It seemed that when Crestwood Red Devils’ volleyball Coach Wanda Hoffman’s coaching days were behind her when she resigned from her post as the varsity coach following the 2012 season after 25 years of coaching. But Hoffman was not finished with Crestwood yet, returning to the sidelines before the 2018 season and picked up where she left off. The 31st-year coach reached a milestone in the 2023 season when the Red Devils’ victory against Salem in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division II Northeast 1 Streetsboro sectional final marked her 500th career victory with the program.
In 31 seasons, the Crestwood grad has compiled a 500-243 coaching record.
“It would have come a lot sooner had I not had to walk away,” Hoffman acknowledged. “I left some amazing young athletes but life throws things at you that happens. There is no way we could do any of it without the hard work and dedication of the athletes and their passion for the game.”
Growing up in Mantua, Hoffman said she became interested in athletics because it provided an escape for her from outside pressures. It was also something she could share with her older sister Teresa, whom she said served as an inspiration.
“She was my everything and it was she and I against the world growing up,” Hoffman added. “Without her I do not know where I would have been in the world today because she was my role model, my idol and the person I leaned on when things were hard.”
Hoffman and her sister competed in basketball and softball, joining the first fast-pitch softball squad in Crestwood history. She was named a varsity starter in basketball and softball in her freshman year and although she did not join the volleyball squad until her sophomore campaign, she developed a passion for the sport.
“It was just a really cool sport and had a lot going on,” she noted. “You really have to play as a team, and there is a lot of skill that goes into it. It is such an intricate game that you have to have a lot of intelligence for it to be successful. You have to think and multi-task a lot.”
Hoffman was a four-year starter in basketball and softball but lettered in volleyball for three seasons and continued her athletic career when she earned a basketball scholarship at Olney Central College, IN.
Halfway through her collegiate career, Hoffman transferred to Hiram College to continue playing volleyball because her previous school did not offer a volleyball program. According to her, she still loved basketball and softball but believed volleyball was a sport she could keep playing even after graduation.
After graduating from Hiram, Hoffman became Crestwood’s new volleyball coach in 1987.
Hoffman said she was inspired to become a head coach because of the influences her high school coaches had on her.
“I think I had the passion,” she said. “I had some great coaches. I knew within that realm that I wanted to be a coach and get into teaching in some sort of capacity. I think a lot of it was all of the influences I had. All of them with my sister helped me to get to the point where I thought this is what I wanted to do in my life to give back to other athletes what I had been given from my coaches. I love teaching and educating.”
Hoffman acknowledged when she started coaching, the game was changing because new rules were being implemented but that did not deter her from tackling her first head coaching job.
She said that it took some time for the girls to buy into the new concepts she taught but liked broadening her student-athletes’ minds and once they accepted these changes, things just took off for her.
Although she coached for her Alma matter, she served as a substitute teacher in various schools around Northeast Ohio such as Streetsboro, Kenston, Twinsburg and Tallmadge. Throughout her career, Hoffman has coached her own daughters and has also seen several of the players she coached join her coaching staff or become head coaches for rival programs.
Despite stepping away from the program after the 2012 season, Hoffman stayed connected to the team because her daughters still played and she maintained a close relationship with her successor, Brittany Dye, whom she coached.
Before the 2018 season, Dye accepted a position as the head volleyball coach at Hiram College and Hoffman decided the time was right to return to the program to which she had dedicated 25 years.
“Everything happens for a reason, and I was asked to come back and got to coach my fourth daughter her last couple of years,” Hoffman said. “I was lucky enough and fortunate enough to get to step into the position when Brittany went to Hiram and that group that I got to come in with was just as amazing as the one I had to step away from.
Since Hoffman became Crestwood’s volleyball coach in 1987, the program has compiled 625 victories, good for the 15th most in Ohio history and Hoffman has coached in 80% of those wins.
