Polar Bear Spotlight: Volleyball’s Hannah Irmer

By Wes Mayberry

ADA — As a fifth-year senior, she's playfully known as the grandma of the Ohio Northern volleyball team. But with age comes wisdom and experience, and Hannah Irmer (Indianapolis, Ind./Roncalli) offers plenty of that both on and off the court.

"Hannah is one of the hardest working individuals, if not the hardest, that I have had the pleasure of coaching," ONU volleyball head coach Katie Kuhn said. "She would run through a wall for her teammates and has grown so much over the past five years. Her teammates greatly respect her and what she gives day in and day out. I am proud of her."

While Irmer, 23, feels old compared to her 18-year-old freshmen teammates, that age gap doesn't hamper her ability to relate to the younger players on the team, including her younger sister, junior Grace Irmer (Indianapolis, Ind./Roncalli). Rather than just going through the motions in her final year with the team, she takes pride in being a leader and serving as a role model.

"As a fifth-year player, you could be someone who is just here because you don't want to graduate, or you could be somebody who truly wants to continue playing the sport," Irmer said. "I try my best to keep exemplifying that because I truly want to be here."

That sentiment is also evident in how she handles sharing the libero position with sophomore Rachel Jennings (Novi, Mich.).

"Rachel is our libero right now, but we've been switching on and off between who plays that position," Irmer said. "We try and help each other out and encourage each other, which helps us keep having fun."

For Irmer, playing volleyball has been a nearly lifelong passion. She began playing the sport in third grade and continued on through high school. She started playing on the varsity team as a sophomore and played the libero position in her junior and senior seasons. Irmer competed for Roncalli High School in the fall and on club and travel teams in the winter and spring, dropping other sports, including basketball and track, to focus on volleyball.

"I wanted to focus on volleyball because I felt like it was the sport where I excelled and was the most comfortable with," she said. "I had fun playing other sports and loved being competitive, but I really felt like I was the most myself playing volleyball."

Irmer's high school team advanced to the sectional round of the postseason in each of her four years, and she committed to continuing her volleyball career at ONU in the fall of her senior year. That commitment came after meeting former head coach Kate Witte and her assistants at the time, Kuhn and Brian Hofman, at a volleyball showcase and then making the roughly three-hour drive to Ada for a campus visit. Despite being from a big city, she felt at home at ONU.

"I loved how the small class sizes and the campus reminded me of my high school," she said. "I met with a few other schools and didn't get the same feeling of camaraderie that I felt here."

Witte, a member of the ONU Athletics Hall of Fame, retired in 2009 after 29 seasons and 742 victories, and Kuhn has picked up right where she left off, leading the Polar Bears to a 35-9 record and an NCAA Tournament berth in her first two years at the helm. The success speaks for itself, but Irmer also appreciates how Kuhn relates to her players.

"I love playing for Coach Kuhn because she's very open," Irmer said. "She emphasizes always having a line of communication with her players, and she's really easy to talk to."

Irmer has made an impact of her own on the ONU volleyball program, as she was named Ohio Athletic Conference Libero of the Year and First Team All-OAC as a junior and is a three-time OAC Player of the Week. That's not all, though, as she entered play Friday ranked 10th all-time at ONU with 1,438 career digs. However, while those accolades and the team's success all hold great meaning, Irmer values another aspect of her time in Ada even more.

"My favorite part is the friendships that I've made and the relationships that I've built, especially over the past couple years. As I've gotten older and am getting closer to graduating, I've realized how important those relationships are," she said. "Yes, I will always look back and be proud of what we accomplished on the court, but what I really want to remember most about my time at ONU are the people that I've met."

Off the court, Irmer has proven to be a standout student as a three-time Academic All-OAC honoree. As a fifth-year senior, Irmer's course load is lighter this year, but the life of a student-athlete is always busy. That's why effective time management is critical for student-athletes.

"I just try to set time aside every day and focus on the classes I find the most difficult first and then doing my lesser workload classes," she said. "It's all about time management and making sure that you leave time in the day to do your studies."

Irmer is majoring in exercise physiology with the goal of pursuing a career as a pathology assistant.

"What drew me to exercise physiology was the idea of continuing being around athletes and continuing being around science and the medical field," she said. "But I took a human anatomy course, and we got to work with cadavers, and I really enjoyed that class. That got me to start thinking about what else I could do with an exercise physiology major, and I ended up with pathology assistant. It's similar to a physician's assistant, but they work under pathologists in a lab."

Outside of the classroom, Irmer serves as president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). She first got involved in the organization as a sophomore and has worked her way up from secretary and vice-presidential positions.

"As president, you're in charge, and I take a lot of pride in the things that I do," Irmer said.

Currently, she oversees a program in which ONU student-athletes visit local grade schools to read to kids in addition to the Lehr Cup initiative that promotes athletes supporting other athletes on campus.

Irmer's responsibilities as a student, athlete and SAAC president keep her schedule full, but she continues to excel in all three facets of her life at ONU. Now in her final season as a Polar Bear, one goal remains at the forefront of her mind — helping her team repeat as OAC regular-season and tournament champions.

"We got picked to finish second in the OAC preseason poll, so that lights a fire under us, and we're very motivated," she said.

More about Hannah

Fun Fact: Despite her long career in athletics, Hannah has never broken a bone.

Top ONU Professors: Hannah cites Kurt Wilson and Michelle Wilson as her favorite instructors at ONU. "I've only had classes with them a few times, but I feel like they're very knowledgeable, and they truly want to inspire their students and have them get involved," she said.

Hannah's Favorites

Food: French Fries

Restaurant: Bru Burger

TV Show: Grey's Anatomy

Movie: The Lion King

Sport (other than volleyball): Football

Pro Sports Team: Pittsburgh Steelers

Pro Athlete: None

Music Genre: Country

Singer: Harry Styles

Place She's Traveled To: Austin, Texas