High-flying coach has her volleyball squad at Westminster Academy soaring

Hannah Brenner stretches a tape measure to document her imminent flight – 52 inches.

Then she uses her powerful core and legs, swings her arms and explodes into the air before resting on a set of weights stacked four feet and four inches high.

“I’ve never seen anybody jump that high – no man or no woman,” Westminster Academy volleyball player Nicole dos Santos said of the 5-foot-10, 150-pound Brenner.

“It’s insane. I didn’t think it was possible until I saw her do it.”

Brenner, a former four-year starting setter for Clemson University who turned 31 on Sept. 23, is in her first season as Westminster’s volleyball coach.

Hired in May, she inherited a 6-15 team. However, her Lions have already eclipsed last year’s win total, starting 10-9 with two games still left in the regular season.

Personally, Brenner feels better than ever. She’s a weight-room beast, and her goal is to train her players so that they can reach their potential.

“I had a great experience at Clemson,” Brenner said. “I got to travel on private jets to play the sport I love with my best friends.

“I want the players I coach to have those experiences, too.”

Brenner prides herself on being a complete volleyball coach, but training athletes to improve their leaping ability is her specialty.

In volleyball, where the goal is to play above the net, improving vertical leap is crucial.

It’s also attainable.

“If you want something bad enough, anything is possible,” Brenner said. “But it’s not going to come after just three training sessions.”

Brenner was born and raised in small-town Orville, Ohio, which is 20 miles southwest of Akron. It’s also the headquarters of the Smucker Company and the birthplace of ex-Indiana Hoosiers basketball coach Bobby Knight.

Orville, with a population of roughly 9,000, has just two traffic lights, two gas stations and three fast-food restaurants.

Brenner – the sixth of eight children -- lived on 110 acres, and her father, Tom, wanted all his kids outside playing as often as possible.

Toward that end, he built a sand volleyball court in the family’s backyard, and that’s where Brenner learned the game.

As a youth, Brenner played basketball and volleyball, but the latter sport won out in part because being a lefty gave her an advantage.

After a stellar prep career, she landed at Clemson, making the ACC’s All-Freshman team.

But rather than automatically securing a starting spot for her sophomore season, Brenner was told by then-Clemson coach Jolene Hoover that another setter was being brought in as the expected starter.

“As soon as she told me that, I ran out of the gym crying,” Brenner said. “My emotions were through the roof. I immediately called my dad and my travel-team coach. I told them, ‘Find me a new school.’”

Brenner’s father convinced her to stay and fight for her job.

“My father told me, ‘You can’t give up on your dream school because of one opinion,’” Brenner said. “If I had left, the coach would’ve won and the other setter would’ve won.”

Instead of transferring, Brenner worked all summer and got in the best shape of her life. She lost 10 pounds and gained four inches on her vertical leap, holding her starting job for all four years at Clemson.

After college, Brenner became the head volleyball coach at Copley High, back in her home county. After two years, Brenner moved to Miami in 2016 for a sales job, but she found her way back to coaching in July of 2021, taking a job with Boomers Volleyball Academy.

In May of this year, she got the job at Westminster, impressing athletic director Ehren Wallhoff.

“She has a pedigree of playing at Clemson, and she’s highly active as a travel-ball coach,” Wallhoff said. “She also has unbelievable energy.

“When you are building a program, you need to have energy, and she’s hungry to coach kids up.”

Brenner has a solid core of players that includes 6-4 junior middle blocker Adriana Bridges; 5-11 freshman outside hitter Jada Constanza; 5-7 sophomore outside hitter dos Santos; 5-6 sophomore libero Lea Miller; and 5-6 sophomore outside hitter Samantha Omslaer.

Westminster also has a pair of talented seventh-graders: 5-10 middle blocker Rachel Luis and 5-5 libero Sienna Weiss.

Dos Santos said Brenner screams at the top of her lungs any time she enters the locker-room, which is another example of her intense energy.

This offseason, Brenner will begin a weight-lifting program with her players. The goal is to increase each athlete’s vertical leap by at least four inches.

In other words, once the season ends, the work is just beginning.

Said Bridges: “She’s taught us that no matter how tall you are, the most important thing is your work ethic.”

This story was originally published October 6, 2022 at 12:52 PM.