Harris in spotlight by IFCA

WASHINGTON - The Demons had big plans, big goals and suffered a big disappointment when the football season ended with a home playoff loss to West Delaware Oct. 30.

Washington head football coach James Harris was also devastated by the loss while maintaining the outlook that football is about more than wins and losses.

'Losing is a powerful teacher,” Harris said, 'You only fail, when you quit. The Demons never quit.”

As a coach Harris, wants to share all things that football and its coaches taught him. Namely, former Washington head coach Lloyd Sisco.

'I feel he always made my level of performance rise up,” Harris said. 'He didn't motivate me, he taught me how to build my own determination, which I feel has served me in life and given me the strength to be who I am today.”

Being a part of the Demons state runner-up in 2013 as an assistant coach was a special time for Harris, but now as the head coach, 'This season is probably my best one to date.”

The Iowa Football Coaches Association is dedicated to making high school football in Iowa the best in the nation. A membership of dedicated coaches across Iowa use the website for an awards program to honor coaches, student-athletes, cheerleaders, and those who support the game from the sidelines to the training rooms to the press box. There is great pride in the quality of the game regardless the size of the school.

To that end, the IFCA features a coach from each class regularly in a Coaches Spotlight. Harris was the 3A spotlight earlier this year and shared his journey into his love for the game.

Going to games at Kinnick Stadium with his dad, Jim Harris who passed away two years ago from cancer, laid a foundation of football as the ultimate sport for the complete athlete. When he was in eighth grade, he became infatuated with weightlifting. Coincidentally, the Demons also made it to the semifinals that year in 3A.

'After that, I just always remember I loved how much people cared about football,” Harris said.

The game gave him a chance to validate effort and desire.

'Mike Roder, my seventh grade coach, was the first one to believe in me,” Harris said.

At a practice in 1997, Coach Roder told the offensive huddle if they needed a yard ‘We would run behind Harris.'

'He meant me! My high school line coach, Jason Ganoe, was the first to help me believe in myself,” Harris said. 'I remember after one practice him telling me ‘If you keep staying consistent in the weight room, you could really be a player.' He said it with an enthusiasm that I think still resonates with me. I remember fighting back tears of joy because his belief in me felt so empowering.”

Harris brings that to his interaction with players, passionately telling them exactly what he expects of them while helping them acquire life skills.

'I am most proud of coaching and supporting kids where I grew up,” said Harris, a 2002 graduate of Washington and a lineman on both sides of the ball for three years. 'I want to try to help them make their way in this world.”

Aside from his father, knowledge was instilled by Sisco.

'He is a legend and I have so much respected for him,” Harris said. 'I feared his disapproval more than my parents or administrators.”

Sisco had a presence and carried himself the way veteran coaches do. 'He was self-assured, prepared, salty, tough, thoughtful and intense,” Harris said. 'He also presented a level of class to aspire to and his love for the game of football was tangible, almost palatable.”

There was no doubt who was in charge. That self confidence is something he learned and something he want his players to learn.

'If we can help, we need to be instilling in them values like toughness, accountability, perseverance, determination, exercise and preparation,” Harris said. 'I'm proudest when I see my former players being successful in life.”