2020 will mark Tanya Hockman’s 22nd season as the head coach of the Malone University volleyball team. The Pioneers have fared well under her direction, having posted at least 15 victories in 17 out of the last 21 years.
Hockman has guided the Pioneers to Great Midwest Athletic Conference postseason appearances in each of the last four seasons. The Pioneers have were eliminated by perennial powers Findlay in 2017 and 2018 and Hillsdale in 2019. Malone reached the G-MAC Semifinal in 2016 after knocking out Kentucky Wesleyan in the Quarterfinal round.
In 2012, Malone’s first season of competition as a member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and NCAA Division II, the squad notched an impressive 23-13 overall mark and finished sixth among 16 teams in the final GLIAC standings with an 11-7 conference record. In 2014, Malone once again claimed a sixth-place finish in the conference standings and made its first appearance in the GLIAC Postseason Tournament.
Before transitioning from the NAIA to NCAA Division II, the program captured conference regular-season titles in 2000 and 2001 while making its first-ever appearance at the NAIA National Tournament in 2010.
Hockman, a two-time American Mideast Conference (AMC) Coach of the Year, has compiled a stellar 458-307 record through 20 seasons. The success of the program has also extended off the court during her tenure with Pioneer volleyball players excelling with their work in the classroom and in service to their community.
In the spring of 2010, Hockman was selected as the AMC’s 2010 recipient of the NAIA Coach of Character Award. Hockman was chosen for the honor among nominees of all sports within the AMC in recognition of her community leadership and commitment to emphasizing integrity, respect, responsibility, servant leadership and sportsmanship (which are the five core character values of the NAIA Champions of Character Initiative). She earned Malone University’s prestigious Graduate School Alumnus of the Year Award in 2012 and was named to the YWCA Stark County Women’s Hall of Fame in May of 2013. Hockman has also taken several of her teams on Service Learning Trips through the years, most recently guiding the squad to Costa Rica in January of 2013.
In addition to her coaching duties, Hockman also serves as the athletic department's senior woman administrator, working to ensure that gender equity is governed.
Having graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Christian Ministries at Malone in 1994, Hockman was a four-year letterwinner in both volleyball and basketball at the College. She went on to attain a master’s degree in Christian Ministries, also at Malone, in 1999. Prior to becoming the head coach, she was an assistant Pioneer volleyball coach for four years.
At Malone, she has coached three NAIA Honorable Mention honorees (Angela Lockhart, Brandie Beebe, Jennifer Gahagan), two AMC Player of the Year recipients (Angela Lockhart and Kim Slone) and 16 NAIA All-America Scholar Athletes. In addition, she also served as an assistant Malone women’s basketball coach for six seasons (1995-2001).
Tanya, her husband, Scott, also a Malone graduate (1994), and their daughters, Jaidan, Kiara, and Nya, reside in Jackson Township.
