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By HAROLD ABEND
Prep2Prep
There have been some tremendous two-sport athletes that have come out of the City of San Francisco public schools, but in recent years the City’s public schools have been off the radar when it comes to its athletes receiving awards outside the city.
Almost 70 years ago, Ollie Matson came out of Washington to win a bronze and silver medal at the 1952 Olympics and then went on to become a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and there have been others, but not in a long time and none in basketball and football.
That has now changed with Niamey Harris of Mission, and because of it Prep2Prep is giving a Preppy award to the humble and soft-spoken young man by naming him the 2017 Northern California Male Athlete of the Year.
Harris was the first player in Academic Athletic Association/San Francisco Section history to be named the boys football and basketball Player of the Year in the same year when he did it in 2016, and when he won both this year it made it two straight years.
In football, Harris took over at quarterback as a junior and led Mission to the AAA Turkey Day title for the second straight year. This year, he led the Bears to the regular season AAA title but was injured running for a touchdown against Lincoln on Turkey Day and they lost. He was still San Francisco Chronicle All Metro First Team.
Soon after winning the basketball award and leading Mission to a third AAA title in four years, Harris led his Bears team to the CIF Division III state championship, where Mission defeated Villa Park 82-75 in overtime to complete a 35-1 season. Making it even more impressive is the CIF state basketball title was the first ever for a San Francisco public school. Behind Harris, the Bears exploded for 15 points in overtime, and he finished his high school career with an impressive effort of 31 points, seven rebounds, six steals, four assists and four blocks.
For the season, Harris averaged 15.5 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.6 steals, but his stats are deceiving as he was also Mission’s emotional leader and his maturity helped as a calming influence as well.
The San Francisco Italian Athletic Club honored Harris as the initial recipient of the Kevin Restani Basketball Trophy as the top player in the city. Cal-Hi Sports named Harris, along with teammate Jayden Foston, to its Division III All-State First Team.
Cal-Hi Sports also gave Harris one of its most prestigious honors when it named him its Grid-Hoop State Player of the Year, a first-ever for someone from a San Francisco public school. Just last week Cal-Hi Sports selected Harris as its Division III Athlete of the Year, and that’s a pretty impressive accomplishment as well.
Through it all, Harris remains humble, calm and focused on others, traits sometimes hard to find in young men like Harris, who grew up in a rough neighborhood of San Francisco.
“My team, my school, my community, my coaches; they’re all working to help me,” Harris said when told Prep2Prep was adding an honor to his list. “Without them I couldn’t have won all these awards.”
Harris is moving on to City College of San Francisco, where he will play basketball only.
“It’s always been my favorite,” Harris said with reference to hoops.
After two years he hopes to go to a four-year school where he obviously would like to play basketball but Harris also has plans for the future that don’t involve sports but do involve teamwork and helping others.
“For studies at city (college) I’m going to take general education courses to prepare for a career in nursing,” Harris said.
When asked what advice Harris has for young kids growing up in some of the tougher areas of San Francisco, he paused and pondered the question a moment before answering.
“Don’t worry so much about yourself as an individual. It’s not just about you. Become part of a team and care about the team.”
Congratulations to Niamey Harris, the 2017 Preppy winner as the Northern California Male Athlete of the Year.
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Bolton was the highest drafted athlete from Northern California in this spring’s Major League Baseball amateur draft, signing with the Pittsburgh Pirates after his sixth-round selection. That followed a fantastic senior season in which he went 9-2 with a 1.13 ERA, and a whopping 97 strikeouts in 68 innings pitched. His two losses were a 1-0 decision to Oak Ridge and a 4-1 loss to Elk Grove in the Sac-Joaquin championship series, a game in which he did not allow an earned run and struck out nine batters.
