Sunday, July 24, 2005
U of L Football
Shady past, bright future
By Brian Bennett
bbennett@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Nate Harris appears to have a bright future with the University of Louisville football team.
A chiseled 6-foot-1, 230-pound package of speed and power, the junior-college import should contribute right away at middle linebacker. There's really no questioning his talent.
The only questions about Harris concern his past -- specifically a 2002 armed robbery conviction that cost him a scholarship to the University of Miami.
"I know people are saying, 'Will he do it again?' " he said. "I know there's a question mark on me. But I've changed my life around. The past is in the past."
One of the nation's top-rated linebacker prospects, Harris signed with his hometown Hurricanes as a high school senior. But just days before graduation, he was arrested for his part in an afternoon holdup.
According to Miami-Dade County police, Harris was standing with friend Antwan Evans when Evans pulled a gun on a man playing checkers on a street corner. Evans grabbed the man's necklace, bracelet and ring before he and Harris fled to a car driven by a third accomplice. The victim ran after them and described the suspects to police.
Harris faced a minimum of four years in prison if convicted at trial. Instead, he pleaded guilty to the charge and admitted in court that he was the lookout for the robbery. He avoided jail time by completing six months in a boot-camp program.
'Never hid from his mistake'
That wasn't Harris' first arrest. At 15 he was charged with stealing clothes at a mall, leading to six months at a school for troubled teenagers.
"That was just me being young and making a lot of mistakes," he said.
Harris said the boot-camp experience, plus two years of growth at junior college, helped turn him into "a new man." U of L is banking on that being true.
Cardinals coach Bobby Petrino said he and his assistants interviewed Harris' coaches, teammates, family members and friends during the recruiting process.
Petrino presented the situation to athletic director Tom Jurich, who took the unusual step of calling coaches of other programs who were pursuing Harris -- such as Florida State, Louisiana State, Kansas State and Arizona -- for their opinions. Attorney and U of L trustee Grant M. Helman checked with Florida law-enforcement officials for details on Harris' case.
"We certainly did our research," Petrino said. "In our three years here, I think we've recruited pretty good people with good character, and we run a pretty tight ship. Hopefully, he will do everything he's asked to do. He has so far."
Jurich said he felt comfortable bringing Harris in on scholarship after hearing all the reports and meeting him during his official visit last fall.
"He sounded like a kid who made a mistake but who had earned a second chance and who could prosper with a second chance," Jurich said. "The great thing about Nate is he never hid from his mistake."
Hanging with wrong crowd
Harris has tried to change what he thinks led to his problems. He grew up in Miami's crime-infested Liberty City neighborhood, where one easily can fall prey to the temptations of the streets.
"It's real rough," he said. "Every day you see a person go to jail or get robbed or die. Just growing up in my environment, I was associating with the wrong people. (The arrest) opened my eyes and let me know who I needed to be hanging out with."
Corey Bell, who coached Harris at Edison High School, said he had warned him to stay away from certain people, including Evans. Bell described Harris as a self-motivated, dedicated football player with big goals.
"When you're a star athlete, sometimes people attach themselves to you for the wrong reasons," Bell said. "I've seen a lot of kids come through here, and Nate has always been one of my favorites. (The robbery) was completely out of character for him."
As Harris headed off to boot camp, Miami rescinded its scholarship offer. But something more important for his development happened there.
As he did with most people in the program, camp chaplain Jody Robbins gave Harris his card and offered to talk any time. Unlike most people, Harris actually called Robbins when he completed his stay, and the two quickly formed a lasting friendship.
Robbins, 34, had a similar background. He also had played high school football, and he also had gotten in trouble as a teen before straightening out and becoming a minister for several Florida prisons.
"He needed support," Robbins said. "Like me, he never really had a father figure in his life. I stayed in his ear and kept him around. I wouldn't let anybody else influence him."
Harris calls Robbins his "big brother." He still talks to him on the phone at least once a day for guidance and strength. When he's in Miami, Harris often stays at Robbins' house and even drives his car.
"Instead of me going out in my neighborhood and chilling with the drug dealers and all that, I got my big brother," he said.
'A good change of pace'
To restart his football career, though, Harris had to venture out on his own. Having failed to qualify academically to play as a freshman in NCAA Division I-A, he ended up at Dodge City Community College in Kansas. The isolated campus seemed a million miles from the streets of Miami. Just the kind of place he needed.
Dodge City head coach Marcus Garstecki, who was a defensive assistant at the time, said Harris did everything asked of him and never caused any trouble in his two seasons there.
"I think this was a good change of pace for him," he said. "There aren't a lot of distractions here besides academics and football."
The football certainly wasn't a problem. Last season Harris led the team in tackles, made honorable-mention All-American and was rated the No. 2 junior-college linebacker by scout.com.
College football knows few bounds when it comes to forgiving star athletes, so Harris had his pick of marquee programs out of Dodge City. He took his first official visit to U of L during last season's Texas Christian game and said he made up his mind then. He liked the idea of joining an up-and-coming team instead of one with a more established tradition.
Nate Harris, you see, prefers the future to the past.
"As long as I'm staying on the right track and doing the right thing," he said, "the past should erase."
<a href='http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050724/SPORTS02/507240463/1002/SPORTS' target='_blank'>Louisville Courier Journal on Louisville Linebacker Nate Harris</a>
