THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Tony and Willow Hanna, well-respected high school coaches in North Idaho, had hoped to relocate to Florida someday. They just didn’t think it would happen this soon

The plan was a year or two in the making, and the execution originally another year or two down the road. 

But the final decision to make the move ...  

Well, that came extremely quickly. 

And seemingly out of nowhere. 

Tony Hanna, boys basketball coach at Lakeland High, and his wife, Willow, volleyball coach at Post Falls High, had talked about moving to Florida once their children graduated high school, for a few reasons, most notably the weather — the winters here, vs. the winters there. 

“I coach in the wintertime, but we don’t do winter sports, we don’t ski or snowboard or any of that kind of stuff,” Tony said. “So winters are just getting a little long for us. I like to golf, so we wanted to get somewhere where we could get outside, and be outdoors year-round.” 

Tony and Willow lived in Orlando more than 20 years ago, so they were familiar with Florida. 

“We’ve really struggled with the last couple winters, especially, maintaining mood,” Willow said. “We both like to do things outside.” 

Also, while both are coaches, Tony and Willow’s “regular” jobs are in real estate, and toward that end, Florida was a better option — both in selling and investing. 

Alexis Hanna, the youngest of their two children, was heading into her senior year at Lakeland High, and Tony and Willow weren’t about to make her spend her final year of high school thousands of miles away. 

And Alexis wasn’t big on the idea originally, either. 

But in early July, the family decided to take a vacation/scouting trip to Florida — Tony, Willow, Alexis, son Brady and his girlfriend, and Tony’s mom. 

And after they checked out some potential landing spots in Florida, Alexis told her parents, “I’m all in.” 

“And we go, ‘What?’” Tony recalled. “We were kind of shocked that she would be willing to move her senior year. (But) she’s really into prosthetics; she wants to build prosthetics, and there’s a lot of colleges in that area that offer what she’s looking for.” 

So the move was on — not next year, but right now, setting off a chain reaction that included a return trip to Florida for the folks to check out another part of the state, long-distance phone calls to their athletic directors to let them know they were leaving their coaching positions, a POD still in transit, and a hastily arranged cross-country road trip in which two of the passengers were cats. 

All in less than one month’s time.

“So here we go; a new adventure,” Willow said. 

“It was a long-term plan that turned into an immediate plan,” Tony said. 

HOW IMMEDIATE? 

For Alexis to get in-state tuition at a college in Florida next fall, the family would have to live in the state for a year. They found out school in Florida started Aug. 12 this year. 

“And we’re like, if we’re going to do this we’ve got to get serious about it, and quickly,” Tony said. 

On the vacation/scouting trip, they found a place they liked in Fort Myers, on the Gulf Coast side of Florida, toward the southern part of the state. But a week or so after returning, Tony and Willow hopped a plane back to Florida, where they found a place they liked better on the Atlantic Ocean side of the state — in Ormand Beach, just north of Daytona Beach, home of the Daytona 500, in the northern part of the state.

They put an offer on a house — 10 minutes from the beach, and in a golf course community with 45 holes. And while they would close on it a couple of weeks later, they knew they would end up somewhere down there eventually, and it was time to let their bosses know. 

Especially Willow, with volleyball tryouts at Post Falls coming up starting Aug. 12. 

“We feel bad,” Tony said. “Obviously Willow loves Post Falls. I’ve loved my time at Lakeland. I was actually really excited about the team I have coming this year; it’s going to be a good team, it’s going to be a fun team to watch.” 

Post Falls High athletic director Craig Christensen was back in South Dakota, at a family reunion, when his phone rang. 

“We’d been talking back and forth (about the eventual move) for a little bit. I really thought she was going to go one more year,” Christensen said. “I thought we had one more year before we had to cross that bridge. I figured eventually it was going to happen, but I figured I had another year to think about it.” 

(As it turned out, Christensen quickly got the word out about the job opening. Four applied, and Matt Barkley, who was Post Falls’ head volleyball coach for four seasons (2016-19) and an assistant for a few others, was named head coach again, pending school board approval.) 

Lakeland High AD Matt Neff was in his office when his phone rang.

"A little bit of a surprise for us," Neff said. "(Tony) called me from a golf course in Florida and said we’re making the leap."

A week or so after the Hannas decided to move, Alexis learned that volleyball tryouts at her new high school, Flagler-Palm Coast High in Palm Coast, Fla., were scheduled for July 29-30, a Monday and Tuesday. So Willow and Alexis planned to begin the trek to Florida soon.

Tony and Brady, who golfed and played tennis at Lakeland High, graduating in 2023, were out of town on a golfing trip, hoping to return in time to say goodbye. Alexis and Willow had hoped to arrive in Florida by last Friday, but when they learned when the tryouts were, they hit the road before the boys got back home. They also had to miss some pre-planned going-away get-togethers with friends and family who live here. 

