COMING HOME

As a middle school student in the mid 80s, Jim Maloof ’89 was drawn to Hoban. Like many of his peers, initially it was the football program that connected with him.

“Unfortunately, I played recklessly," Maloof said. "There’s no two ways about it.”

Multiple shoulder injuries prevented him from having much of a football career, but Maloof ran track and field and cross country at Hoban, and while in high school he found another passion–volleyball...not to mention being named salutatorian of his class.

A year ago, that passion for volleyball and a love of Hoban led Maloof to return to his alma mater as the head girls volleyball coach.

“Ironically, I actually started playing volleyball when I was in high school, but it wasn’t with Hoban,” Maloof said. “There wasn’t a boys team back then and there wasn’t even a club option.”

Instead, Maloof had to find local competitive leagues and began playing sand volleyball as well. After graduating from Hoban, he studied engineering at Case Western Reserve University and helped form a club volleyball team there. He continued playing competitively after college, before injuries and starting a family forced him to look for other ways to stay involved in the sport he loves. Naturally, Maloof turned to coaching.

While in graduate school at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, he was an assistant coach at Schoolcraft Community College. Upon returning to Northeast Ohio, he became the head girls volleyball coach at Manchester High School, before moving on to hold the same position at Strasburg and then Tallmadge high schools.

Under Maloof's leadership, Tallmadge made three consecutive appearances in the district finals, winning district titles in 2020 and 2021. En route to the regionals, the 2021 Blue Devils defeated Hoban in a district semifinal.

A couple months after the 2021 season, the Hoban girls volleyball head coaching position opened. For Maloof, it was the culmination of a call home he had been feeling throughout the year.

“Our first summer league match that year was against Hoban,” Maloof said. “I remember seeing Hoban on the other side and thinking about what it would be like to come back home. I saw some of the people I knew, and I kept running into Hoban people throughout that year. Then we ended up playing in the district semis, and I saw people I used to go to school with at Hoban after- wards. At that point, I knew in the back of my head this is where I wanted to go. When the position was open, I thought back on all of that and knew it wasn’t a coincidence.”

Maloof’s first Hoban team finished 20-6 and were district runner-up. After three consecutive losses early in the season, a turning point came at the Jackson Invitational on Sept. 10. The Knights defeated Stow, nearly knocked off Jackson and then avenged an earlier loss to Walsh Jesuit by defeating them in straight sets. The victory over Walsh started a 12-game winning streak, during which the Knights lost only two sets.

“Those three matches we dropped were against three really good teams,” Maloof said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. At that point, we started changing the tempo in practice and doing things a little bit differently to give the players a shot of adrenaline, and they responded. We started getting more consistency in our lineup, and once that momentum got rolling, it just carried through.”

The Knights battled various injuries against Bay Village in the district final, winning the first two sets before losing the last three. It was the final game for Hoban’s five seniors–Molly Kennedy, Anna Rumler, Madison Moegerle, Haleigh Schulda and Giana Mutersbaugh. Kennedy (Hillsdale College) and Mutersbaugh

(Wheeling University) will continue their volleyball careers in college. Despite these losses, the future of the program is bright. A strong group of underclassmen saw plenty of court time this past season, including multiple freshmen and sophomores.

Maloof has high expectations for the program going forward. But beyond the wins and losses, he is grateful for the opportunity to give back to Hoban.

“If I never went to Hoban, I would never be doing the things I’m doing today,” Maloof said. “The teachers, the academics and the atmosphere shaped me to follow the career path I took, which was engineering. It is special to be able to walk those halls again, to think of the memories and experiences and know that they have shaped you to be where you’re at today."

Maloof serves as a supply chain process engineer at Timken Steel.

“Whenever you see another Hoban person, you’re always happy to see them," Maloof said. "I don’t know how to explain it. Once you’re a part of Hoban, you’re always a part of Hoban. You’re with a different group of people that are all bonded by the fact that you went there. And you never lose that connection.”