Education:
An alum of The University of Georgia with a degree in human performance, Dr. Hardin is also a graduate of Florida State University, earning doctorate adapted sport.
Alabama Adapted Athletics Career:
Brent Hardin is the founder and Director of the Adapted Athletics program at the University of Alabama. Dr. Hardin arrived at Alabama in 2003 as an Assistant Professor and soon thereafter began building the Adapted Athletics program with support of co-founder Dr. Margaret Stran and University President, Robert Witt. The program started with women’s wheelchair basketball in 2003 and later grew to include men’s wheelchair basketball in 2006, men’s and women’s wheelchair tennis in 2013 and is set to roll out wheelchair track and para swimming by 2025. What started as a small volunteer program is now home to over 30 high performance student athletes with disabilities and12 full time coaches and staff. The adapted athletics program at the University of Alabama is a stand-alone department and is not associated with or supported by the NCAA affiliated Intercollegiate Athletic Department on campus.
In 2017, under Dr. Hardin’s leadership, the program moved into a new 10 million dollar, first of its kind facility, dedicated adapted athletics arena and training center. The training center includes a wheelchair basketball arena, sport medicine center, strength and conditioning area, locker rooms, coaches’ offices, conference room, and student lounge. In 2021, Adapted Athletics moved into another first in the nation collegiate wheelchair tennis center that features locker rooms, coaches’ offices, athletic training area, and student lounge. Dr. Hardin is currently leading a fundraising effort to add wheelchair track locker rooms, wheelchair track indoor training area, and a student study and nutrition area to the Adapted Athletics Arena by 2025.
The Adapted Athletics program at Alabama has achieved competitive success nationally and internationally with 11 wheelchair basketball national championships and 7 wheelchair tennis national championships since the program’s inception in 2003. Under Dr. Hardin’s guidance the University of Alabama has become a mainstay at the Paralympics with 33 athletes and coaches representing 7 different countries since 2004 with an average of over 20 current and former athletes and coaches competing in the London, Rio, and Tokyo Paralympics alone.
Alabama Adapted Athletics has sent 11 USA athletes to Paralympics in 4 different sports. Currently UA has 4 student athletes on the USA women’s wheelchair basketball national team, 1 coach on the USA wheelchair tennis team, and 3 student athletes on the USA Men’s Under 23 national wheelchair basketball team. The current men’s and women’s head wheelchair basketball coaches are on the staff for the USA women’s national wheelchair basketball team and the USA men’s under 23 wheelchair basketball team.Â
