Life in a Man’s World : At Oakwood, Hardy Coaches Boys’ Basketball

The male coaches thought Angel Hardy was lost when she walked into the room where they sat. They offered to help her find her way.

“Oh, no,” she said, “I’m here for the basketball clinic.”

And she took her seat.

The clinic’s director approached Hardy, the only woman in the room, saying he hadn’t realized that any girls’ coaches would be attending.

Hardy politely explained--for maybe the 100th time since taking the position last season--that she is boys’ basketball coach at Oakwood School in North Hollywood.

“His mouth just drops open,” Hardy said, laughing at the memory.

Among the 449 boys’ basketball teams in the CIF Southern Section, only two are coached by women. The other is Kathy Martin at Los Pinos, a boys’ correctional institution at Lake Elsinore.

Rare they may be, but Hardy and Martin are not the first women to coach boys.

Hardy’s predecessor at Oakwood, Roz Goldenberg, coached for nine seasons. She enjoyed her greatest success when UCLA’s Mitchell Butler played there.

A 1989 Parade magazine article reported that Goldenberg was one of only three women coaching high school boys’ basketball in the United States.

Goldenberg knows well the pressures of being a female coach in the world of boys’ basketball.

“Other coaches might be more up to play against you because you’re a woman, and he doesn’t want to lose to you because you’re a woman,” Goldenberg said.

Hardy was Goldenberg’s assistant during the 1990-91 season. When Goldenberg became the women’s coach at Sierra College, near Sacramento, last season, Hardy was chosen as her successor.

It is only part coincidence that Oakwood, a school of slightly more than 200 students in its high school grades, has had two consecutive female coaches for its boys’ team. Oakwood is a unique school.

“It’s just the nature of the school,” said Hardy, who also teaches physical education. “They do things a little different. It’s an academic school, and (teachers) are treated based on the knowledge that they have of what they’re teaching.”

Hardy, 30, knows basketball. She led the Berkeley High girls to the state championship in 1980 before playing for UCLA from 1981-1985.

Credentials are not a problem. Appearances are.

Before a game in the Daniel Murphy tournament earlier this season, an official approached Oakwood assistant Dave Smith to make the introductions he would normally make with the head coach.

The official assumed that Smith was the head coach. Smith pointed at Hardy. The official apologized.

No problem, the official was told, happens all the time.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Hardy said. “It seems like everyone else has a problem with it because it’s so different. It’s really common for a male to coach females, but it’s not common for a female to coach guys.”

The phenomenon is not readily explained.

“It’s just a societal thing,” said Eric Walter, Oakwood’s athletic director. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Hardy is less the type to mull over society’s imbalances and more the type to wear a T-shirt advising, “Just Do It.”

Breaking into the circle of boys’ coaches was like breaking into a guys-only pickup game of basketball, which she does quite often.

“You have to establish yourself and you have to earn their respect,” Hardy said. “You have to go out there and show them that you’re capable of playing hard. Maybe you can’t jump as high and you might not be as quick, but you have an understanding of the game.

“The bottom line is to put the ball in the basket, and I think I can do that pretty well.”

Hardy grew up in Castro Valley, playing basketball against her older brother, Kemper. He loved to block her shots, take the ball down to the other side of the court and dunk. He laughed at her.

So, she developed a little head fake and learned to shoot more quickly. She learned to compete with the boys because there were few girls’ youth teams where she lived.

Hardy’s parents were opposed to her playing on organized boys’ teams when she was young. So, while boys joined youth-league teams, Hardy was limited to playing recreationally.

Playing against the older, bigger boys, she never knew how good she was.

“I didn’t have anybody to compare my skill level with,” she said.

At Berkeley High, Hardy started for the girls’ varsity team as a freshman, in her first season of organized basketball.

She was an all-conference selection in each of her four years, All-Northern California her last two seasons.

After she had led Berkeley to a 32-0 record and the state championship her in junior season, opponents overplayed Hardy during her senior season, trying to shut her down. Still, she was selected as the Northern California player of the year as a senior.

And at UCLA, Hardy ranks fourth in assists with 412.

But throughout her playing career, she knew that the road would end with graduation.

“I think that women, when you’re younger and when you’re in high school, your mind-set is different (from boys’), and so your goals are a lot different,” Hardy said. “My goal in college was to get a good education, and the means of getting that good education, fortunately for me, was basketball. . . . (I knew), being realistic, that after college, there was nothing else. I know a few players who have gone overseas (to play professionally), but I wasn’t interested in going overseas.

“As much as I enjoy basketball and I love being around it . . . you have to find other aspects of participating in basketball. One way is coaching, and I enjoy it.”

Oakwood does not have a campus gym, so practices are held at nearby parks, scheduled around the other park programs.

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It was 6:30 on a Saturday morning as Hardy began practice at the Valley Plaza Recreation Center in North Hollywood.

“Stay down! Stay down! Don’t foul! Box out!” she yelled.

After a 50-45 victory over Windward on Tuesday, Oakwood is 9-6 overall, 5-3 in the Liberty League.

Hardy credited her four returning players for this season’s success. The players credit their coach for whipping them into shape. When asked, virtually every player agreed: “She’s tough.”

They also called her a players’ coach.

“She really values confidence,” said Joel Astman, a senior guard. “It’s not just about basketball. She is a basketball coach, but she is also a great teacher.”

When people find out that Hardy coaches boys, they frequently ask how her players respond to her as a coach.

“The fact that I’m a woman. . . ,” Hardy trailed off. She shrugged and tossed a basketball to a player. “I’m their coach.”