Harrison has five-star film
In the first sequence of his highlight film Tre'Shaun Harrison looks like the all-99s guy you make up in a video game. He spins and churns, breaking 6 tackles on his way to a scintillating 69-yard touchdown.
The clip happened in a playoff game against Lynnwood last November, at the end of Garfield High's best season in 35 years. It's LaMichael James/Reggie Bush stuff, a 6-1, 190-pound athlete so explosive and dangerous the sequence marks him as an immediate star at the next level.
The picture gets even brighter when you go deeper into the highlight. Harrison is one of the most versatile athletes in the country, a cut-on-a-dime offensive star who delivers bone-rattling hits as a cornerback or safety.
Yet Rivals rates the Bulldog phenom as a 3-star player, prompting many Duck fans to ask why. Is the rating system compiled by the same three judges who scored the Manny Pacquiao fight, or the three monkeys on the tee shirt, See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and Speak No Evil, with an assist from Ray Charles, George Shearing and Stevie Wonder?
The explanation is simpler than that. Garfield is an inner city school in the heart of Seattle. Their home field has no bleachers or lights. It's a basketball school. Former Trail Blazers star Brandon Roy went there. They've won more roundball state titles than any other team in the state, but the football team hadn't made the playoffs in 35 years, or a state championship since the '60s. From 2004 through 2013 they suffered through a stretch of just 10 wins in 90 games.
Seattle area high school football is dominated by the Catholic schools and rich suburban programs with facilities, funding, coaching and parental support. Among the metro teams, it's rare for teams to get more than 25 to 30 players to turn out.
New Garfield coach Joey Thomas changed all that for the Bulldogs. After graduating from nearby Kennedy Catholic in Burien, becoming an all-league cornerback at Montana State and spending 7 seasons in the NFL, Thomas returned to coach in the inner city and mentor young men.
He increased the turnout and built a powerhouse. Last fall was their third winning season in a row, an 8-0 start before losses to O'Dea and 63-45 heartbreaker in the playoff game versus Lynnwood of Bothell. His mantra is T.O.P., telling his players their mission is to "Totally Optimize our Potential."
During the 8-game winning streak the coach told Matt Massey of the Seattle Times, “It means the world to be back in my community. This is still bigger than football. You’re a teacher and football is just a by-product.”
The squad made national news twice, first due to a recruiting scandal involving two players from Beaumont, Texas, a case where an investigating panel found no wrongdoing by the coach, then a Sports Illustrated story where the players elected to support Colin Kaepernick's stand against police brutality by kneeling en mass before the national anthem. Thomas supported their effort, feeling it was important for them to be aware of social issues and what was going on in the news.
As a program they're still fighting an up-Queen-Anne-Hill battle for recognition and respect. Asked about his star wideout, Thomas told Steve Lorenz of the Detroit Free Press, "If he played in Texas or Florida, he'd be one of those five-star prospects everybody was talking about all of the time. I've never seen a player his age go from zero to 100 so quickly and with so little effort. He also has all of the things you can't teach as far as being the type of player you want to coach. He's not high-maintenance. He's not a 'me first' kid. He just wants to play football. He will be a star wherever he ends up playing ball."
Harrison plays on a nationally-ranked 7-on-7 team through the Rise Football Academy, but he doesn't enjoy the resources to attend the camps, clinics and regional competitions like The Opening or the Rivals 5-Star Challenge. Despite a 4.35 40 and eye-popping elusiveness, he hasn't had the exposure kids get in California or the South. He plays 3A football in a downtrodden league. The Ducks got a partially hidden gem.