Yandell Harris wasn’t thinking about coaching basketball three weeks ago.
But Harris has been involved in school administration and high school athletics to know opportunities can present themselves very quickly.
So when Heritage Academy Athletic Director and football coach Barrett Donahoe called him and asked if he would be interested if the school had an opening for a girls basketball coach, he had to pause and consider what was best for his family. After a period of consultation with his wife, Cindy, Harris decided that the time was right to get back into coaching, so he opted to step down from his position as headmaster at Oak Hill Academy in West Point and return to Heritage Academy in Columbus.
“I like a challenge,” said Harris, who replaces Shane Edwards, who spent one season as girls basketball coach. “The girls basketball program has changed coaches frequently the past couple of years, and basketball is very important to me. I was fortunate to be principal over there and to see some of the girls in the ninth grade. I always said that group coming through there is going to be pretty special.”
Harris will complete his third year as headmaster at Oak Hill Academy before moving back to Heritage Academy to coach the pee wee, junior varsity, and varsity girls basketball program at the school. He said he also will teach History and will assist Donahoe with athletic director duties.
Harris, who lives in Columbus, started at Heritage Academy in 1983-84. He then spent three years at Starkville Academy, where he coached girls and boys varsity basketball. He went back to Heritage Academy and stayed from 1988-2011. He was working as principal at Heritage Elementary School when he left to go to West Point.
Harris said his goal is to bring stability to the girls basketball program like it had when he spent so many years coaching there in his second stint at the school. He said teaching History will help him build relationships with the players, which he hopes is one factor in building a successful program.
“When I was at Heritage, every boy would come through my door, so I knew what made every boy tick,” Harris said. “I was with them all of the time, so we were able to build that trust as a coach and as a person so I could challenge them and work with them. The successful programs do all of those things.”
But Harris said the players have to put the work in, too, to help elevate the program. He feels one of his strengths as a veteran coach is his ability to motivate players. He will have a chance to do that with his youngest daughter, Bailey, who will play basketball at the school. HArris said his older daughter, Swayze, will stay at Oak Hill Academy for the 2015-16 school year, when she will be a senior.
“Heritage Academy is going to allow me to focus on the girls basketball program kind of like we did her with the boys program (at Heritage Academy) in the late 80s,” Harris said. “When you look at all of the successful programs in the MAIS, they do a good job developing young players. I see good, young players at Heritage Academy. They’re survivors. They’re passionate, and they still want to play for a new coach. I have the utmost respect for those girls.”
Donahoe thanked Edwards for his hard work and his work with the younger players.
“He is a good man and did a good job in a tough situation,” Donahoe said. “The girls played hard and improved over the course of the year. The junior high girls played the top level talent really well, and I hate that we’re not going to have him with us next year, but I understand his decision to move back home because he wants to be closer to home with his family.”
In coming “home,” Harris hopes to build relationships that can help the girls basketball program establish a foundation it can build on for years to come.
“I am real excited to be back there,” Harris said. “There are wonderful people over there, and I am really looking forward to renewing old acquaintances and making new ones.”
Harris said he hopes to start in his new position June 1.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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