A Cinderella story: Panther walk-on never gave up on his dreams
By Sarah Martin
Looking at Landon Harris, it’s easy to say he’s a pretty big guy. At 6-feet, 5-inches, he towers over most students at High Point University.
Most people can guess pretty correctly that he’s on the basketball team, especially with all the walking advertisements plastered on his clothes.
But who can blame him? To say he’s had an easy journey getting to where he is today would be the understatement of the world.
Walking around the halls at Davie County High School in Mocksville, N.C., you would never suspect Landon would one day become a Division I athlete. He had shaggy brown hair down to his eyebrows and bright green eyes. His ears stuck out a little on each side. He was enormously tall, and shy, yet one of the most kindhearted people. Some even called him the BFG, big friendly giant. Although he didn’t say much, man, was he good at basketball.
“I started playing when I was about four years old. My dad never lowered our rim outside from ten feet, so I learned how to shoot on a ten foot goal pretty early on,” said Harris.
The passion for the game started at a very young age, and never quit. Harris’s stats in High School averaged 10 points, 8 rebounds per game, and shot 56 percent from the floor. During his senior year, smaller schools like Guilford and Greensboro College recruited him, but he knew that wasn’t the place for him.
Harris and his father were in the High Point area when they drove through HPU for the first time.
“We were basically stunned when we saw the place, and we knew immediately that this was where I wanted to go,” Harris recalls.
After receiving his admission letter from High Point, Harris knew there was still one thing missing. That itch that comes from being a dedicated basketball player wasn’t being fulfilled. Harris was in constant contact with the coaches and finally landed a tryout for one walk on position. Three others auditioned. Right before the tryout, Harris became sick and although he did his best, he did not get the position. Harris was disappointed, but not discouraged.
He made the club basketball team, and his team won the championship that winter. But that wasn’t good enough.
Come sophomore year, Harris was more eager to join the Division I team he’d been dreaming of.
It didn’t take long before those dreams were dashed, yet again. Head coach Scott Cherry explained to Harris that the team already had too many players on the team, and there wasn’t enough room for him.
Harris knew there had to be something, anything he could do to make this team. In his mind, it wasn’t too late.
The summer before Harris’s junior year, he started working with a personal trainer, Travis Mash.
They completed a series of Olympic lifts that helped Harris gain explosiveness and speed. Mash’s workouts helped pack on about 30 pounds of muscle, and also taught Harris never to give up. Harris also has a very close spiritual relationship with God, whom he credits much of his success to.
“Having a relationship with him throughout this process is the only way I didn’t give up. Everyone else could keep telling me no, but I was going to continue to push for this if God was telling me yes,” said Harris.
The explanation of the word persistence is defined as; continued occurrence. This might be Landon Harris’s best trait. Harris contacted Coach Cherry over the summer and took the 45 minute trip down Interstate 40 for the meeting that would forever be etched in his mind.
Harris explained to Cherry exactly how badly he wanted to be a part of the team. He would do anything. Coach Cherry was receptive and respectful, but didn’t make any promises.
“He called me on the Monday following the Friday that I met with him. He asked me if I would like to be a part of the team, and I pretty much just stuttered until I managed to say, sure. I was in shock. It didn’t seem real for the first few days. I just kept saying in my head that I was officially a Division I basketball player,” said Harris, “It never really hit me until I moved into the room with my teammates in August.”
In true, straight-laced, Harris style, the first thing he did after learning the big news was go to the gym. Even though he was on the team, if he wanted playing time, he knew he would have to earn it.
Just a few short weeks of being in school and practicing with the team, Harris is already settled into his role of power forward and excelling not only in the classroom, but also on the court as well.
“It’s a dream come true. It’s definitely everything I expected it to be, which is a good thing. Its been fun making so many new friends and being part of a team again. I’m excited for our games and to play in different arenas across the country,” said Harris.
In the team’s first game against Bridgewater College, HPU won 95-52. Harris got quite a bit of playing time as well, even draining a three-pointer in his first collegiate game.
Harris’s future is looking brighter by the day and he will always have quite the underdog, Cinderella story to tell.
“Never give up on your dreams because you never know where they will lead.”