Player of the Week: Marcus Harris

He shoots, he scores, he leads the team to playoffs.

Junior Marcus Harris, guard for varsity boys basketball, led the team to playoffs this past season.

Harris scored 34 points in a 47-45 victory over Roosevelt Jan 30., then had 17 in a 57-34 victory against Reagan Feb. 2. He averages 4.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.5 steals, helping to guarantee the boys a spot in playoffs, as well as his own piece in the Express News as San Antonio’s player of the week.

“So far, he’s had a great year,” Head Coach Murphy said. “He’s averaging 20 points a game, which isn’t easy, especially with the quality of teams we play. Not only scoring, but other ways, you know, defensively. He plays some point guard, some off guard. He’s having overall a great year.  He’s an excellent player, he’s a good student athlete, just a fantastic kid. He’s a great asset to our program.”

Harris’ co captains are both seniors, but the respect they have for him as a player is impeccable.

“He’s a good player,” co captain Nicolas Garcia (12) said. “He makes plays happen, he involves everyone else on the team so everyone has the same stats and amount of points. [What makes Marcus great are] his plays in game time situations  and how he involves everyone on the team. In the end, we get a W. That’s what’s important.”

A despite the tiniest bit of tension outside of games the players have between each other, the entire team steps up in a game, and the entire team agrees Harris does what he has to on the court.

“There’s some seniors that don’t like some juniors,” Gilbert Mungia (12) said. “And you’d think as good as he is as a junior, he’d be cocky. But he’s not. Well, when he needs to be. If the team is having a cold night or he’s hot, he’ll do what he has to do. He doesn’t ball hog just because he’s good. The coaches like him, he scores. He doesn’t play around on the court, not like in the halls or outside of school.”

Leading scores on the team and probably in NEISD, he helps contribute and involves the entire team.

“Marcus is the scorer,”  McKee (12) said. ” It’s better to win. I don’t get jealous, though. [In] practice, he might be more of a ball hog then he is in a game. In a game, he flips the switch. He’s more focused. I’m not saying every practice he messes around, but a lot he does.”

And unlike the cocky personality Harris is presumed to have, he’s modest about his playing, not once stating he was a fantastic player, even though the rest of the team- and the school- knows he is.

“Reagan was a better team,” Harris said about the most memorable game of the season. “We beat them by 22. It’s not about individual stats though, it’s about team stats. The team win we had, that was the best game we had as a team, the best team I had as an induvidual. It was one of the turning points of the season.”

With support from the entire team, no one was surprised he was player of the week.

“He’s a great scorer,” Austin Jones (11) said. “Great leader. He’s a great player. A great athlete has confidence and leadership. That’s Marcus.”