The winner of the 2022 Freddie Solomon Community Sports Award Winner is Auburn University edge rusher Derick Hall.
Derick Hall has been terrorizing SEC fields since he stepped through the door at Auburn. He ended his brilliant college career with a dominant senior season, being the only Auburn player to be voted onto the All-SEC First Team. His senior season consisted of seven sacks, 12 tackles for a loss, and 60 tackles, with his game-changing plays also including two forced fumbles and an interception. For his career, Hall totaled an astonishing 147 tackles, 19.5 sacks, and 29.5 TFLs.
Hall will go down as an Auburn legend on the field. However, that is only half his story as for everything Hall was on the field as a disruptor and defensive star, he was kind, generous, and compassionate about community service behind closed doors.
Jeffrey Hulum III, the CEO of Extend a Hand Help a Friend, describes Hall as “A humble, intelligent, talented, and outstanding young man.” Hall has been a constant contributor to the organization and has volunteered there for several years. This was felt most during the water crisis in Jackson, MS when Hall used his money and influence to send pallets of clean water to families in the Jackson area,
Hall grew up in Mississippi, so the urge to give back to his home state during a crisis was massive. Hall saw the effects of need at a young age when his hometown of Gulfport, MS, was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. This, plus the influence of his mother, who works at the Salvation Army in Gulfport to this day, instilled a sense of giving back in Hall that he has never forgotten.
Hall is an excellent example of a player using the NIL and using his stature in college football to give back. He had one foot out of the door to the NFL as an underclassman, but his love for college football and the Auburn Tigers brought him back. Hall is a competitor, a player driven to win and driven to play his best football on every down. He is going to make an NFL team better immediately with his presence as an edge rusher and an NFL city better just by having him as a resident.
That mixture of skill on the field and giving off of it is why Derick Hall was named the Freddie Solomon Community Sports Award Winner for 2022 by the Solomon Family through the Premier Players Community Sports Foundation.