So Willow and Alexis and the two family cats left on Saturday morning, July 27, drove pretty much straight through for three straight days, arriving in Florida on Monday evening. The trip included a stop some 2 hours from their final destination, in Lake City, Fla., at an urgent care so Alexis could get a physical in-state, and the results uploaded, in time for her to try out the next day. 

They figured they covered 2,768 miles in three days. 

“There wasn’t a lot of sleeping,” Willow said from their new home in Florida. “We had two cats in the car with us, who are not travelers. We just kind of took cat naps in the car. It was about 40 hours of driving in about 68 hours total.” 

How’d they do it? 

“Coffee and lots of singing, and stand-up comedy shows (to listen to),” Willow said. 

Alexis tried out for the varsity that Tuesday, made the team, and may end up as the starting libero at a school some three times the size of Lakeland. 

So now Willow and Alexis are in the new family home in Florida, with a few pieces of furniture they bought with the house. The POD, with whatever they could fit in there from their house that is for sale at Twin Lakes Village, is scheduled to arrive today. Meanwhile, Tony remains in their home here, with a bed and some patio furniture, hoping to leave for Florida in a couple of weeks. 

Brady, who attended Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston this past year as a freshman, didn’t play for the Warriors because of a hand injury suffered in high school. Now, he’s transferred to the University of Idaho, where he’s in the Pro Golf Management program, three years away from getting into the golf industry. 

Alexis, who plans to take all her classes this year at nearby Daytona State College as a dual-enrolled student, has her first volleyball match Aug. 20. Dad is hoping to get there for her next matches the following week. 

Tony and Willow plan to get their real estate licenses in Florida. And a return to coaching someday for one or both of them is a possibility. 

“I think when you’re looking at some life changes that are exciting for you personally and for your family, I think this new adventure is really exciting for us,” Willow said. “It’s hard to leave. It’s hard to leave my volleyball program. It’s hard to leave my staff, and players that I’ve worked with for the last few years. We have family and friends in town there, still. So it’s been difficult to say goodbye, but we’re also looking forward to building a new life here.” 

TONY GREW up in West Linn, Ore., outside Portland. Willow grew up in Post Falls. They met at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., and lived in Florida and Las Vegas before opting to move to North Idaho. 

Tony coached at Tekoa-Oakesdale in southeastern Washington for two seasons, at Timberlake High for five (including guiding the Tigers’ to their first state tourney appearance in 2013), at Coeur d’Alene High for four seasons and at Lakeland for three. He’s been in the real estate business off and on for the past two decades.  

Neff said Lakeland is in the process of hiring Tony's replacement, and hopes to have the new coach in place prior to the start of school.

"I wish him and Willow the best, and we’ll really miss having their daughter in our program," Neff said. "She was a great athlete, great student, great kid."

Willow played at Post Falls, then taught there and coached the Trojans in two stints — 2007-15, and 2020-23. In her 13 seasons as head coach, she took Post Falls to state seven times, including a runner-up finish in 2011 and finishes of fourth, third and third the past three seasons. 

“I hate to see her go,” Christensen said. “I’ve always said about Willow, I’ve been an AD for 27, 28 years, and she’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever worked with. I said that after her first stint. She’s a very good coach, she manages players very well, professional, she gets the most out of everybody.” 

Tony said this move might not have come about this year had Alexis not suffered a broken left arm doing a cartwheel at a Powder Puff practice in May. The injury kept her from playing softball and volleyball in the summer, and her parents from traveling around watching her play. 

So with some extra free time in the summer ... why not make a trip to Florida? 

“Some adversity she was dealing with turned into an opportunity for us,” Tony said.  

“I think it was more of the fact I can pursue my dream here a little bit better than at Lakeland," Alexis said from Florida. “Winters (in North Idaho) get kind of depressing ... being here and staying active all year round where it’s warm, I’ll definitely live a little bit happier. 

"I’ve been eating better, and it’s just really nice down here; the culture makes you want to eat fruit all the time,” she added. 

ALEXIS SAID she wants to study biomechanical engineering, and eventually build prosthetics for a pediatrics hospital. She said she may turn out for softball in the spring, but athletics in college is unlikely. 

“When I was a kid I wanted to build rovers for NASA, to go to Mars,” she said. “As I grew up I learned of this foundation called the Challenge Athletes Foundation, based out of San Diego, where my aunt had lived. They do fundraisers and marathons to raise money for people in need of prosthetics.  

"I could take my engineering skills and really, really help people, and see that change in their lives, kinda give them hope back,” she added. 

“Originally I wanted to do that for retired military veterans, because that was something that was really needed in our world," Alexis said. "But as I’ve gotten older, and I job-shadowed at Shriners in Spokane, I saw the change I could make in kids’ lives, and I think that’s an even bigger thing that I want to do in my life.” 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.