In his senior season with the California University of Pennsylvania football team, James Harris passed for 3,000 yards and threw 24 touchdowns. Those numbers are substantially close to the numbers he had in his junior season, where threw for 3,055 yards and 24 touchdowns.

   Either way, his senior season was one that was unforgettable. It was a senior season that he had no idea that would even happen almost five years ago when he was playing baseball, not football. When Harris was 18 years old, he was drafted by the MLB team the Minnesota Twins. However, instead of heading up to Minnesota, Harris went to Wake Forest University in North Carolina where he decided to play baseball. “I felt I could improve my skills and get a great education at the same time,” Harris recalled.

    However, Harris didn’t stay at Wake Forest long. Harris left Wake Forest and decided to make his way to Cal U. However, he talked to other teams from Cal U’s conference, the PSAC, as well as other conferences across the country. However, Harris eventually chose Cal U because he had the “opportunity to play right away, the offense they ran, and the coaching staff.”

For Harris, he’s happy he made the decision to come to Cal U, but admits it was quite the struggle at first. “There were some similarities to Wake Forest here, but I had to start over in a lot of aspects of my life. I absolutely to not regret the decision at all to come to Cal U. I would do it over again if I had the chance. The decision to switch sports wasn’t an easy one, but I was struggling on the baseball field and wanted to give football a shot. I played football in high school, and talked it over with my dad. He was very supportive of the decision.”

    Harris, who has now been at Cal U for two and a half years, gives a lot of credit to his success from previous years and this year to football head coach Mike Kellar and quarterbacks coach Chad Salisbury. “Coach Kellar and I have a great relationship. He has turned me into a successful quarterback, and has also become a great friend of mine. He is what you call a players’ coach.” Through Kellar, his fellow seniors, and everyone else in the program, Harris also learned another valuable lesson in leadership. “The experience has taught me that vocal leadership comes after leadership by example,” Harris said.

     Harris finished his Cal career in style against Lock Haven where he threw a career high five touchdown passes en route to a 56-24 win over the Bald Eagles and capped a four game winning streak to end the season. Now that Harris’ season is over he still plans on doing the same amount of work he did during the football season. Not only will he be working hard towards his spring graduation, where he will earn a degree in business with a minor in communications, but he’ll continue to work hard and stay in shape. It’s Harris’ dream to play in the NFL or the CFL, the Canadian league. “Hopefully hard work can produce an opportunity for me in the future. I just plan on working out and staying in shape, so if the opportunity to play at the next level arises, I will be ready.”

     However the 23-year old Harris says if that opportunity doesn’t arise for him, he plans to pursue a career in the field of business. However, looking back on his senior year, there really isn’t much Harris regrets, except maybe a bad couple passes from Cal U’s Coal Bowl game against IUP. Now that his season is over, Harris will continue to work out, golf a bit, play his acoustic and electric guitars, and work on his craft. After all, James Harris is a self-proclaimed “pretty laid-back kind of guy.”