The 6-11 junior center didn’t quite get Woodcreek all the way to a CIF state championship, but he tried hard in a 74-67 loss to Bishop Montgomery in the Open Division title game. Brown had 35 points to set the Open Division scoring record and tie for No. 6 all-time for most points in a CIF state title game. He also had 17 rebounds. Last season he averaged 26.3 points, 15.8 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks a game. Brown is one of the top 2018 recruits in the nation and already has offers from Arizona, Cal, Kansas, Nevada and Oregon.
Harris was the NCS Player of the Year as a junior and the NCS Senior of the Year this past season, completing one of the most storied careers in section history. Despite nagging injuries in his senior year, the current Alabama student-athlete ran for 2,776 yards and 34 touchdowns in his final campaign, finishing his career with over 8,000 yards and 99 touchdowns from scrimmage.
This three-sport star was one of three senior leaders on a basketball team that won the CIF Division IV state championship after a 59-46 victory against Helix. On the season, he averaged 14 points and four assists per game. In football, as a wide receiver on a team that went 13-2 and won the CIF Division 6-A Bowl game with as 29-28 win over Strathmore, he led the team with 48 receptions for 689 yards and six touchdowns. The baseball team almost got Johnson a title triple but the No. 13 seed lost to St. Joseph Notre Dame in the NCS Division IV title game. No surprise that Johnson was one of the team’s better hitters and had around a .450 average.
Joyner was dominant as a defensive end on the football field, earning All-BVAL honors after racking up six sacks and 21 tackles for a loss. But it was the spring which truly put Joyner, as he won the CIF title in the discus, reaching 203’ 8” on his fifth throw to bring a state title back to the Bay Area.
Of the 11 finalists, only two were three-sport athletes, and this all-around senior star from the Redwood Empire is one of them. In football, Newman passed for 4,438 yards and 55 touchdowns, third and fourth reported in the state, for a team that went 11-2 with a nice playoff run. He was an All-NCS selection at quarterback for his performance. In basketball, he saw action in every game of a 25-7 season. He was one of the top hitters and pitchers on the baseball team that finished 24-5 and made it to the NCS semifinals. Newman batted .407 with 14 RBIs and 12 runs scored. As a pitcher he was 5-1 with a 2.14 ERA and 42 strikeouts and only eight walks in 32.2 innings pitched, and was an All-NCS selection in this sport as well.
Rivers earned NCS Player of the Year honors in football after a breakthrough senior season, and will suit up for Fresno State this coming fall. He ran for 2,239 yards and 33 touchdowns last year, as the Falcons won the BVAL and lost to De La Salle in the NCS Open Division title game. In the spring, he ran on Freedom’s 4x100 meter relay team which reached the NCS Meet of Champions.
Sancov is not only one of the section’s elite talents, but one of the elite talents in the world. After representing Moldova at the 2016 Olympic Games, he won the 200 and 500 freestyle at the NCS Championships, while leading off the Broncos’ victorious 4x50 free and 4x100 free relays. He then set a new state record in the 200 free, capturing the CIF title in a time of 1:34.25, and also set a new 100 free CIF record while leading off Northgate’s winning 4x100 free relay. For good measure, the USC commit broke the World Junior Record in the 200 free earlier this summer at the European Junior Championships.
An All-NCS selection in both football and baseball, Tague led the Matadors to success at key position in both sports. On the gridiron, he threw for 3,085 yards and 43 touchdowns, as Miramonte narrowly fell to Marin Catholic in the section quarterfinals. On the diamond, Tague went 13-0 with a 0.68 ERA as a pitcher, and hit .368 at the plate.
Teare’s senior season did not end as the Oregon-bound graduate hoped, with a third-place finish in the 3200 meters at the CIF championships, after the nation’s leader opted not to run the 1600 meter race. But his year was simply phenomenal. He ran a 4:00.16 in the mile at the Mt. Sac Relays, and on a hot day at the Sacramento Meet of Champions, ran 4:01 without any competition. And by the way, he broke a 41-year old record in the 3200 meters at Arcadia, running 8:41.46 for the eight lap event.
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