Brett Hardy back on the basketball sidelines, now up the road at Veterans
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
A year ago about now, Brett Hardy was preparing for the end of his 16th year at Perry, coaching the Panthers’ boys basketball and cross country teams.
A change in his teaching assignment and contract in the coming weeks, and an accompanying decrease in compensation, inspired Hardy to resign as basketball coach and take the position at another school in the county and coach a seventh-grade team while retaining his position as Perry varsity cross country coach.
But he’s back on the varsity boys basketball sideline, being named in late March to head the Veterans program in a rather quiet transaction.
The vacancy came when second-year head coach Nick Brooks was ostensibly let go from the coaching position just after the season in what principal Chris Brown said was “an internal personnel matter. It had nothing to do with success or a lack thereof in basketball.”
Brown was well familiar with Hardy, having started at Perry in 2004 after being a student teacher under Hardy. And he knew that Hardy wouldn’t automatically accept the offer.
“When the opportunity came up, he gave a lot of thought, a lot of prayer about it,” Brown said a few days ago. “Coach Hardy has been at Perry High School, I think, his whole career.
“To leave that family had over there – he was still coaching cross country – that was very difficult.”
While Hardy reluctantly gave up his basketball duties at Perry, he remained intense and dedicated while running the cross country program.
“It was not an easy decision at all,” Hardy said. “Cross country is a big deal to me. It’s just as big as basketball, in my eyes. I had a hard time leaving that crew. That’s good people. That weighed heavily.”
Hardy will also be part of the football staff for the first time in more than a decade.
Hardy becomes the third head coach for a program that is less than a decade old and has made the postseason only three times and is on a streak of four straight losing seasons.
Brooks replaced Chris Kothe, a former assistant under Hardy, who went 262-188 at Perry and was replaced by Panthers’ girls head coach Reggie West.
The Warhawks of 2018-19 will be young, with only two seniors leaving, according to a roster posted on Maxpreps.
“We had a good group of sophomores that led the way for us,” Brown said. “And we’ve got some guys coming off of injury.”
Hardy’s hire has led to another Central Georgia opening. Randall Owens has joined the staff, leaving his job as head boys basketball coach at Bleckley County after one season.
Owens, who went to Bleckley County from Baldwin, will also coach football at Veterans.
Hardy did get to spend more time with his family, one reason he cited last June for leaving basketball. The elementary and middle school season is barely a month and a half long, which, he said, makes teaching the game very difficult.
But the itch returned a little bit.
“I missed the region tournaments,” he said. “I missed the ballgames and stuff. I said I didn’t think I was done, because I didn’t go out at Perry like I wanted to go out.”