Southeast honors girls basketball coach John Harder with court naming

John Harder lingered a bit longer than usual at the announcer’s table inside Benjamin “Buzz” Narbut gymnasium after Southeast’s 61-15 win against Braden River. He sat with athletic director Daniel Bradshaw as some of Harder’s students reached out for fist bumps or high fives before stepping out of the bleachers and on to the newly christened John Harder Court to head for the exits.

Bradshaw was one of the many figures across Manatee County instrumental in honoring the three-time state championship coach of the Seminoles’ girls basketball team. He brought the proposal to the board after Jim Pauley first rose the idea when he moved from his role as Southeast’s principal to the county level. Bradshaw brought the proposal to the board in February, when it was met with unanimous approval by the school board. Nine months later, there was a celebration at Southeast High School, a who’s who of ex-Noles and friends of the program Harder helped make the most consistent in the county.

He had former players come from Georgia and Texas. He had friends visit from Indiana and all across Florida. His college roommate came all the way from Illinois.

“I still am in disbelief as to the enormity, the immense excitement that was permeated in this gym tonight,” Harder said. “Everybody came to celebrate, to be happy tonight.”

He lingered long after the final whistle blew, standing atop one of the two new logos fixed along the sidelines. “John Harder Court,” they read, with his first name written in orange and his last in a solid blue. He’s spent more than 30 years coaching the Seminoles since he began his tenure with a state championship in 1985 and can’t remember ever seeing a high school basketball court named after a coach, let alone a girls basketball coach.

It’s a fitting tribute to Harder, who has had more success coaching basketball in the county than anyone else. Five years after he won a state title in his first year, he won another in 1990, then a third in 2014. Between all that he’s had three other final four appearances and 21 district titles. But he says he never thought about an honor like this. It wasn’t an idea that became tangible until Pauley departed for a job as the school board’s executive director of secondary schools. He thought he could get it done, Harder remembers him saying, and superintendent Diana Greene, a former basketball player, “took it and ran with it.”

“As a former girls basketball player,” Greene said, “I know that I would’ve enjoyed playing under Coach Harder.”

He found out the news Feb. 10 the same way he learns all of his news. He wakes up 15 minutes early sit at his breakfast table and read through the Bradenton Herald’s sports and news sections. He teaches civics, so he likes to keep up on current events. When he read about the proposal’s unanimous approval, he said, he started to cry.

“I didn’t want it to be something nobody wanted,” Harder said. “I never asked for it.”

It was surreal when he finally saw it for the first time at the end of the summer. The gym reopened and he brought his team in to practice. His wife and pastor joined him that day to take photos of the fresh memorial as the Noles practiced.

The scene at Narbut Gymnasium on Tuesday was surreal, too. Five of his former students — including head football coach Rashad West and head boys basketball coach Floyd Watkins — now coach the Seminoles and several others are members of the faculty. They dotted the bleachers as the Noles (1-0) beat up on the Pirates (0-1) to open another season seemingly destined for success at Southeast and some of them stuck around long after the bleachers cleared out. The line to pose for a photo or brief chat with Harder extended for at least half an hour.

“Southeast comes home,” Harder said, “and that’s a good feeling.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 11:28 PM with the headline "Southeast honors girls basketball coach John Harder with court naming."