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Followup: UVA agrees to contract extension with softball coach Joanna Hardin

Chris Graham
joanna hardin uva softball
Photo: UVA Athletics

Following up on a column that I wrote last week on the UVA softball team, I learned today that the University has signed softball coach Joanna Hardin to an extension.

I don’t have the details, which should be out in the next few days, but from what I gather, this won’t be news that will necessarily be popular with everybody in the UVA softball community.

Hardin has a 139-197 record in her seven seasons leading the UVA softball program, with just two winning seasons – the past two, 28-26 in 2022 and 30-22 in 2023.

Hardin’s tenure has just one winning ACC season, in 2022, when her team finished 13-11 in ACC play, and have gone just 51-112 in the ACC in her seven seasons, 54-132 against Power 5 teams, and the 2023 team’s nice 30-22 overall mark included an 8-16 record in ACC play and a 9-21 mark against Power 5 schools.

Hardin has also yet to take a UVA team to the NCAA Tournament.

All of this despite the University putting some serious money toward softball.

Palmer Park, which opened in 2020, cost an estimated $19.4 million.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019, and Team of Destiny: Inside Virginia Basketball’s Run to the 2019 National Championship, and The Worst Wrestling Pay-Per-View Ever, published in 2018. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].