Tanya Hockman was elevated to the role of Director of Athletics at Malone University in April of 2021. She previously served in the interim role beginning in the fall of 2019.
Hockman worked as the head volleyball coach at Malone for 22 seasons before relinquishing that role in the summer of 2021.
The Pioneers fared extremely well under her direction, having posted 470 wins during her time as the head coach.
Hockman guided the Pioneers to Great Midwest Athletic Conference postseason appearances in three of her last four seasons at the helm. The Pioneers have were eliminated by perennial power Findlay in the Quarterfinal round in 2017 and 2018. 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, was a two-time American Mideast Conference (AMC) Coach of the Year.
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 volleyball team to Costa Rica in January of 2013.
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.
