EDINBORO, Pa. – "Improvise. Adapt. And overcome."
 
This is Gary Hanna's professional and personal mantra, which now hangs on a banner above the McComb Fieldhouse weight room hallway.
 
Hanna, who served Fighting Scots student-athletes and coaches for 32 years, announced his retirement from the university, effective June 30. Throughout his career at Edinboro, Hanna has lived by that quote and instilled these values in every individual who walked through the hall.
 
"We have always had a great coaching staff, which has had consistency and longevity. That is a sign of a good place to work," said Hanna, who has been certified as an athletic trainer since 1978. "Our coaches always bring in good athletes and citizens, and that has always made the job a joy."
 
Hanna joined the Edinboro staff as associate athletic trainer in 1990, before being promoted to the head position in 2003. While overseeing the health and well-being of Edinboro student-athletes, Hanna has emerged as a leader in college athletics – receiving the Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers' Society Distinguished Merit Award in 2011.
 
"We are grateful for the more than 30 years that Gary dedicated to the care of our student-athletes and will miss not only his professional excellence, but his leadership and big personality that made Edinboro athletics a wonderful place to work," said Dr. Katherine Robbins, Edinboro's director of athletics.
 
Additionally, Hanna was inducted into the Pennsylvania Athletic Training Hall of Fame in 2014.
 
In 2021, Hanna was selected to the Edinboro Hall of Fame. He was then named the DII Athletic Trainer of the Year by the National Athletic Trainer's Association and Intercollegiate Council of Sports Medicine.
 
Callie Wheeler, who played for Edinboro from 2002-2006 and has coached the women's basketball team since 2018, said she was a student-athlete who wouldn't have been as successful in competition without Hanna and his athletic training clinic.
 
"I suffered significant injuries throughout my playing career at Edinboro, but he invested his time in my rehab and taking proper preventive measures to make sure I could compete," Wheeler said. "When I became a coach, I gained a newfound respect for the athletic trainers because of the care Gary provided to me as an athlete."
 
In his three decades at Edinboro, Hanna has earned much-deserved accolades, awards and praise for his work, said Edinboro's soccer coach Gary Kagiavas.
 
"Gary has the ability to recognize situations, communicate with the necessary persons and come up with a solution," said Kagiavas, who founded the soccer program at Edinboro in 1996. "Gary is loved by the student athletes because he always was available to them and cared for their well-being. His hustling demeanor on the sidelines, mats and courts will be missed by so many that he touched over so many years."
 
Assistant athletic trainer Audra Neumann was selected to replace Hanna, after spending nearly 12 years in her current role. She previously served in a similar capacity at Allegheny College and St. Vincent Sports Medicine.
 
"Audra will forge her own path and do it with very few problems," Hanna said. "We always take a collaborative group approach in this office, and she's been involved at all levels since the start."
 
Prior to joining Edinboro, Hanna served the Department of Physical Therapy at St. Joseph's Riverside Hospital in Warren, Ohio. He also worked as head athletic trainer at John Carroll University from 1981-87 and with the World Basketball League during the 1988 season.
 
Hanna received his Bachelor of Science degree in health and physical education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and master's degrees in sports science from the U.S. Sports Academy and in exercise science and health promotions from California University of Pennsylvania (Now PennWest California).
 
Upon completion of the master's degree, he accepted an assignment in Bahrain, where he and a medical group established and constructed a sports medicine outpatient care clinic for the national athletes of the country. He has since worked at the U.S. Olympic Committee Training Center, the U.S. Olympic Festivals, and with USA Baseball and the National Sports Festival.
 
His Olympic career highlight was to serve on the medical staff at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.
 
Hanna and his wife, Marsha, have been married for 42 years and have six children: Benjamin, Jared, Corey, Evan, Chad and Angela.