When Madera Unified School District Director of Athletics Marty Bitter retired, Jesse Hardwick saw an opportunity to come to a city, and a district that he respected from afar.
Bitter created the position 12 years ago, and retired from it earlier this year. Enter former Fresno State football player, and athletic director at Clovis and Sanger high schools, Hardwick.
“I always liked Madera when I came out here for games,” Hardwick said. “Madera was introduced to me very early in my career. Mark Barsotti (Fresno State teammate) talked about Madera. My second year at Fresno State, we came to Madera for a chili cook-off. One of our graduate assistants participated in the arm wrestling competition. Even when I was coaching at Sanger, we were in the TRAC together. I got to know Madera a lot through that. I had an appreciation for Madera. When you went against Madera, you knew you were in for a battle. We had some battles with them. Every game was a dogfight. I always had a deep appreciation for Madera schools. When learned more about this position, it sparked an interest in me.”
Hardwick took over for Bitter on July 1, and had been coming to Madera to sit in on meetings. The biggest adjustment was not seeing students running around a campus.
“It’s the first time in 30 years I have not been on a school site,” he said. “It’s a little different coming here. For the past 20 years, I’ve had the opportunities to go to the office, go to the gym, see kids and see staff. Do I enjoy what I’m doing? 100 percent. I just haven’t gotten used to it. Eventually, I will.”
Hardwick grew up in Garden Grove in Orange County, and went to Bolsa Grande High School, where his team won a Section Championship.
“We had a pretty loaded team,” he said. “We ran the veer option with not a lot of passing. We rushed for more than 4,500 yards and three backs with more than 1,000 yards. We broke the county record. I was All-Conference both years. I was first team All-County and made the All-State team.”
After high school, Hardwick received inquiries from USC, UCLA and Colorado. However, he had to settle for mid-majors like Fresno State, San Diego and Utah.
“Fresno State was my last recruiting trip,” he said. “I went on five recruiting trips five weekends in a row. It was a lot different back then. I was flying out on a Friday, and coming on Sunday.”
Hardwick was recruited by then-offensive line coach Pat Hill and played under Jim Sweeney.
“I’ve never been to Fresno in my life,” he said. “I never even passed through Fresno. If I went up north, I used to fish in the Eastern Sierra. I never went through the Valley. I enjoyed my experience and decided to come to Fresno State to play for the Bulldogs. I came in the fall of 1988. It was quite an experience. It was a lot hotter here than down south, and we did three practices a day. As an incoming freshman, I was wondering what I got myself into.”
Hardwick redshirted in 1998, and played for the Bulldogs from 1989-1992. Madera legend Barsotti was his quarterback for his first three years, and then played with Trent Dilfer. His last Fresno State game was the 1992 Freedom Bowl where Fresno State defeated USC.
“That was a neat deal because I got to go back home. My final home was beating USC at home in Anaheim,” he said.
Hardwick had a cup of coffee with NFL camps and CFL teams, but eventually made his way back to Fresno State to finish off his degree with one more semester.
“The plan was to go into law enforcement,” he said. “Over the course of that semester, I got contacted by James Gambrell (now the MUSD Director of Community Athletics and Recreation). He was an assistant coach at Sanger, and I didn’t know him. I met with him and (Sanger Apaches football coach) Chuck Shidan. I said I’ll help out for a season (1996). I fell in love with it, and it got me hooked into coaching and education.”
He was at Sanger until 2000, and then coached, and taught, at Clovis West for a couple of years, and returned to Sanger in 2004 to teach in a different position.
In 2006, the athletic director position opened up, and Hardwick threw his hat in for the job.
“During the time when I was at Clovis West, I went and got my masters in administration education. I knew I wanted to do something like that, but didn’t know when,” Hardwick said. “Dan Chacon (Sanger High School principal) reached out, and asked if I was interested. In that time, Sanger went through three athletic directors in a year. It was a big learning curve from the get-go. I loved dealing with it. I felt like I knew the community. I enjoyed doing the job.”
Eight years later, the athletic director position opened at Clovis High School in 2014.
“My three daughters were going to Quail Lake, which feeds into Sanger,” he said. “I literally lived across the street from Clovis High. My oldest daughter was about to enter middle school. She was already involved with a number of travel team with players from Clark, which feeds into Clovis. I decided to go for it, and got the job. I spent the last 12 years at Clovis.
