Bio

The 2024-2025 year is Hannah Kirby’s fifth as the head coach of the Taylor competitive cheer program.

After coaching the Trojans through their inaugural season in 2020-2021, Kirby saw the program take a major step forward in year two. The Trojans posted the team’s first-ever performance with zero deductions, earned a ranking inside the NAIA Top-25 for the first time in history and closed the season with a sixth-place finish at the Crossroads League Championships.

Additionally, the program grabbed its first-ever All-Crossroads League award, posted a team grade-point average of 3.64 and saw nine student-athletes named as Academic All-CL and NAIA Scholar-Athlete recipients.

Then in 2022-2023, the program again earned a NAIA Top-25 ranking, while posting the top-six team scores in the program’s history. The Trojans rode that wave to a third-place finish as the Crossroads League Championships and led the NAIA in team-grade-point average with a mark of 3.75. Additional highlights for the young program included the program’s first NAIA All-American honor, first First-Team All-Crossroads League nod and the first three CSC Academic All-American awards.

Kirby's fourth year saw continued growth in 2023-2024, as TU once again cracked the NAIA Top-25 and posted six of the 10-best team scores in program history. Along the way, the Trojans won a team event for the first time in program history, took a second-straight top-three showing at the CL Championships and set a new program record with five All-CL honors. TU continued its stellar work in the classroom as well, topping the CL with six NAIA Scholar-Athlete recognitions.

Kirby came to TU after a four-year career with Indiana Wesleyan’s competitive cheer program, where she helped the Wildcats qualify for the NAIA National Championships in each of her four seasons.

In addition to her experience as a student-athlete, Kirby volunteered for two years as a cheerleading coach at The Wellness Center in Marion, before graduating from IWU in the spring of 2020 with a degree in psychology.

Kirby expanded her role on the Taylor campus in the fall of 2022, beginning work as an admissions counselor in addition to her head coaching duties.

Kirby is married to Jacob Kirby and the couple resides in Marion.