Basketball
Favorite athlete: Tamika Catchings
Favorite team: LA Clippers
Favorite memory competing in sports: Traveling with my AAU team to one of our last tournaments together in Tennessee.
Most embarrassing/funniest things that has happened while competing in sports: A few years ago while at a tournament in King of Prussia I realized I only packed one sneaker, and I had to play in my teammate's shoes which were way too small.
Music on iPod: I listen to every genre! From gospel to pop and country music too.
Future plans: To become an orthopedist
Words to live by: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."
One goal before turning 30: To use my medical degree to change someone's life, hopefully by helping someone who is underprivileged.
One thing people don't know about me: The only reason that I am able to be the player I am today is because of my parents, coaches and friends persistence and their encouragement, which helped me go beyond any goal that I had for myself.
By Mary Jane Souder
Michael Harris sets high goals for herself and then goes out and achieves them.
The Abington senior will be playing Division One basketball next year at American University where she will pursue her ultimate goal of becoming an orthopedic surgeon.
“Mike is one of the hardest working kids I’ve ever coached,” coach Dan Marsh said. “She was so dedicated to getting a Division One scholarship. She wants her school paid for, and she wants a good education. She wants to be a doctor.”
Harris certainly needed an exceptional work ethic to overcome the obstacles that stood in the way of attaining her lofty goals. She didn’t start playing competitive basketball until she was in seventh grade, a late start by any standard. Then, in January of her sophomore season, she suffered a torn ACL.
That just inspired the Abington senior to work harder than everyone else.
“She literally will practice three hours, and then she will go to the gym afterwards,” Marsh said. “She’s a gym rat.”
Despite playing just two-and-a-half years at the varsity level, Harris, the Ghosts’ 6-2 center, has over 800 points and close to 700 rebounds.
“She’s definitely one of the best rebounders and shot blockers that I’ve coached,” Marsh said. “We can always count on her for that, and I’d guess she’s averaged over 15 points for pretty much all of our games in the second half of the season.”
It’s not a coincidence that the Ghosts also have elevated their play in the second half of the season, and both Marsh and Harris agree that she is now playing at the level that was expected before the fateful day in January of 2012 when she went down in a game against Council Rock North.
“I remember the exact day,” Harris said. “I remember I played with Aiyannah Peal, Sarah Listenbee and Deja (Rawls).
“We had a really great team, and we were actually up by like 10 points. Someone gave me a pass, and I think I was disappointed with myself that I didn’t catch it, so I got frustrated and I ran and dove on the floor for it. As I grabbed the ball and picked it up, someone stepped on the back of my foot. I remember falling down. It was so painful I couldn’t walk.”
An x-ray revealed nothing.
“I was like – ‘Oh, maybe it’s just a really bad twist. Maybe I just sprained it,’” Harris said. “I made an orthopedic appointment, and I found out I tore it.
“It was really, really, really depressing, so depressing, and I think that’s when I found out how much I loved basketball. I really started to appreciate it when it was gone.”
Harris had surgery in March and then began the intense rehab with the singular goal of getting back on the basketball court.
“The projected time is nine months to a year or some crazy long amount of time,” she said. “I think the reason they tell you that is they don’t want you to rush back and reinjure it, which I completely understand.
“I was so anxious to get back and so frustrated and so angry and so depressed that I had to get back sooner. I amped up my rehab time – I think maybe people do it twice, maybe three times a week. I was rehabbing a couple of times a day every single day. You’re supposed to ice a certain amount of time after your surgery, and I would do double the amount. The results – you could see it right away.”
Harris was back and practicing with her team during preseason workouts.
“Doctors will not clear you unless they’re really, really sure you’re okay,” she said. “That’s how I knew I’d done everything right. I was cleared the end of August, just in time for preseason.
“I was happy to get back. I absolutely hated not being able to do anything.”
Harris, who played with a brace, admits she was initially slowed by the injury.
