Producing the explosive play on the football field best described X’Zavier Harris of Allentown High School football.
As late as November of his junior year, 2016, Harris was averaging 43 yards per catch. In 2017, as a senior with a much higher workload, Harris still averaged 19 yards per reception.
But last fall, Harris became more than just a big-play threat.
While he evolved into Allentown’s best offensive player, he emerged into Allentown’s shutdown cornerback on defese.
The 6-0, 170-pound lightning rod caught 42 passes for 804 yards and 10 touchdowns.
And in his first year playing defense, he intercepted three passes, ran one picked off pass back for a touchdown and turned half the field into Harris Island–where no received desired to visit.
“We put extra guys in the box because he could cover guys one on one,” said Allentown coach Jay Graber.
Harris’ play on both sides of the ball led to his selection to the 22nd Annual Sunshine Football Classic that was played on June 29 at The College of New Jersey.
Harris, Allentown’s only representative in the game, played for the East All-Star team that was defeated by the West, 28-20, on that warm evening in Ewing.
He was relatively quiet in the game, but that did not take away from the fact that he deserved to be there. Harris was clearly one of the best seniors in Mercer, Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean and Hunterdon counties, the geographical areas that represented the teams in the Sunshine Football Classic.
“He was a senior and I thought he had a strong year and deserved to go to an all-star game. He stepped it up offensively and had a lot of big catches,” Graber said. “He never played defense before this year, so he grew and matured in helping us on that side of the ball as well.”
Harris even stepped up as a leader for the young Redbirds.
“He was able to lead some younger guys during sprints and when things got tough,” Graber said. “And he carried himself very well in the community.”
Behind Harris, junior running back Rahsaan Emory and freshman quarterback Dan Merkel, Allentown won its second consecutive West Jersey Football League Patriot Division title in 2017 with a 4-0 recor din the league.
Harris caught two long touchdowns in Allentown’s 48-8 division victory over Pemberton Township High School.
“He outran his guy and made great plays on the ball,” Graber said. “When you have a big play threat, it opens things up on offense.”
The Redbirds lost in the first round of the Central Jersey, Group 4 state sectional playoffs, but still, the season was an impressive follow-up to their state sectional title run in 2016.
Harris also played every offensive snap during the 2016 season when the Redbirds won the Central Jersey, Group 3 state playoff championship.
“This was a strong senior class,” Graber said. “They took coaching well and were able to accomplish a lot in their four years.”
Harris, after steadily improving his grades the last two years, will attend Lackawanna Junior College this fall. He will try to walk on to the football team as well, but that will be a challenge.
Lackawanna is a powerful junior college program, with a 159-76 record since 1994.
More than 370 players have moved up to Division 1 scholarships after playing for the school. So Harris will be in the right place, if he can make the cut.
“He’s going there to play,” Graber said. “But it is a pretty good junior college.”
