Photo by Erin Nelson.
Ashley Hardee, the new volleyball head coach at Vestavia Hills High School, stands in the gymnasium as players warm up for the first day of tryouts April 28.
Ashley Hardee’s resume has a little bit of everything when it comes to volleyball experience.
He was the head coach at the University of North Dakota, served a few years on staff with the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s beach volleyball program and spent eight years as an assistant at New Mexico State.
He’s coached at the high school and club levels and even been involved with USA Volleyball.
But his newest opportunity is a special one. Hardee was named the Vestavia Hills High School volleyball coach in March, as he takes over one of the top high school programs in the area.
“I couldn’t be more excited, really,” he said. “The opportunity at Vestavia is really groundbreaking for me and my family. We’re super excited about it. The program is extraordinary in all aspects, and we’re really looking forward to it.”
Hardee spent a couple years out of volleyball before recently getting back into it at Chelsea. He was an assistant under Jessica Pickett at Chelsea High School the last two years and expressed gratitude to her for the opportunity to get involved at the high school level in the Birmingham area.
When he came to UAB in 2014, Hardee instantly recognized the quality of high school volleyball throughout the state and particularly in the metro area.
“First of all, the whole Vestavia Hills City Schools system really speaks for itself and its tradition and everything they do, not just on the athletic side,” Hardee said. “It’s always been one of the teams that I would be interested in [if the opportunity arose].”
Vestavia Hills advanced to the state tournament last fall under first-year coach Payton Mansell, who departed following her only season leading the program. Mandy Burgess led the Rebels to three regional tournament appearances over her final four years as coach, so it’s not as if Hardee faces a massive rebuilding project.
He will be the third coach in four years for the program, though, and hopes to provide stability for many years.
“I’m excited about Vestavia Hills High School in general and the volleyball program,” Hardee said. “It’s somewhere I could see myself for a long time, and we want to build over the years. We want to communicate that to people and get to work.”
Hardee said the trademark of his team will be that it plays harder than anyone else.
“We’re going to start with the fundamentals, we’re going to work hard and pay attention to the details as we go through this,” he said. “We want our players to grow mentally and be engaged with their teammates and in volleyball for an extended period of time.”
Hardee has had the opportunity to meet the team and said there is a great excitement brewing within the program. He hopes the volleyball team is an extension of the great things already going on at the high school in terms of academics, athletics and character development.
“If we do all that the right way, the Vestavia way, then we will have success,” he said.
As for on-court success, he has every intention of having some of that as well. Vestavia Hills was the state runner-up in 2012, but the program has yet to claim a state title. Hardee would love nothing more than to change that.
“There’s plenty of room in the rafters of the gym for volleyball banners. I certainly have intentions of being able to hang some,” he said.