“My plan was to have my kids go to where I was, whether Sanger or Clovis. I knew it was going to be difficult for me to be a dad. Being the athletic director, you are gone a lot. My kids were getting to an age where I wanted to be there. If I was going to stay as an athletic director in Sanger, and they went to a different school, I was going to miss a lot. It just worked out. That was the great thing about doing that. Sanger is a great community, but this was a family decision, at the time. I enjoyed every bit of my daughters at Clovis. All three daughters were at Clovis at the same time.”
Then, Hardwick heard about Bitter retiring, and the job perked some interest.
“I’ve known Marty for a number of years. We’ve had a lot of league meetings and with me coming out here for games. I was involved with him with CIF,” he said.
The Madera Tribune talked to Hardwick about some of his thoughts and things he brings to the table.
The Madera Tribune: How has the learning curve been?
Jesse Hardwick: The learning curve is a little gradual. I feel like I have a deep knowledge of sports programs. There’s also systems. They are all a little different, but they are all set to accomplish the same goals. Getting to know the community, the district systems and my own knowledge, and blend it together to make this better.
MT: How nice are the MUSD athletic facilities?
JH: I have not been in school district where every middle school who has an all-weather track, lights and a snack bar. Clovis doesn’t have that. Fresno doesn’t have that. Not every large school districts have their own football stadiums. This is very unique. There’s an investment in athletics and facilities. That’s the hook. You get kids into athletics to help them better their education and make them better people for society.
MT: What kind of philosophies do you want to implement?
JH: I want to help the growth of programs. How are we able to make sure we continue the articulation model of our K-6 to middle school to high school to make sure it’s valued? Our head coaches are connecting with our middle school coaches to make sure they are all coaching the way they want their program to grow. There’s a model for that, but it’s ensuring it’s happening. It’s about supporting the people at the sites that it will help their program. It’s about continually being competitive, year in, year out.
MT: What do you consider your strengths?
JH: Where I’m at in my career, I have a good knowledge base, by being in a few districts, of knowing how things work. This is my third school district in 30 years. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned from my mistakes and successes. Taking that knowledge and passing to others make them better. My strengths are being diligent, hard working and loyal. I’m someone who is always going to the end goal of things. There’s always something you’re going for, and you are never getting it. You continue to chase it. You set the bar higher. That’s something that’s been embedded in me since I was an athlete. My goal is to help the people around me better.
MT: What advantage do you have of being a high-level athlete?
JH: I try to look at the high school kids. Two of my three kids played college athletics. I dove into that a little. The way I see kids nowadays with athletics is night and day than what I went through. To be able to educate kids and young coaches to navigate and keep kids engaged is what I want to do. I’ve had an opportunity to be a part of championship-level teams. The thing I valued most were the relationships. Once you build a relationship with a kid, and they trust you, they will run through a wall for you. I encourage every coach to be like Chuck Shidan. Kids would run through a wall for him. There are some great coaches out there. They are not measured by their record, but are measured by how they transform students. This is education-based athletics.
MT: You’ve been in the job for a couple of months, what has been the biggest change?
JH: It’s a little different coming here. For the past 20 years, I’ve had the opportunities to go to the office, go to the gym, see kids and see staff. I will get out to some events. I’m making sure to get around. There’s a lot to pick. Before, there was just one school. Now, there’s elementary, middle school and high school athletics. I get to fill my plate a little bit. I went to my first flag football game. Clovis doesn’t have flag, yet. I enjoy going to events and seeing kids participate and succeed.
Hardwick has been married for 26 years. His wife works at Fresno State in facilities management.
“We grew up in the same area,” he said. “She went to Valencia and we beat Valencia in the section championships.”
He has three daughters — Julia, Jessica and Jada. Julia was a COVID graduate from Clovis. She was the B’nai, B’rith winner, which is given to the top female scholar/athlete in the Fresno/Clovis area. She played soccer at Fresno State, and earned her master’s degree.
Daughter Jessica graduated from CSU Monterey Bay with an environmental science degree. She works for the Department of Interior studying fowl in the Bay Area. Jessica played golf at Clovis, and was the school mascot.
Youngest daughter Jada is a senior at CSU Monterey Bay where she is on the women’s soccer team.
“I have one more year of being a soccer dad,” Hardwick said. “She will graduate with a kinesiology degree in May.”
Hardwick cherishes his free time because he hasn’t had a lot of it in the past few years.
“I was a site AD at Clovis so we had a lot of things going on,” he said. “When I wasn’t doing that, I was watching my kids play sports. This fall, I will watch a lot of my daughters’ games. I enjoy going to sporting events. It’s been a part of my life. When I can, I like to go fishing. I haven’t done that in a while. I like to travel and get out of the Valley. If I can watch a football game or a Fresno State game, I’ll do that. I’ll follow the Dodgers and Rams.”