Hartford, Conn. - John Halas '05, a four-year starter and two-time captain for the men's basketball team at Trinity College, was recently named Special Assistant to the General Manager of the Orlando Magic. The Orlando Magic are a member of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
"It still hasn't really sunk in yet," Halas said about his new job, which is still in its formative stages. "It's been a dream of mine to get an opportunity like this - I was unbelievably excited that I'd get a chance to realize it."
Halas, a political science major at Trinity, is 14th on the all-time scoring list at Trinity with 1,213 points in his career and 13th all-time in assists with 278. He is the all-time leader in three point field goals made (208) and is the only player in Trinity history to record three seasons of 50 or more three-point field goals made. In addition, Halas recorded the single season record for steals (69) in 2003-04, and matched that number in his senior season, finishing third all-time in the steals category (203). Trinity's record during Halas' career was 75-27 for a percentage of .735.
"Trinity was an unbelievable four years and really shaped me as a person moving forward," Halas said. "As for basketball, I was always most comfortable when I was on the court. It felt like home…Seeing different work ethics and personalities and the likes opened my mind to try things differently and think more outside-the-box in my approaches. I think that has helped me in my professional life and transitioning through the different stops I've had so far."
After Trinity, Halas went on to compete at the minor league basketball level, playing for the American Basketball Association (ABA), the United States Basketball League (USBL) and the Premier Basketball League (PBL), where he was a member of two-time champion Rochester RazorSharks. Most recently, Halas served as Assistant Basketball Coach at Northfield Mount Herman and Amherst College. While in Amherst, he earned an M.S. in Sports Management from the Mark McCormack School of Sport Management at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass).
Halas is one of several from Trinity and from New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) schools to have assumed front-office positions with a professional sports team. He said that has mostly to do with well-roundedness of the NESCAC athlete.
"I've always highly respected the NESCAC," Halas added. "It's a conference that is great at many things, not just athletics. It is what Division Three is all about; high academics, high character student-athletes."