Daniel Hardy had not heard from Josh Taufalele for a few weeks when he received a phone call on one of the most trying days of his life.
The outside linebacker from College of the Siskiyous first heard from Montana State’s offensive line coach following his first season of college football. The Bobcats had stayed in touch, trying to get to know the raw but talented edge rusher during his recruitment.
Hardy, a standout high school basketball at Valley Catholic in Beaverton, Oregon, did not start playing football until his senior year of high school. Throughout his prep career, Hardy had the balance his athletic pursuits with the heartbreak taking place at home.
During his sophomore year, Hardy’s father Wilbert Hardy was diagnosed with kidney cancer. The Reverend Hardy served as a beloved, humble spiritual leader for Portland’s African American community, “inspiring so many others with his dynamic sermons and lifelong service to his church and community”, according to the Portland Tribune. On February 6, Wilbert Hardy succumbed to his three-year battle.
Taufalele, Hardy’s primary recruiter, called the young prospect to express his condolences before giving Hardy his space to grieve. About six weeks later, Taufalele and defensive line coach Byron Hout called Hardy together, this time with more uplifting news: the Bobcats had a full scholarship offer for the 6-foot-4, 210-pound JC freshman.
“I’m not going to lie, I cried afterward,” Hardy said in a phone interview from Weed, California where Siskiyous is located earlier this week. “It was a great moment. You work your tail off and I didn’t expect to be transferring after one year. They saw value in me and they wanted to offer me a chance to be a part of their family. That meant a lot.
“In that moment, it wasn’t something that was going to completely take away the pain I was feeling but it sure did help. My dad would definitely be proud seeing me sign a scholarship and getting my education paid for and doing what I love playing football.”
At Valley Catholic outside of Portland, Hardy chased a different dream. The athletic, bouncy teenager was a standout on the Valiants’ basketball team. He helped lead the team to a 20-win season and a berth in the semifinals of the Oregon 4A state playoffs just a few months after earning all-state honors at wide receiver and outside linebacker in his first and only prep football season.
“Basketball still is my favorite sport but I’m married to football now,” Hardy said. “I didn’t have any offers out of high school. I was talking to Portland State a little bit. Communication fell through when the coach I was talking to took a job at another college. I had an offer from Western Oregon and I ended up turning them down and I’m paying for college myself and they had only offered a small scholarship, so I couldn’t afford to pay the rest of it.
“I was at a crossroads. I didn’t know what I was going to do. It was either play basketball at a community college just for fun while I was getting an education or just start working a job. Then one of the coaches from Siskiyous happened to be in town on a recruiting trip and my coach called him and asked if he would want to meet with me. I ended up deciding that was the place for me.”
Hardy will be the first to admit that basketball, while giving him good athleticism when it comes to running and jumping, also instilled some bad habits its taken him some time to fix on the football field. He has had it engrained in his head to close out full speed before stopping abruptly while defending an offensive player. He had to teach himself to run through the player with the ball rather than stopping short like he might have on the hardwood.
“The coaches here at Siskiyous are amazing,” Hardy said. “They’ve definitely had to have some patience with me because I haven’t played that much football. We have basic terminology and things I didn’t understand and they really took the time to help develop me as a player and help me understand the game. They toughen you up and put some hair on your chest. If you can’t make it through our kind of football down here, you are not tough.”
When he has show flashes of breaking through, the flashes have been bright. In just his second year ever playing football, Hardy earned first-team NorCal all-conference last fall after piling up 66 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss and a league-leading nine sacks.
“Daniel is a tremendous athlete, 6-3 with a wingspan of almost 6-10, and he’s explosive, fast, and has huge upside,” Montana State head coach Jeff Choate said. “He’s a guy that we evaluated numerous times and we kept coming back to the fact that if we tried to wait a year we wouldn’t have a chance. After his visit here he visited Fresno State, and when he called to let us know he’s becoming a Bobcat we were pretty excited.”
Hardy made his official visit to Bozeman for Montana State’s Sonny Holland spring game in early April. His mother, Ali Hardy, and his uncle, Tony McCuller, accompanied him on his visit to Bozeman. He said he was impressed by the accessibly, the amenities and the apparent growth the town has been experiencing in recent years.
Hardy visited Fresno State the following weekend. A day after returning to Weed from L.A., Hardy announced his commitment to Montana State. Two days after committing, he signed his scholarship papers solidifying himself as a Bobcat.
The long-limbed, quick edge specialist will play Buck end for the Bobcats. He said he spent a good portion of his time at Siskiyous “walking up to the line to blitz or drop into coverage.”
Hardy is a qualifier who will be eligible right away. He will have four years to play his final three seasons of college football. He will finish school at Siskiyous in late May before returning to Portland to watch his younger sister graduate in early June. The future business management and marketing major plans to report to Bozeman for summer workouts in early July. He is counting down the days until his new chapter opens in Montana.
“I wouldn’t exactly call it the light at the end of the tunnel because now the hard work starts,” Hardy said. “I plan to work as hard as I did up to this point and even harder when I get to Bozeman to take advantage of this opportunity. I can’t wait to play some football and be a part of the family.”
Photos courtesy of Daniel Hardy. All Rights Reserved.
