Terica Jene´ Harris, a senior at Sol C. Johnson High School, is a track and field star for the Atom Smashers. In addition to track and field, Harris also plays basketball, where her team was part of the Elite Eight this year. She is a high honor roll student in the top ten of her class, is already going to college, and has sky-high goals for her future. She is currently trying to choose from the many colleges that are scouting her based on their track and field program as well as their programs in medicine as she would like to study to be a nurse or a pediatrician.
Harris has been running for a team since middle school but says she learned to love running long before that. “I knew this was my sport when I was in elementary school and when, at recess, I would race all the kids, even the boys. I was fast and beat them all! When I started running in middle school for the track team I started winning a lot, and I loved it!” says, Harris.
For the Atom Smashers she runs the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the 400-meter dash, is on two relay teams, and just started the long jump this year. She’s been the track and field MVP for both her sophomore and junior years. Her team was All-Region, First Team for both her sophomore and junior years and in addition, Harris has also won the 200-meter event at the regional level for the past two years. In the state championships, she placed third in the 100 meters with her best time ever of 12.1 seconds, fourth place in the 200 meters with another best time of 25.1 seconds. In the nationals she qualified fifth in the 100 meters, fifth in the 200 meters, and third in the long jump. In her most recent city championship event, Harris won the long jump event with her longest jump ever, 17 feet.
When asked how running a race is different from the long jump Harris says, “When I’m jumping I have to think more. I have to run and jump. I ask myself am I going to start out fast, or start out slow then gain my speed. Then I have to think about sticking my chest out, push my body forward, and how my leg thrusts in the air. There’s a lot more thinking with the jumping than the running. When I’m getting ready to race, I’m telling myself ‘Push out of the block, push out of the block!’ that’s the only thing on my mind. To beat everybody at the block is my main focus. Then when I come out of the block I tell myself to move my arms. I know if I beat them all at the block I have a great chance of coming in first.”
Harris’s coach, Michael Moore says, “She’s a natural at running. I took her and the other teammates to some upper level track meets outside of school to get them in better shape. We’ve got a lot of other girls on the team that also have a chance to go to school, so we wanted to get them in league with some good competition. When colleges look at your times, they also look at whom you are running against. So the more track meets we go to, the more exposure they get. We’ve got some talent this year, and we’re trying to show it off.”
Harris’s inspiration in her life is her mother. “She’s my number-one supporter, and she is always there for me. She encourages me to be the best I can be and never give up. She believes that if it’s possible, I can do it,” says Harris.
Harris’s mother, Jennifer Marshall, is very proud of Harris, not only for her athletic ability but her character. “She was always a good kid. She always listened. She’s well-mannered and very humble. I feel like I could put her in any environment, and she would excel.”
Moore agrees. “She’s a great student, a great person. She’s very quiet, but also a popular person that gets along with everyone. She takes racing and life very seriously.”
Harris has aspirations of running in the 2016 Summer Olympics and has dreamed of it for years now. “She realized when she started running in high school that she was faster than a lot of people. When she won her regional meet in tenth grade she came home and said, ‘I want to run track in college. I can do this. I want to be in the Olympics.’ So I said, ‘Okay then, we need start preparing and get ready.’ There’s one in Brazil in two years, and we’re already planning,” says Harris’s mother.
Harris has her pick of numerous schools to choose from and is trying to decide which can best help her fulfill her goals. Her mother says, “It’s up to her. Whatever makes her happy.” She says that Harris is silly, likes to sing, dance and make up songs with her family. It’s those moments she’s going to miss the most when she leaves for college. “She likes to play a lot and have fun. She’ll make up a song and before you know it, everyone else in the house is singing it. It’s going to take some adjusting for her eight-year-old sister and myself when she leaves, but we’re looking forward to getting to see her do new things.”
Favorites:
Subject: Biology
Snack: Grapes
Healthy food: Baked chicken
College Team: Oregon State Track & Field
Pro Team: Philadelphia Eagles
Superpower: Superspeed
Female Spotlight/Coastal Edition/May 2014
Terica Jene´ Harris
Coach Michael Moore
Sol C. Johnson High School
Savannah, Georgia
Ruby Hilliard
Olympic Dreams
