HAMPTON, VA (WTKR)- Van Malone is no stranger to coaching. He has 23 years of college experience as an assistant, 18 at the power conference level.
Now, for the first time, he's leading his own program. Malone was introduced as Hampton's head coach three weeks ago and is adjusting to life in the big chair. In the process, he's remembering what some have told him at head coaching academies he's attended.
"People said to me in those academies, 'when you get your head coaching job, it's going to be like drinking water out of a fire hydrant,'" Malone recalled Wednesday. "It's been that, but it's something I've dreamed about all my life. It's something I've worked toward throughout my whole career."
A former NFL defensive back, Malone spent the last seven years as an assistant at Kansas State, guiding the cornerbacks and serving as the defensive passing game coordinator and assistant head coach. Even as an assistant, the new lead Pirate says he was preparing to guide his own program.
"You have to manage that group as if you're the head coach," he said of coaching as an assistant. "You're the head coach for your position and so I've always carried myself that way, I've always studied that way, I've always watched."
Malone says he'll lead a physical team that's going to out-hit and out-smart its opponents. He also adds that Hampton's work ethic will be second-to-none and that will start with him at the top.
"You hear a lot of core values and you hear a lot of things that coaches say and sometimes you put them on walls, you put them on hats, you put them on t-shirts," the head coach noted. "But I think the core values of a team, they have to come from within the head coach and so the core values of discipline, of toughness, of commitment, of being selfless, those are the values that I work toward every day."
Hampton has not had a winning season since 2018 and is coming off a 2-10 showing in 2025. In the changing landscape of college athletics, FCS programs like the Pirates may be at a financial disadvantage when it comes to NIL and other funding. Malone says young people are still in search of discipline and relationships and that's how he'll sell the university and team to prospective players.
"What I talk to recruits about is there's nobody who's going to develop you like we're going to develop you, like I'm going to develop you," he said. "There's nobody who's going to have a relationship with you the way we are and there's no group of coaches, including myself, who are going to develop a culture of striving towards excellence like we are."
Malone has the plan in place to help Hampton climb back to success and into contention in the CAA. Now it's about keeping his players' eyes forward and instilling his culture within the team.
"What happened in the past is not my business and it's not their business either," Malone remarked. "I've got to make sure everyone understands that what happened in the past, and I'll even include myself, that's ours. We have to own that. We did that. [But] what happened in the past has nothing to do with what we do moving forward."
Hampton opens its season August 29 against a to-be-determined opponent. The 2026 schedule also features the program's first match-up against a power conference opponent, as the Pirates travel to Maryland on September 5.