“When you come back from a knee injury or any lower body injury, you’re a lot slower than you used to be,” she said. “I was already not so fast, so the injury put me back even more.
“Also getting in shape – I didn’t really get into shape until halfway through the season. Your knee isn’t what it used to be. You have some swelling, you have pain sometimes. That would kind of throw me off. I think the hardest part is the mental part, and in my mind, if I ever felt pain, I thought I hurt it again, and it would set me back even more. Once you get past the mental part, playing is much easier.”
These days, Harris shows no trace of her knee injury, and she has been a major force in the Ghosts’ remarkable run to the state quarterfinals.
“Mike has been playing better and more relaxed,” Marsh said. “She’s realizing what she can do. She’s very tough to guard because she can be physical, and she can also hit a jumpshot.”
Harris got her introduction to basketball at a young age. She also played soccer and volleyball and actually gave up basketball for a year in favor of volleyball but returned to the hardwood in seventh grade.
“It was probably the team I was with that made me love it,” she said. “I stayed with that team for the past six years. Once I met them, they became my best friends, and I loved basketball even more because of the people I was playing with.”
That team was the Philly Triple Threat on the AAU circuit.
“I hadn’t really played that much before that, and girls in AAU are so competitive,” Harris said. “They’ve been playing since they were five, and I kind of jumped in late in their teams.
“I was behind, I wasn’t very good, and my teammates were great. Even when you’re that age, you get college letters. You fill out the questionnaire, and they keep you on their file to watch you as you’re growing up. I didn’t get as many of the interest letters as the other girls, so I started to get discouraged.”
That's when her father, Michael Harris – himself a former basketball player, stepped in.
“When he saw I was disappointed and he saw it was something I really wanted, he started working with me,” she said. “That’s when I made it my goal – I wanted to be a Division One basketball player. From then, I refused to accept anything less.”
From seventh through ninth grade, Harris played basketball at Springfield (Montco) before transferring to Abington her sophomore year.
“Just being in such a big school – coming here was a little scary,” she said. “I came in August, and they were doing preseason workouts, so the first people I met were my teammates. They became my friends and the people I sat with at lunch.”
A starter since her sophomore year, Harris has turned into a force to be reckoned with in the paint, and she chose American University from a lengthy list that initially included Fordham, Rider, Providence, VCU and Richmond but was narrowed down to Loyola (Md.), Iona, Old Dominion and American.
“Before I even knew the coaching staff and before I knew my teammates, before I visited the school, I remembered American because we played U.S. Senior Nationals U14 there my eighth grade year,” she said. “That was before the rule where you couldn’t have competition at colleges.
“Once I saw it and how beautiful the gym and the campus were – that stuck in my head.”
Meeting coach Megan Gebbia all but sealed the deal.
“I went on my visit, and I got to talk to her, and I realized I really like her as a person as well as a coach,” Harris said. “I liked her coaching style – the way she was a teacher.
“She’s exactly the kind of person I wanted to be taught by. I’ve always wanted to be taught by a female coach just because I’ve never had that experience.
“Also, afterwards, I met the teammates I would be playing with, and I loved them. That’s really important because those are the people you’ll be hanging out with.”
Throw in the fact that it’s located in Washington, D.C., and boasts high academic standards, and it was a relatively easy decision for Harris.
“My parents have always held me to really high academic standards,” she said. “American also was one of my top schools because of their high academic standards.
“When I went to visit, I noticed they have their own tutor, and they spend time with their students to make sure their grades are kept up. I really wanted that academic support because of the major I’m going into.”
Instead of the traditional pre-med track, Harris is leaning toward majoring in business with a minor in one of the sciences.
“I would take my pre-reqs for med school, so if I ever decided not to go to med school, I’d have my business degree,” she said.
All of that is down the road. For now, the senior captain is leading her high school team on the final leg of an incredible journey.
“She’s become a great leader,” Marsh said. “She’s vocal, and her teammates love Mike.”
