This article is posted from the Martinsville Bulletin web site. John Harris is a running back for Patrick County High School Cougars.
Friday, October 3, 2008
By JOHNNY BUCK - Bulletin Sports Editor
It was third-and-12 for Patrick County’s football team a few weeks ago.
Normally, that’s a passing down, but 2008 is no normal year for the Cougars, and with John Harris in the backfield, third-and-long remains very much a running situation.
A fourth-year starter at PCHS (4-1 overall, 0-0 Piedmont District), Harris took that handoff and bounced a trap play outside. After eluding a diving linebacker, he turned upfield at the sideline.
Less than 4.4 seconds later, Harris was 40 yards downfield in the end zone.
He’s hoping for similar runs tonight at Bassett High School (4-1, 0-0 PD) in a pivotal showdown with district title implications.
“It would mean a lot to us, because ever since I’ve been on varsity, we haven’t beaten them. We haven’t even come close to beating them,� Harris said of playing the Bengals. “It would be great to start off 1-0 (in the district) against a great team like Bassett.
“... It would be a tremendous thing to beat them, but there’s still a lot of work to do as far as the season goes.�
If the Bengals prove able to stop Harris — or even just slow him down — they’ll succeed in a task at which five other teams have failed.
So far, the PCHS speedster has run for 17 TDS and 1,298 yards on 126 carries, good for an average of 10.3 yards per carry. He has yet to rush for fewer than 161 yards and two touchdowns in a game.
On his current pace, he would conclude the Cougars’ 11-game regular season with 2,855 rushing yards, a single-season mark that would rank sixth all-time in Virginia High School League history — a record book that includes playoff yardage.
That total would also be the most in PD history.
Toss in his average of 3-plus rushing touchdowns per game so far this season, and Harris is off to a pretty special start.
“His vision’s improved; his ability to read blocks has improved,� Patrick County head coach Brad Dalton said of Harris. “He’s made some cuts this year that are certainly things we can’t teach. If we could, we’d teach them all that, and we’d have one every year.�
Before the season started, Harris set a personal goal of rushing for 2,000 yards.
He never imagined he’d get off to this kind of start, however.
“I really didn’t think I was going to do this good,� he said. “I mean, I worked hard over the summer to try to get better and try to work to my goal.
“(But) I didn’t expect to get this many yards coming off, to start off the first five games, but it’s pretty cool.�
Sheer speed has played a large role in that quick start. The 5-foot-10, 180-pound son of Willard and Michelle Harris ran the 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds on grass in August.
This winter, he clocked a 4.28-second effort at Roanoke’s Edge Sports Performance Center on an indoor track. It was the fastest SPARQ (speed, power, agility, reaction, quickness) 40 time at the combine, which was specifically for football players.
“They were pretty surprised, because coming from where I go to school at, they didn’t really hear too much about me,� Harris said of complex officials. “They were kind of shocked, so they told me to run it again, and I got the same time.�
Harris said he’s gotten a scholarship offer from Virginia Military Institute. Several schools have asked to see his transcripts, and he’s not yet sure where he’ll go to college.
He’s also on pace for several notable records, though his team’s competition is likely to be tougher in the district than it has been in the Cougars’ initial non-district schedule.
At his current clip, he would accumulate 6,813 career rushing yards by the end of the regular season. That would place him sixth all-time in the state according to the VHSL record book, and tops in the Piedmont.
Only 15 Virginia running backs have finished a career with more than 6,000 rushing yards, and none of them played in the PD.
Entering tonight’s game, Harris has 5,256 career rushing yards. William Byrd’s O.J. Thomason, a 1999 grad, holds the all-time record with 7,536 yards.
Harris said his teammates deserve more credit for his accomplishments.
“This year we have a good team. Everybody on the team plays hard; they go 110 percent,� he said.
“The (offensive) line has improved a whole lot. They’ve gotten a lot better this year, and they’re helping me get these yards.�
Harris is also on pace to score 225 points in the regular season. Legendary Martinsville running back Dennis Mahan, who scored 246 points over 13 games in the ’75 season, owns the district record that also ranks 10th all-time in the state.
Mahan’s career scoring mark (662 points), which ranks second in the state, appears safe, since Harris has 354 at this point.
As a 155-pound freshman, Harris averaged 12.1 yards a carry. He’s topped 1,200 rushing yards in each of his four seasons with PCHS and owned the school’s career rushing mark after his junior season, according to Dalton.
He is also chasing the school’s single-season record of 2,344 yards set by running back Andy Stanley in 1994.
Stanley, who went on to play four seasons at Emory & Henry College from ’95-’98, now teaches at Magna Vista High School.
He has seen Harris play, and he has been impressed.
“To be honest, he’s a man among boys — great instincts; obviously he’s fast,� said Stanley. “If you could come up with any negative whatsoever, he could be a little more physical between the tackles.�
Stanley was quick to note, however, that Harris probably doesn’t feel a great need to pound the ball up the middle because his speed allows him to turn the corner on almost any given play.
“It’s effortless for him,� Stanley said. “It’s like everyone else is JV.�
And Dalton said his star pupil has improved at running up the middle.
“I think he’s gotten a lot better at being able to run between the tackles,� Dalton said. “When he was younger, he tried to break everything, which sometimes you lose more yards than you gain. But he’s gotten better about being able to gain a couple tough yards.�
Harris said he tries not to get caught up in projected rushing totals or state records. He’s worried that such daydreams might take away from what he needs to be focused on — winning.
In fact, Harris said he doesn’t care what his individual numbers are in tonight’s game, so long as the team wins.
“I don’t care how we get it. I don’t even care if I’m involved with it,� he said, “as long as we win.�
