For the past 21 years, Chris Hardman has been called two titles among Upper School students: Mr. Hardman when he teaches physics, and Coach Hardman on the soccer field. Next year, he will drop his title of Boys Soccer Coach, taking a break from the position. 

“I’m not retiring from coaching,” Hardman said, “I’m just taking a few years off so that I can concentrate on my own kids’ soccer journey.”

This marks a large change for Boys Varsity Soccer, as Hardman had a significant coaching tenure. 

“We won the MBIL championship in 2012 and 2019,” Hardman said. “Those were pretty incredible seasons. We also were invited to the NEPSAC tournament on a number of occasions, and we even made it to the championship game of NEPSAC back in 2019.” 

Hardman’s accomplishments allowed him to become the first coach to be inducted to the Athletics Hall of Fame last May. 

“I was super excited to receive that honor,” Hardman said. “My family came and watched as I was inducted into the Hall of Fame. It was great. There were a bunch of my former players that were there for the alumni event. It was just a wonderful experience.”

Hardman’s break comes from a desire to take a more active role in his own son’s soccer journey. His son plays travel soccer, and he hopes to help him develop as a player.

“I watch his games on Saturdays and Sundays,” Hardman said. “But I feel like I could give more to him and his team.”

As both a hard-working teacher, coach, and father, Hardman also noted specific problems that came up this year when balancing these major aspects of his life.

“This year I was teaching two extra classes,” Hardman said. “So the fact that I was having to teach all day and then go for early dismissals, or just literally at the end of the day [having to] hustle out of my classroom and go and jump on a bus to go to practice. [It] just meant that I was having to bring a lot of work home. And I try to keep my family life and my professional life relatively separate.”

For the upcoming season, the team will be coached by Mauricio Zavala, who has experience coaching Middle School Boys Soccer as well as several club and semi-professional teams. 

Despite not coaching, Hardman is still excited for the upcoming season.

“I’ve got a relationship with many of the players on the team,” Hardman said,  “I certainly plan on attending as many games as I can. I expect that will be most home games. We’ll see about road games. That all depends on how early the dismissals are and whether I’m teaching.” 

The team plays their first game today away against Landmark at 4:15 PM.