Diamond Sports Group - American Youth Football Tournaments

Nathan Harris Jr is a quiet beast on the football field. A fifth grade student at Campostella Elementary School in Norfolk, VA, Harris excels in the classroom as well, carrying a 3.2 grade point average during the 2015-16 academic year. But it is his work on the gridiron that has the student-athlete excited about this upcoming Memorial Day weekend. 

 

Harris will be one of a group of Hampton Roads athletes to participate in this year’s Diamond Spring All-American game. The contest will take place at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex highlighting some of the country’s finest youth football talent. 

 

“It’s exciting to play in the game. I just want to come out and show that I’m one of the best around here,” Harris said of his selection. 

 

This past season, Harris was a member of the Berkley Timberwolves in the Norfolk Parks & Recreation league after five seasons on the AYF level. With the transition between leagues Harris the 5-foot-2, 146-pound lineman struggled to make the lowered weight requirements of the Parks & Recreation league, suiting up for only five of the Timberwolves’ nine regular season contests. Despite the four-game absence Harris was a standout on the team’s defensive line. 

 

“I don’t think it bothered him having to play against older kids this year because of his weight. He’s always had natural talent, even amongst the older kids,” Harris Sr. noted. 

 

According to his father, Nathan Sr, the rising sixth grader’s biggest gains this season involving his ability to lead on the field, which should come to little surprise considering his son’s favorite athlete is former Baltimore Ravens great Ray Lewis. 

 

“Nathan has always been a great student, a natural athlete,” his father added. “I think if he keeps maturing there’s no doubt he will play on the professional level one day.” 

 

Football runs deep in the Harris family. His uncle Roddy, was a standout at Manor High School in Portsmouth. But in terms of on-field instruction, little Nathan receives most of his technique from his father, a former player at Woodrow Wilson High School who later went on to Virginia Union University.  Nathan Jr would love to follow his father’s footprints to college, but his trail would take a different route and ultimately land at the University of Oregon. 

 

“I know my dad wants me to say Virginia Tech or ODU, but I want to go to Oregon. I love the uniforms,” Nathan Jr added with of course, the exuberance of a 10-year old.  

 

-Jamaar Hawkins