Bloomington North has officially hired Andrew Harding, 2000 alumnus, as the new head football coach, assistant athletic director, and business teacher.

BHSN Athletic Director, Andy Hodson said, “It’s a 5A football job, and we’ve had some success over the last several years, and we want to continue on that. I think that him selling himself and his vision of wanting to take Bloomington North where it is right now, and advance it even more, he had all of us in the room believe in it.”

Brett Cooper who previously held all three positions left in February to pursue another coaching opportunity.

Harding comes from Tarboro High School in North Carolina as their defense coordinator and economics and personal finance teacher. He has been at Tarboro for the past 19 years and has built numerous relationships with other teachers and students. “I have created a family down here in terms of my friends and the people who I work with and obviously, I’ve been around these students, and I’m now starting to get to the point where I’m teaching students of former students, and you know just being immersed in this community,” Harding said. “My biggest concern about ever leaving my classroom would be who would take my place? … I’m the third longest tenure teacher at the school, and so [leaving] was a huge thing.”

Harding played offensive line for the BHSN football team during his time at North, and then continued playing at Manchester University while pursuing a degree in history. “It’s home, you know, I’m born and raised there. It’s the only other school in America that I would want to be at other than the school that I’m currently at because I walked the same halls … I have been in those same classrooms, done all those same things,” Harding said, “The opportunity to come back to my school and lead the football program that I was a part of was a very strong pull.”

At Tarboro, Harding has coached his teams to nine state championships and ended the 2025 season with a 22-0 record as well as obtaining Tarboro’s ninth consecutive state championship.

Harding plans to bring that same commitment to North. “We’re going to put a product on the field that everyone’s going to be proud of,” Harding said. “Bloomington North is going to be the standard [of football] of Bloomington.”

Harding will be the third new head coach at Bloomington North within three years. Harding said, “I’m going to bring in some stability. This is my end game … This is not something that I just want to get down and put on my resume and then off I go. My intention is, this is the last job that I ever have.”