Golf, Wrestling
Favorite athlete: Coleman Scott
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning Little League Districts
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: A friend of mine had his singlet on backwards for an all-star match. Right before the match started he told the ref he’d be right back. He left the gym, got changed, came back, and pinned the kid.
Music on iPod: Meek Mill, Mumford and Sons, Lil Wayne, Red Hot Chili Peppers
Future plans: Wrestle and study economics at Princeton University
Words to live by: “Can’t means won’t.”– Mark Harner (my dad)
One goal before turning 30: Become a millionaire.
One thing people don’t know about me: My main goal in sports (other than winning a state title in wrestling) is to beat by dad in golf.
Norristown senior Brett Harner isn’t just the best wrestler in the Suburban One League. Nor is he simply the best in the district.
He’s one of the best in the state.
And he’s the fourth best high school wrestler in the country, according to the InterMat national wrestling website.
He’s 12-2 this year. Both losses came in overtime to the No. 1 wrestler in the country, a young man named Eric Morris from Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pa. The first defeat was at the Ironman Tournament in Cleveland, Ohio, and the second at Beast of the East in Delaware.
“Tournaments are a good way to gauge where you’re at and see what you need to work on,” said Harner, a three-time state medalist who grapples at 182 pounds. “It’s good to know that I can go toe-to-toe with the best kid in the country.”
Harner beat the New Jersey state champion at Beast of the East. Aside from Morris, the only wrestlers ranked ahead of him are a kid from Ohio and a kid from Georgia.
“He’s confident, self-assured, a hard worker,” said Brett’s dad, Mark Harner, who also happens to be his high school coach. “He stays on a very even keel. Win or lose, there’s no reaction. He doesn’t jump up and down when he wins. He shows respect for his opponent. … I’m sure he’s happy on the inside.”
Not many people are ranked ahead of Brett when it comes to academics either. He’s second in his class at Norristown and will take the mat for Princeton in the fall.
“There’s an old saying, once you wrestle, everything else in life is easy,” Brett said. “I just ran eight miles to train, I can write this three-page paper no problem.”
Brett, who also plays varsity golf and caddies at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, has raised money through donations to travel to tournaments all over the United States, from North Dakota to New Orleans. He’s looking forward to wrestling in college, but said one of the most gratifying aspects of the sport are the friends he’s made — friends who began as opponents.”
“Some of my best friends live 100 miles away,” he said. “You start out wrestling against them, but there’s a common bond because only a wrestler can understand the grind you go through.”
So what’s it like wrestling for his father?
“A lot of people think it would be terrible to wrestle for you dad, but he’s only a little harder on me than everyone else,” Brett joked. “It’s been good. … I think I’ve been wrestling since before I was born. My dad was my youth coach, so I’ve been wrestling for him all my life.
“He’s coached me in everything,” he said. “When I was younger, he coached me in baseball. He didn’t know anything about baseball, but he did some research and we went all the way to the Little League state finals.”
Mark said he likes coaching his son.
“It’s pretty easy coaching him,” Mark said. “He’s very organized, self-sufficient. The hard part about coaching your kid is that I still feel like I have to do parent duties, beyond being his coach.”
Brett, who has overcome mononucleosis and multiple injuries, has two older brothers who wrestled, so it’s in his blood.
“It’s the one sport where you get what you earn,” he said. “Nothing is given to you. You can’t blame the ref, because you gave the ref that position.”
Brett, the regional and District 1/12 champion the last two years, finished third at Ironman and second at Beast of the East. He now has his sights set on a state crown.
“It’s all about the state championship this year,” he said.
As for golf, he said it’s a nice distraction from wrestling.
“Suburban One is really competitive, and a lot of the schools we face have kids who were brought up in country clubs and have been playing a long time,” he said. “We had four wins this year, which I think was a school record, at least recently.”
In addition to Princeton, Brett also explored Harvard, Stanford, Penn and Columbia.
“I liked that Princeton is pretty close, only an hour and 20 minutes away,” he said. “Their wrestling program is headed in the right direction. They were fun people to be around. The coaching staff is beyond phenomenal.”
Not many people even apply to an Ivy League university, let alone get into one, but he didn’t find the process overly rigorous.
“The application was pretty thorough, it took a few hours,” he said. “And I got teacher recommendations and did an alumni interview.
“Wrestling helped a lot,” said Brett, who claimed he’s “not super smart” despite having excellent grades and SAT scores that are through the roof. “It goes a really long way, more than people think.”
After applying, he received a “likely letter” from Princeton, which is done to give students an early heads-up that they’ll be accepted.
“To get into a school like that is absolutely insane if you’re not an athlete,” he said. “A lot of those people are geniuses, just incredibly smart.”
Brett plans to major in economics, with perhaps a minor in political science. One day, he hopes to work on Wall Street.
In the meantime, with his goals as lofty as ever, it’s state gold or bust.
