EVERETT — Joe Hardy is looking forward to a smooth transition as he takes over as the new head varsity boys basketball coach at Archbishop Murphy High School.
Hardy, who coached at Ingraham for the past six seasons, was named the Wildcats’ newest program leader at the end of April, replacing Riley Bettinger, who took over in 2020.
Originally from the Philadelphia area, Hardy moved to Washington in 2017 to pursue a coaching career after playing golf collegiately. He coached the Rams’ C-team and junior varsity squads before taking over as head coach for Ingraham in 2020. The Rams went 10-14 overall, and 7-7 in league play while playing in the Metro League Sound Division during the 2022-23 season.
Hardy recently moved to the Snohomish area, in the heart of the school’s location.
“I’ve kinda known about the Archbishop Murphy program from afar,” Hardy said. “I know how involved the community is and how involved the alumni are. I was always drawn to the program a bit and fell in love with the culture, and when I learned about all the talent coming up as well as what’s there now … it was a no-brainer to go all in on the process.”
Returning just two players with varsity experience, the Wildcats’ roster overhaul after graduating nine seniors signifies a fresh start for Hardy as he takes the helm following an 8-12 season record.
“It’s a little bit like starting from ground zero,” Hardy said. “I’m familiar with a lot of the teams and coaches in Wesco, I see no reason we can’t be competitive in that league. (Also), there’s some very impressive teams in the 2A Northwest. I’ve gained a lot of respect for those teams after watching them play and diving into film.”
Archbishop Murphy is one of two 2A Wesco teams playing in the 3A/2A league, the other being Cedarcrest.
Philosophy-wise, Hardy said he plans on implementing whatever system works to his current players’ skill-sets.
“My teams generally play very fast, very physical with an emphasis on moving the ball,” Hardy said. “And, embracing a team-first culture. There’s always change on a year-to-year basis, in my opinion things can’t be supplemented in just one type of system.”
After departing from his first head coaching experience at Ingraham, Hardy feels like he left the program with a positive outlook moving forward.
“I’m a huge relationship guy,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest thing we implemented there, tying teams into the community. During the last few years we really got ourselves more involved and we had three seniors last season who completely helped change our program, two of which are going to play college basketball. That’s gonna be one of the biggest things here too.”
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