Nov 16, 2017 3 min read

Minutes after finishing a fourth undefeated regular season, Isaiah Schoonmaker and the Washington High School football team turned its attention to one goal: winning a WPIAL championship.

While the Prexies have been determined to extend regular-season milestones, and end what many consider being playoff underachievers, Schoonmaker said their upcoming run was much more important than that.

It was about playing for a member of the Wash High football family for the last 21 years, Dick Hardie, who was fighting his own battle.

On a cold, mid-March Sunday morning, the weekly trip to church turned into a scary visit to the hospital, where X-rays and a CT scan determined Hardie had lung cancer.

Hardie was fighting a battle for his life and it had an effect on the Prexies.

“We’re doing it for one of our coaches that isn’t doing well,” Schoonmaker said after the Prexies’ win over Beth-Center Oct. 27. “Our goal is to win it for him.”

Hardie passed away Wednesday night.

One of his dreams was to see the Prexies play for a WPIAL championship again. He was there for Wash High’s state title run in 2001.

A longtime assistant in the program as an equipment manager after retirement in 1997, Hardie was looking for something to do. Cleaning uniforms, setting up the field and helping in whatever way he could, it was no longer just something to do, but rather a way of life.

“I enjoy it very much,” Hardie said Monday. “I’ve been involved with football my entire life.”

He always had a special bond with the players.

“They are one of the nicest bunch of young men that I’ve been around. They drive me up a wall sometimes but I’m just so glad to be associated with this group of kids,” Hardie said.

His connection ran deeper with head coach Mike Bosnic. Hardie joked he was the first person Bosnic hired when taking the job in 2009.

“Mike told me that when he was hired he walked into Ron Faust’s office, the athletic director at the time, and asked if he had anybody to recommend,” Hardie said. “Apparently, Ron said the first guy Mike should hire is Dick Hardie. Mike is like a second son. He means so much to me. He is the kind of man that has so much care for those kids.”

His time around Bosnic and the Prexies the last several months was shortened because of the rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. Despite the intense after effects, Hardie tried to be around as much as possible.

Washington kicks off tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the semifinals against Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic at Moon High School.

There will be special motivation for the Prexies to earn another shot at a WPIAL title.

“My wife always joked that if I didn’t have (the job of equipment manager), then I wouldn’t have anything else,” he said. “It shows you what kind of young men they are by devoting a playoff run to me.”