishments even as a coach there at (Taylor) Allderdice, winning (six) city championships,” Shauntai Hall said.
Now Shauntai Hall will be joining her.
“I just feel blessed and very humbled,” Shauntai Hall said while discussing her impending induction on Hall of Fame co-founder George Von Benko’s Sports Line Talk Show on WMBS Radio recently.
The 5-foot-10 Hall went on to play in college at Penn State for two years and at Rutgers for one but a devastating knee injury wiped out her junior year after transferring. Hall was never the same after the injury. Still, she played for the Scarlet Knights under German Township graduate C. Vivian Stringer and was part of a team that reached the NCAA Final Four in 2000 her senior season.
Hall’s first love, surprisingly, was not basketball when she was growing up.
“I started off in martial arts,” she said. “My dad was always a boxer. He used to box at Tommy Shaffer’s in Uniontown.”
Hall won a gold medal at the U.S. Junior Olympics Tae Kwon Doe Championships when she was 12 and a silver medal when she was 13.
Her dad loved basketball, too.
“He always used to play basketball,” Hall said. “He was very into sports and very athletic, and I was always his tagalong as a little girl. Very good father. I kind of just learned it from him and carried it on.”
Hall didn’t foresee the greatness that was ahead of her on the hardcourt.
“I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be able to get a scholarship and play basketball,” she said. “The opportunities you see now in the WNBA are just so impressive and it just shows you how far we’ve come.”
Hall was one of the few girls in her circle of family and friends growing up.
“I grew up around a lot of boys. They played basketball,” she said. “When we played basketball in junior high school my coach was Dennis Fabri. We were so thankful that he decided to coach. Most of the time the coaches we had were just uncles or fathers. We were just thankful for the opportunity to play. To see it now is just staggering.”
Hall pointed out that she and Stringer, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010, are from the same hometown.
“She came from German Township and so did I,” Hall said. “The majority of the kids that I grew up with, for some reason we didn’t have many girls in our neighborhood. So we just ended up playing like football or basketball. Coach Stringer would tell the story where she was a cheerleader because there weren’t any opportunities for her to play basketball, so I’m just thankful for the opportunity I did have.”
Once Hall hit high school, records began to fall and awards and honors would come her way.
In addition to her scoring and rebounding records she totaled 171 steals, 137 blocked shots and 134 assists while at Albert Gallatin and helped the Lady Colonials win their first section championship her senior year in 1995.
“I just enjoyed playing,” Hall said. “I enjoyed my teammates and I’m very thankful to my coach Kamela Meikle.
One of Hall’s teammates who she held in high regard, was the late Crystal Fields, mother of Laurel Highlands football/basketball star Rodney Gallagher III.
Among her awards and honors, Shauntai Hall was named USA Today Pa. Player of the Year, Western Pennsylvania Coaches Player of the Year, first team All-State, Post-Gazette Fabulous Five, Herald-Standard Player of the Year, and a Nike All-American. She also was chosen to play in the girls Roundball Classic where she scored 16 points and grabbed seven rebounds and was named the Pennsylvania team MVP after an 85-81 loss to Tennessee.
“I was just honored to be there,” Hall said of playing in the Roundball Classic. “I was just honored to represent Pennsylvania.”
Loui Hall would eventually follow in her sister’s footsteps and also have an outstanding career as an all-around player at AG. Shauntai recalled growing up with Loui.
“I enjoyed playing basketball with her, teaching her anything that I knew,” Shauntai Hall said. “I think my sister loves basketball more than I do, if that’s possible. She’s probably the best shooter I’ve ever seen. Just very passionate about it. She’s passionate about helping young women, too.
“Looking back I can’t believe all the good fortune I’ve had. My sister and I have talked about it, all the people that have helped us along the way and we’re just so thankful for the people who helped us continue our basketball career, even for me to get to college.
“So thankful to my family. My dad worked steady midnight shift and he would literally sleep in a car in the parking lot until my game started. I don’t think he missed a game ever. My mother, too. Even when I was in college they would bus out to Michigan, Wisconsin. I could never do it without my parents. I am eternally grateful to them.
After graduating from AG, Shauntai Hall had many scholarship offers to play in college.
“It was a difficult decision” she said. “I chose Penn State but my dad is a devout Pitt fan. I think I wanted to stay close to home so my family could see my games and my dad and mom could continue to follow my career. That was the biggest influence to go to Penn State initially, rather than maybe down south or Connecticut or somewhere further away.”
Hall averaged 5.3 points per game as a freshman with the Lady Lions under coach Rene Portland and 9.7 points and 3.5 rebounds as a sophomore.
“We went to the Sweet 16 my freshmen year,” Hall pointed out. “I think the next year was a rebuilding year. We were young. They’ve always had a proud, rich tradition and they’ve always supported women’s basketball there. I was proud to be a part of the program at the time that I was there.”
Hall learned from one of Penn State’s all-time greats.
“I played basketball for Suzie McConnell-Serio in the summer,” Hall remembered. “What an amazing lady. What a competitor. I learned a lot from her. Great lady.”
Hall opted to transfer to Rutgers after her sophomore season.
“I always wanted to play for Vivian Stringer and when I was being recruited in high school, Vivian Stringer coached at Iowa,” Hall explained. “It was my dream to play for Vivian Stringer but Iowa was a little bit far for me. When she decided to start coaching at Rutgers, I just felt like that was for me. It was an opportunity to play for Vivian Stringer and it was still within a drive for my parents, and I actually have a lot of family in New Jersey on my dad’s side. I was so happy she came to Rutgers.”
Hall sat out the 1997-98 season. Then came the injury.
“It was something least expected,” Hall said. “I was poised to come back after my transfer. I had practiced all summer, was familiar with the program. I was playing in a pick-up game and somebody rolled up on my knee and I actually cracked my femur and blew out my ACL, my MCL.”
Hall could never get back to the level she was at before the injury, but still played in 14 games during the 1999-2000 season when Rutgers went 26-8 and reached the Final Four, falling to Tennessee in the national semifinals, 64-54.
“What an incredible experience,” Hall said. “It’s something I’ll never forget. That’s something I’ll always take away from her (Stringer) and what we did and what I was a part of.”
Hall was also grateful for “what my parents taught me and my grandmother, who’s 88 years old.”
These days Hall is a Pennsylvania State Police Trooper.
“This is my 19th year,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to help people. My uncle Jeff Ramsey, he’s been a trooper in Uniontown for 26 years. I always looked up to him. My cousin Kaleb (Ramsey) got a football scholarship to Boston College, and he was in the NFL.”
Tickets are sold out for the Fayette County Sports Hall of Fame luncheon/social and the annual golf outing, which will take place on June 19 at Pleasant Valley Golf Club.