who had one. I used to wear this old
bubblehead helmet, something from
the ‘80s. I got teased about it, but I took
it. That’s part of the rite of growing
up. But it just got too expensive for
us. I still think about what might have
happened if I stuck with it. Some of the
kids I played with are in the NHL or the
AHL. But I don’t go around with a lot of
regret. I found football, and I love the
game.”
Indeed. It’s pretty hard to beat
football, especially if you like the
contact and you have the athletic skills
that were handed to Harris.
In fact, he started playing football
in Steinbach because the coach of the
Eastman Raiders noticed how good he
was – at age 9.
“I was just running around this
community picnic, playing with the
football and outrunning all my friends
when the coach of the Raiders came
over to me and said, ‘You’re pretty
good, you should play organized
football,’” Harris recalled. “I thought,
‘Great!’ and my mom signed me up.”
After he left the Raiders he moved
to Winnipeg and became an instant
star at Grant Park, but it wasn’t until he
transferred to Oak Park in his final year
that he came to realize that a career in
football might be possible.
“When he arrived at Oak Park, it
was clear to me that he was one of the
best athletes ever to enter our school,”
said head coach Stu Nixon. “Randy
Kusano, a Basketball Hall of Fame
coach and one of the best coaches in
Manitoba basketball history always
tells a story X