Jim Hardy Memorial Tournament Flyer

In January, the community of Warrenton lost a great man. Jim Hardy was a beloved teacher, and coach to many. Mr. Hardy spent 12 years at Black Hawk Middle School in Warrenton as the IT teacher and wrestling coach. Mr. Hardy had a prestigious career as a wrestler and attended Mizzou. In honor of him, the Warrenton High School wrestling team renamed their home tournament to the Jim Hardy Memorial Tournament where the team competed. 

The tournament was held on January 27th and consisted of 15 teams. Warrenton’s team took 2nd place as a team (1st-Father Tolton) accumulating 189.5 points. Along with that Warrenton had 4 wrestlers take 1st place in their respective weight classes.

When asking the Head wrestling coach, Greg Olsson, how he felt the team performed he had this to say: “The team did great. Overall, we finished 2nd in the team race to the number 2 ranked school in Class 1. However, we only had 10 wrestlers earning points for us and they had 13. So our athletes performed really well. We had individual champions at 106 Zayden Teson, 113 Manny McCauley, 132 Josh Kassing, and 215 Jacob Ruff. We also had a second-place wrestler at 126 Jeremiah Kassing and 215 Elias McPike. Finally, we had two third-place wrestlers at 126 Caiden Somers, and 138 Noah Lohrmann.”

During the tournament, the team held a memorial for Jim Hardy. In this, they held a moment of silence and Warrenton’s Athletic Director Kevin Fowler spoke. In his speech Fowler mourned the loss of Mr. Hardy but also celebrated his life and accomplishments as well. Fowler closed his speech out with,“his impact will certainly outlast the time we had with him.”

When asking Coach Olsson how he felt the memorial turned out said, “The turnout was great. We had a lot of support from not only local people and Hardy’s family, but many of the officials and coaches in attendance as well. If I had to estimate, there were probably 30-40 people who came to the tournament who would not have normally been there. We have also received some messages on our social media pages from various people who knew Coach Hardy.”

Jim Hardy was an incredibly valued member of the Warrenton community and the school district. He loved working with students and their love for him was reflected in innumerable ways after his passing, through social media postings, attendance at the tournament, or through verbal recollections of his impact. Hardy’s kind-hearted and fun-loving personality will be missed. 

A celebration of Jim Hardy’s life will be held in February.