Joe Hardy pushes himself, whether he’s leading the University of Virginia cheerleading squad or a cadre of Army ROTC cadets, often with the memory of his younger brother, Josh, helping him along.
“I have done my absolute best to stay in the best physical shape,” he said, noting that he often runs with a 40-pound rucksack. “We take a lot of physical training tests, and I try to do my very best in those. And rucking is one of the things that I’ve really come to enjoy.”
A statistics major from Fredericksburg, Hardy played football, basketball and baseball in high school and wanted to play football at UVA, as his older brother Jack did. He did not get a walk-on spot, however, and a friend suggested cheerleading. He’s been with the squad for four years.
“I was one of the captains this past year, and it’s been really fun,” Hardy said. “It was the first time I’ve been on a coed team, and it’s just very different from playing high school sports. It’s something that I really had to learn. A lot of people have the strength for it, but there’s a lot of stability and different technical things you have to learn.”
Hardy also signed up for Army ROTC on a friend’s recommendation, at a time when he was unsure what he wanted for his future.
Cadet Joseph Hardy says his life has been shaped in part by his younger brother’s illness and death. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)
“I always love working out and having a group of people to push me,” he said. “I grew up with brothers, and there was always someone to work out with and do stuff with. Jack was a football player and a great athlete, and I would coach my younger brother with whatever he needed. There was always a lot of camaraderie in our house.”
His younger brother Josh’s illness shook that camaraderie.
“He was three years younger than me,” Hardy said, “He was born with cancer, and we had a long fight with it,” seeking treatment in hospitals in Richmond, New York and Memphis.
“In February of 2009, we went to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital,” Hardy said. “It’s the most amazing place. My little brother beat his cancer initially, but then there were complications due to the aggressive medicine to kill his cancer. He needed a bone marrow transplant, and things went a little sideways with that.”
Hardy’s family threw itself into fundraising to fight the cancer.
“My little brother passed away in 2016, when I was a seventh grader,” he said. “It was a difficult time for us, but we do our best to keep his memory alive. We fundraise for St. Jude, the Ronald McDonald House and the Fairy Godmother project, which is a local charity in Fredericksburg.”
Hardy ran in the St. Jude Marathon in December, and his family team raised around $70,000 for St. Jude last year. Hardy’s fraternity, Sigma Chi, held a fundraiser for the hospital.
Josh’s ordeal made Hardy more resilient, he said.
“It made me and Jack mature faster,” he said. “Jack and I had to figure things out and grow up fast. It made us push through hard times. A lot of the time, Jack helped me as much as he could. But you’re in charge of how well you do in school, in sports.”
Hardy has done well in ROTC. He was named a Distinguished Military Graduate, placing him in the top 20% nationwide.
U.S. Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Eaton-Ferenzi said Hardy is highly regarded as a servant leader within the Cavalier Battalion.
