Tough Times : Troy’s Hardeman Learns to Overcome Troubles On, Off Court

Heidi Hardeman, one of Orange County’s premier scorers, came into her senior season at Troy hoping to get mentally tougher, choose a college and have a dream season.

With Troy ranked in the girls’ basketball top 10 and teammates who gave the Warriors an even better chance to win, all looked good for Hardeman until Dec. 4.

That was when her life turned into “a roller coaster” both on and off the court.

Hardeman never had to be tougher mentally. Not after a car accident and a grandmother’s death in a two-week span created enough distraction for an entire year.

“Growing up, I’ve had the perfect childhood. I’ve never faced any problems before,” said Hardeman, the oldest of four children of missionary parents. “It was the first time it really tested my faith and how strong a person I was.

“I had a mom and dad who loved me, raised me well, gave me good morals, brought me up in the Christian church, gave me money whenever I needed it. Some kids grow up being tough because they came from a broken home. This is the first time I’ve really had to trust in God.”

On the day she was supposed to lead Troy into a top-10 showdown with El Toro, she was involved in a four-car non-injury accident on the way to meet the team. Shaken and sore, she arrived just before tip-off.

“I’d never been in an accident before,” Hardeman said, “and my parents didn’t know [because they could not be reached], so I was scared my parents would be mad at me.”

She was not effective that night--scoring only seven points--and Troy lost by three.

Two days later, before a game against Freeway League rival Sonora in the same Century High tournament, Hardeman learned her grandmother, Nelvina Vander Dussen of La Palma, had collapsed and been taken to the hospital. Distracted, Hardeman scored three points that night. But she never told her coaches about it.

Coach Kevin Kiernan had Hardeman, a 6-foot guard/forward who was a Times Orange County second-team choice last season, practice with the second string the next day and lit into her.

“He had never yelled at me before,” Hardeman said. “He was trying to make me tougher. He was trying to get into my head.”

That was the word on Hardeman. She is the kind of player who knocks someone down, then says, “Sorry.” Too often, she says, she let minor distractions get under her skin and affect her play.

Now, Hardeman had to deal with something much more serious.

Hardeman remained with the second string for a week while Vander Dussen fell into a coma.

Finally, the day before a game against Santa Ana Valley, Hardeman told Kiernan about her grandmother.

“I was worried about basketball,” Hardeman said, “but it didn’t mean much. My grandma was more important to me than basketball.

“I told [Kiernan] I understand I’m not mentally tough, that I understood, but I also had other things on my mind.”

The next night--on Vander Dussen’s 65th birthday--Hardeman started and scored 20.

The following day, after a shoot-around at Cypress College where Kiernan is also the women’s basketball coach, he and his assistants encouraged Hardeman to visit her grandmother at nearby La Palma Community Hospital. Hardeman’s parents, Cindy and T.J.--the boys’ basketball coach at Troy--didn’t want their oldest daughter to see Vander Dussen in such condition. Hardeman was wavering whether to go.

She went.

“It was very upsetting to me--I wish she hadn’t,” said Cindy Hardeman, a nurse at St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton. “But my mom was coherent at that time but couldn’t talk. She knew Heidi and blinked at her.”

The next day, Dec. 17, Vander Dussen died.

On Dec. 18, Hardeman left with her teammates for a tournament in Las Vegas.

That night, she scored 29 in a victory over a team from Canada. Then 20 a day later.

She and her mother drove during the night to make the 9 a.m. funeral. She missed that morning’s game, but flew back to Las Vegas in the afternoon to play a night game against perennial-power Ventura Buena on Dec. 20. The Warriors lost, 40-16. Hardeman scored three points.

“The funeral tore her up a little,” Kiernan said. “She was useless and the other kids were intimidated.”

Hardeman: “I was completely gone. I got off the plane and couldn’t stop crying. I told Coach Kiernan, ‘I can’t get focused.’ ”

Kiernan’s response: “You don’t have to.”

There was an off-day Sunday to recover before the final game of the tournament, against Westminster.

“Before that game, [assistant coach Christine Collins] said [something like] this focuses you to play, Grandma wouldn’t have wanted me to tank a game for her,” Hardeman said. “That meant a lot to me. It was true. I was sad for Grandma, but it was selfish of me. She wouldn’t have wanted me to play bad because she had died.”

Kiernan said Hardeman played “very well” despite only seven points in a victory over Westminster.

And, on top of all that, she is also trying to choose a college--probably a Christian college--where she will be a shooting guard.

The Warriors (13-2) are ranked 10th in Orange County. Hardeman’s scoring average is down to 16.1 from the 19.7 she averaged as a junior. And the 16.8 she averaged as a sophomore. She averaged 7.5 as a freshman.

A lesson learned: “Basketball,” Hardeman said, “didn’t take away my problems.”

But her personal struggles made her stronger. She points out a Bible verse from Proverbs:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.

“That had been one of my favorite verses,” Hardeman said. “Although I don’t understand everything that’s going on, I know that God has a purpose for it. Through all this, I really had to trust in Him. I couldn’t understand why He’s making it happen now--why couldn’t it happen during the off-season?”

But she might be starting to figure it out.

“I’ve grown much more now than I would have if I had been averaging 20 a game and nothing happened; I would have been the same old person,” Hardeman said. “It’s been working out for me because it will make me mentally tougher in the long run. I’ve gotten a lot tougher through all this.

“Now that I’m overcoming it, nothing will be able to distract me.”