By KEVIN EIS

cnsports@crescent-news.com

HOLGATE -- After 11 seasons as head football coach of the Holgate Tigers, Arnie Hardy is stepping down.

The Holgate mentor, who compiled a combined record of 23-87 throughout his tenure at the helm of the Tigers, submitted his resignation to the Holgate School Board at its meeting Monday evening.

According to Hardy, time constraints, along with the desire to spend more time with his family weighed heavily on his decision to relinquish his coaching responsibilities.

"My daughter (Adrew) is a senior at Defiance," stated Hardy, who also serves the Village of Continental as Chief of Police. "She plays tennis and I don't get to see her very often. She's a senior and going to be off to college in one year, so I want to spend a little bit more time with her than I normally do and my boy (Jake) wants me to get a little bit more involved with his baseball (in the Defiance pony league). So it's more of a family thing. I want to spend a little bit more time with my kids."

In a school system known primarily for its basketball programs, Hardy expressed admiration for the dedication of his past players and coaches, despite the obstacles they faced due to low numbers as each new football season approached. The Tigers took the field each and every week this past season with a roster consisting of just 17 players. While persisting and remaining competitive week in and week out, Holgate finished 2008 campaign winless at 0-10.

"I knew the situation we were in, obviously," commented Hardy on the low turnout at the small Henry County school. "Year in and year out, the kids performed hard every Friday night and they practiced hard. They know we're up against the wall, so to speak, and it's an uphill battle. But they worked hard every Friday night.

"It's not always about the wins and losses," he continued. "It's about creating young men for the future. I think we did a pretty good job of creating that, but we just didn't get the wins we'd like."

Hardy suggested an imbalance between the sacrifice and hard work involved through two-a-days in the sweltering August heat and a lack of a winning tradition as possibilities surrounding the sparse numbers on the gridiron through the years. At the same time, the former Holgate mentor was quick to praise those whom he has coached through his 11 seasons with the Tigers.

"The turnout's always been low when I've been there and prior to when I've been there," claimed Hardy, who after playing football at Holgate spent three years as an assistant football coach at Holgate before accepting the job as head coach. "There's not very many kids in the school to begin with, we vary from 550 to the low 70's every year. Some kids don't want to do the two-a-days. Two-a-days aren't easy and nobody likes them, but it's all part of football. Sometimes football is more of a disciplined sport than the rest of them and some kids don't like that. Wherever you go to play football you're going to run into that. Not winning all the time probably doesn't help matters either.

"For the kids that do come out, I've got all the respect in the world for them," he lauded. "We're usually always in the low 20's (on the roster), but they're fighting all week long and still fighting Friday nights so I've got a lot of respect for them."

After 14 years spent coaching in the football program, Hardy notes the bonds developed among himself, his players, the parents and his fellow coaches both at home and from opposing schools as things he will invariably miss.

"It's almost like a large family that you're part of," Hardy lamented. "It's only about twenty-some people that you're dealing with day in and day out. I'm going to miss the contact with everybody. And there's the contact with the area coaches who have been around for awhile, so you know all of them and what they're all about. Sometimes you know the families, so you're going to miss that."

While the school board begins the search for a replacement, Hardy sincerely hopes the interest in the football program at Holgate remains intact and his replacement is as accepted by the community as Hardy feels he was for his 11 seasons.

"I'm sure (athletic director) coach (Paul) Wayne and the administration is going to do the best they can with their situation," Hardy replied when asked of the program's future outlook. "The problem is there are not a whole lot of people who want to coach football up in that level. We only had three high school coaches this year, including me, and only two in the junior high level. Obviously everybody's going to be supporting whoever the next guy is. It takes a lot of time and effort. If you're not a teacher, you've almost got to have the right job to be able to do that."

And even though he will not be seen on the Holgate sidelines, Hardy expressed his desire to remain active with his former players in whatever way he can in the future.

"I told the kids at the last meeting that I'm not bailing on them by any means," he concluded. "I'm still going to support them. It's just the circumstances that came up and I told the kids that too. Every year we competed, we didn't win a lot of games but we competed and played hard. I think we earned a lot of respect from area teams that we played because of our numbers and the way we played. In a way, that's kind of winning on Friday nights. It's not on the scoreboard, but we're winning."