Nancy Hanger was square in the middle of countless fights to establish female sports at Clyde.
The girls playing for her, however, didn’t know they weren’t supposed to be there yet. All they had to do was have fun and win, with Hanger the architect of both.
Hanger, 78, died April 23 after a brief illness.
“I know she fought battles for us, but she didn’t make us part of those conversations,” said Lindi Cahill, who graduated in 1990. “She didn’t complain (to us) about what we had or didn’t have, or what we could have or couldn’t have.
“She was taking care of that and we could be kids and have fun and win. As an athlete, that’s what you want. She was a warrior and we wouldn’t have had the experiences we had without her. She was the right person at the right time.”
Hanger was hired to teach physical education and coach cheerleading at Clyde in 1969. She retired in 2002.
She literally started girls varsity volleyball, basketball and track at Clyde, beginning in 1973, with help from Mary Thomas. Before that, Hanger sponsored the Girls Athletic Association, providing after-school access to athletic equipment and facilities for hundreds of girls.
“She was a pioneer,” said John Cahill, Lindi’s husband. “She was very intelligent and strong in her opinion. She fought for what she believed in at the infancy of girls sports for the OHSAA. We forget, because it’s been going on for a while, but I was alive.
“It’s not like it was 100 years ago. She coached a little of everything and she was part of all of them when they began.”
John Cahill coached girls varsity basketball at Clyde from 1997-2015, after five years as an assistant. He’s currently varsity boys coach for Fremont Ross.
“When I came to Clyde, everyone was winning at everything,” he said. “Bob Bishop. Jeff MacFarland. Marc Marshall. Mike Martin. Ralph Hohenstein. Without her to set the bar … others were lucky she did that. She had to create women’s sports in Clyde and things today couldn’t have happened without her.
“Some places secretly didn’t want girls to succeed. She fought for equality and guys like me could come in and go. If we didn’t have that, it would have been tougher for all of us. It wasn’t easy to do it and she did it.”
Clyde twice advanced to a state semifinal with Cahill as coach.
“She fought battles early on for women’s sports guys like me didn’t have to as much,” he said. “These are my girls. They work hard. They deserve stuff. We needed somebody like Nancy. She wanted Clyde to succeed and she was passionate about Clyde women.
“That was my space for a while and she was a great mentor and we’ll miss her.”
When Hanger started, there was a notion you couldn’t push girls in athletics the way boys are challenged. Girls are fragile.
“’You can’t coach girls hard,’” he said. “She didn’t buy that. She didn’t accept that, she won and she had a gym named after her.”
Lindi Cahill first played varsity volleyball for Hanger as a sophomore. She joined the team for the tournament as it advanced to a regional final.
She played two years of varsity basketball for Hanger. She played softball her first two years, but Hanger convinced Cahill her speed was better suited to track her final two years.
“She was ahead of the times,” Lindi Cahill said. “We lifted weights, in the ‘80s. She was doing everything she could to make sure we had an even playing field. There were probably conversations, ‘Were we even allowed in the weight room?’
“That was what was expected for us. We were going to go in there to get stronger. We were playing pickleball. Somehow she knew about pickleball 40 years ago. Those were things she did for her athletes to compete.”
Lindi Cahill was enthralled by Hanger’s volleyball program when her grandmother took her to watch her aunts, Sara and Stacy Berlekamp, including a state semifinal in 1983.
“Clyde girls wanted to play volleyball for (Hanger),” she said. “When you’re around teams like that, you want to be part of it. Volleyball was steady. She had a way of teaching skills and motivating.”
Both Cahills compared Clyde volleyball to Margaretta girls basketball. The programs were harbingers for the overall growth of varsity sports for girls in the area.
That’s because they had something in common.
“There was no real, definite equity and (Hanger) was a champion for female athletics and she was passionate about running a successful program and because she won, she was able to level the playing field,” Lindi Cahill said.
Cahill didn’t walk to class feeling different because she was a female athlete. The girls were just athletes earning respect.
“We were just as important as any other athlete in the hallway,” she said.
The main thing Cahill remembers being privy to that seemed unfair were the misfitting, tattered ancient uniforms she wore to start her career. Hanger got the girls outfitted in new threads.
Hanger created an environment where the girls didn’t really think about the fact it wasn’t like it was at Clyde at other schools. Hanger wanted her girls to have what they deserved.
“First, respect,” Lindi Cahill said. “She gave respect to everyone in her gym. So, it was easy to respect her because she acted with integrity all the time. That’s a great way to build relationships.”
Hanger was also a gifted communicator.
“Skills, expectations, goals,” Cahill said. “She taught by communication. It was natural.”
Cahill continued her volleyball career at Kent State, something she readily admits wouldn’t have been possible without Hanger. Cahill returned to Clyde and began her coaching career with freshman volleyball for Hanger in 1999.
“At that time, I didn’t have club experience,” she said. “High school volleyball made me a viable collegiate athlete and I treasure that experience. It was so foundational for me and it shaped my career. Everybody in the program had a sense of belonging to something special.
“That bred competency and you take it to the next experience. There’s no way I have the career I did at Kent without that.”
Hanger earned 530 volleyball wins for Clyde. She was inducted into the Ohio High School Volleyball Association Coaches Hall of Fame in 2002.
“The community has such a strong identity with the Fliers because of people like her,” Lindi Cahill said. “There are decades of graduates of Clyde who feel connected to Clyde because of athletics and she was a frontrunner.
“There’s so much pride in being a Flier and she was a driving force. She influenced coaching styles, maybe decision making. Who would have thought that for the high school physical education teacher? She was just a great role model.”
Memorial gifts in Hanger’s honor may be made to the Clyde scholarship fund she established in honor of her parents, or the volleyball program. A celebration of Hanger’s life will be held from 1-3 p.m. July 27 in the Nancy E. Hanger Gymnasium.
mhorn@gannett.com
419-307-4892
X: @MatthewHornNH
