For the first time since the 2013-2014 school year, Streetsboro Rockets’ cross country, middle school track and girls’ flag football Coach Jon Hannan will not be coaching a Rockets’ varsity squad, announcing on X on July 6 he has been hired as the new Athletic Director at Holy Name High School.
“I view it as a place where I can form some new relationships and fall in with some of Holy Name’s traditions,” Hannan told The Weekly Villager on July 10. “It is bittersweet because it has been a big part of my life, but I still live here. My Dad is still coaching in Portage County, so I am always going to be around to support.”
Hannan departs after 13 seasons in various coaching roles with Streetsboro Athletics, serving seven years as the boys’ cross country coach, five years as the girls’ cross country coach, five years as the middle school track coach, one year as the girls’ flag football coach and three years as Streetsboro High School’s Athletic Secretary.
According to Hannan, he had hoped to remain at Streetsboro for a long time, even seeing an opportunity to eventually succeed current Athletic Director Randy Tevepaugh when he stepped down from his post, but never discounted the possibility of becoming an athletic director for a school outside of Portage County.
The 2012 Crestwood graduate’s plans changed when budgetary concerns within the School District prompted the Board of Education to eliminate all winter and spring junior varsity sports at the high school, resulting in Hannan’s position as athletic secretary being eliminated. His chances of being reinstated as the athletic secretary were greatly reduced when the school district failed to pass an operating levy this spring.
Hannan acknowledged that with the Streetsboro Athletic Department’s future being in flux, it was time to move on.
“There was just a lot of moving and shaking with my position and ultimately I had to find some stability and Holy Name was that,” he added.
The budget cuts also affected the middle school, as all winter and spring middle school sports were eliminated, marking a spring season without middle school track. In lieu of coaching middle school track, Hannan helped found the school’s first-ever girls’ flag football team.
In the wake of Hannan stepping down from his various coaching responsibilities, the cross-country program will now be led by Coach Larry Hoffman, who will serve ss the girls’ coach, and Adam Miller, who will run the boys’ team.
“I told the kids that when I leave you are not even going to notice the difference but the only thing you are going to notice is that it is someone else talking to you and not me,” Hannan said. “These two guys have been around, and they know our program and know our traditions and our routine, and I know they are going to come in and put as much effort in if not more than I have put into it.”
For Hannan, it marks a new chapter as he takes on the Athletic Director’s position at Holy Name and will have a lot more responsibility to balance as Holy Name offers several more athletic programs such as lacrosse, swimming and diving, tennis and gymnastics.
Although Hannan has more varsity programs to oversee, he is confident that his style aligns well with the Green Wave’s Athletics, as Holy Name sees athletics as an extension of academics.
Hannan arrived at Streetsboro in 2013, assisting his brother, Pete, a former Rocket student-athlete, coaching the middle school cross country team by working as a volunteer assistant coach for four seasons and was promoted to the middle school head coach in 2018.
In addition to joining the Rockets’ Athletic Department initially as a volunteer coach, Hannan worked as a substitute teacher and eventually became certified as a classroom aide and secured a role in the Athletic Department as the Athletic Secretary during the 2023-2024 school year.
Hannan said that one of his proudest accomplishments was creating the Streetsboro Rocket Invitational cross country meet during the 2024 fall season, which invited all local programs from Portage County to face off against each other. Reigniting Portage County rivalries is something that he took great pride in, based on his own experiences as a student-athlete at Crestwood.
Hannan said that he will continue running the Streetsboro Rocket Invitational for another year in addition to starting his duties as the new Holy Name Athletic Director.
“It’s been fulfilling,” he said. “That is why I had the idea of starting the cross-country invitational. For the most part a lot of the Portage County schools do come, and I think it is exciting just to have a local meet and run against a lot of teams in the Portage County.”
