VALLEY — From Valley to Death Valley, Lemanski Hall has stood out.

Clemson University recently rewarded him.

Hall, a star athlete at Valley High School in the late 1980s, has been promoted to defensive ends coach on Dabo Swinney’s football staff, the Tigers athletic department announced Friday.

Hall will become Clemson’s 10th full-time assistant coach. He has served as a defensive analyst the past three seasons.

“Lemanski is very knowledgeable and will make a great contribution to our staff,” Swinney said in a release. “I know he is excited to be on the field with our defensive ends.”

Hall has been part of a Clemson program that has advanced to the past three College Football Playoffs and won the 2017 national title.

But his introduction to the game occurred in Valley, where he played quarterback and defensive back. Current Lanett High School boys basketball coach Richard Carter was on the Rams coaching staff at the time.

In addition to heading the basketball program, he assisted with the defensive backs on the football team. Hall was one of the best.

“Words cannot express how proud I am of all the young men I’ve coached who have gone on to be successful,” Carter said. “Lemanski is just one. I’m so proud of him.”

The two still maintain a relationship to this day. Carter said his former pupil even contacted him in the fall to attend a Clemson game in Death Valley.

After his high school graduation, Hall played football at Alabama from 1990-93. That’s when he met Swinney, who also played for the Crimson Tide.

Hall started at linebacker on Alabama’s 1992 national championship team and was named All-Southeastern Conference.

Now, he will have a chance to develop a new crop of rising  talent.