Old Fort's Nancy Hoover inducted into OHSVCA Hall of Fame

Being a coach 39 years is quite a long time — but all 39 in the same sport and at the same school — is almost unheard of these days.It's just a small example of Nancy Hoover's dedication to the sport of volleyball and to the community of Old Fort over her tenure as volleyball coach.On Nov. 21, Hoover was inducted into the Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.The Hall of Fame consists of coaches like Bob Moran (McComb), Dave Reinhart (Hopewell-Loudon) and Don Wood (Huron) to name a few from the local area."That means the world to me because I know a lot of those coaches personally and I know what kind of programs they ran," Hoover said about being added to the Hall of Fame with those other coaches. "To be in the same club with them I guess, it really means a lot."I'm proud of a lot of things, but that Old Fort had great seasons in those years and we had a lot of great athletes that played for me and wound up putting in extra time when club started becoming popular, we started working a lot in the offseason. We were very dedicated. I'm also proud of the fact that a lot of my players went on to coach volleyball, at club or at school or play in college, so I'm happy they enjoyed the sport as much as I did and they went on to continue playing. There are some that are still playing volleyball, some still playing in their 40s and playing in leagues, because they love the sport so much. I'm proud of that."Hoover's two sons, Eric and Sean, also coach volleyball. Sean is at Edison and Eric at Mohawk. Eric said to even be mentioned with the words hall of fame in anything means you've done something pretty special."Obviously, it's a great accomplishment for any coach, to be recognized with the term hall of fame, you've done a lot of good things to be in any kind of hall of fame," he said. "To be recognized by fellow coaches for your long-term commitment to the sport of volleyball, as her son I'm very proud regardless of whether I coach or not, very proud of what she was able to do and how she was able to do."Over her 39 years at Old Fort she tallied a 579-355 record, leading Old Fort to two regional titles (2002, '05), a regional runner-up (1983), six district titles (1983, '85, '87, '02, '04, '05) and 17 sectional titles. They also won the league seven times. This led to be being named District 6 coach of the year six times. She coached 20 all-Ohio players and 11 players who went on to play in college.The numbers are impressive, along with the 39 years at the same school. While they are impressive, Nancy Hoover is proud of how she did it and what she accomplished for the Old Fort volleyball program overall."We started the Old Fort volleyball club to help Old Fort area girls get more experience, learning to play and enjoy the game," she said. "I had a lot of parents and former players that you run into somewhere and thank me for doing that. I was happy I got to help a lot of those girls that wouldn't of been able to play elsewhere. Our prices were very reasonable so I'm happy we could help girls in the area and of course, our program was respected, and that's something I'm really proud of."I started the elementary program early on, which was a big key. It was for fourth through sixth grade and we eventually started playing in leagues and took any girl who wanted to play in fourth, fifth or sixth grade, no cuts or anything. I did that to build the program and I'm really proud of that ... that I was able to help build the program that way."Eric said he learned a lot from Nancy being around volleyball from a young age and seeing how she ran practice and built a program. Those lessons were valuable."I knew a good plan at building a program from her because she built the program to be very good, from the ground up, starting from the elementary and that's what you have to do at small schools," Eric said. "Learning how to build a program from her, and the dedication and the time, commitment and how to treat kids well. All of that … and there are so many things Sean and I both learned from her in that regard."While Eric watched his mom coach and build a program at Old Fort, he said there some similarities in coaching style, but not everything. Nancy admitted that she wasn't a screaming coach or a coach that would make her team run. On the other hand, Eric is a bit more intense on the sidelines."Definitely there are things personality-wise that I do differently than her probably, but a lot of the techniques and organizing things we learned from her," Eric said. "I've coached for a long time. I don't know if I continue to coach for a long time ... I don't know if other coaches or people will look at me the same way they look at her. She was respected by all officials and all coaches, everyone liked her. That may not be the case for me, I don't know, but I think just the way she was able to treat people and helped other coaches from other schools. Her being the veteran, she would always help other coaches, that was way more valuable than the wins or league titles. Those kinds of things helped really build volleyball around our area and made it a lot better."Nancy said she was really proud that her two sons went into coaching volleyball, but when they would play each other, things weren't always so cordial.There were a few "Hoover Bowls" over the years when Edison, Mohawk and Old Fort would play a tri-match every year.Jokes aside, Eric said Mohawk did enjoy a few more wins than the other two schools. The competitiveness runs through the family for sure."We all want to win every match," he said. "We compete in everything and even at family Christmas, so we were used to it. We all wanted each other to do well accept when we were playing each other and when you have that understanding, things tend to go smoothly. It was nice we were all pretty good, of course we had better years than others, but we all went back and forth. All able to compete well together, and a lot of the girls had played together in club anyway, so they liked the idea of the family playing against each other and trying to do well for their respective coach."I don't want to brag, but it's safe to say Mohawk won more than the other two."While Nancy laughed at Eric's bragging rights as far as wins for the Warriors, she was proud of the competitive matchups with her sons."I'm very thrilled they both started coaching volleyball and that they've been really successful after many years," Nancy said. "When they play each other — people used to ask me what's it like. I would tease them saying: 'If you beat me, maybe you don't get a Christmas present this year.' I'm joking, but when the game started, we were serious about our teams trying to win, but when it's over, it's back to them being my sons. If they win, good for them. I'm happy that they like volleyball and that they continued to coach and have been successful at it. Makes me very proud of them."Everybody looked forward to (Hoover Bowls) and so did the players, and we always got together afterwards and took a big picture with all three teams and that was always just really nice."After she was done with her 39th year of coaching, she said there was interest in her coaching somewhere else from other schools, but in the end, Old Fort is home."My grandmother and parents both went to Old Fort. I went to Old Fort. My sons went to OF, so we've just lived in this community our whole lives," Nancy said. "It's a great community and I just love the school and community."I had an option to go somewhere else after I was done at Old Fort and I thought about it because I love coaching volleyball, but I just couldn't see myself going anywhere else besides Old Fort to coach."Eric — the Old Fort boys basketball coach added: "That is another part of the achievement because people don't stay at one place that long. I'm thinking she is right around 11th all time in wins, and very few of those people got all of theirs from the same school," Eric said. "Maybe just a handful of those people did, so just another thing to be proud of."She is a do-or-die Old Fort person. She still goes and supports all the sports. She still goes to volleyball games and softball games and basketball games and always will. She's active in the boosters and very involved and she wants Old Fort to be successful and do really well in everything they do."