PREP TRACK & FIELD: Work pays off for Nall, Harris

James Harris believes the unusual training methods his coach prescribes for him are part of what has made him one of the best track athletes in the country.

The Lanett senior, the reigning Class 2A champion in the 200, 400 and high jump, state 2A record holder in the high jump and 200 and recent All-American in the 400, pushes trucks as part of his training.

But that’s not so unusual, as many burgeoning offensive linemen and World’s Strongest Man hopefuls will tell you.

“Our coach actually hooks us up to the back of his truck and goes, and we have to run to keep up,” Harris said. “It’s tough the first couple times, but then you find out a little strategy.

“But I can’t talk too much, because he’ll probably read this and be like, ‘Hey, you’re shamming on me.’”

All the running, jumping, lifting, pushing — and running for his life — has certainly paid off for Harris.

College scouts started noticing the lanky Lanett athlete last year, when his long legs were propelling him around the track in 49 seconds — and well ahead of his small-school competitors — and helping him clear nearly 7 feet in the high jump.

When that 400 started edging down into the 47s, culminating in a 46.86 at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in June, he couldn’t keep them away.

Nearly all of the ACC and SEC, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and UCLA, all clamoring for the phenom from a tiny town on the Georgia border.

But only one had been there from the beginning.

And after a brief commitment to Clemson, Harris went back to the Mississippi State team that had shown interest in him when few others had.

“The coach saw that he could work with me before I was elite in track,” Harris said. “And since I’ve become the top in the nation, he sees that he can still work with me.

“I somewhat felt loyal to the team before I even made the commitment.”

A Homecoming
Auburn High’s Mary Ashton Nall, the three-time defending state champion in the pole vault and second-place finisher at last year’s heptathlon competition, has endured a more orthodox — but no less challenging — high school training regimen than Harris.

And she only expects that experience to get better when she goes to Ole Miss next year, especially with the company she’ll be keeping.

Nall, who will compete in the heptathlon for the Rebels, will now be on the same side as last year’s state champion in that event: St. Paul’s graduate and 2009 Ole Miss signee Neal Tisher.

“We really push each other, and she’s challenged me definitely,” Nall said. “She’s a good friend of mine, and when I went to go visit, she was my host and she sold it to me.

“Her work ethic is going to push me, and it’s an honor to be able to work with my friend.”

Of course, Ole Miss and Oxford itself probably didn’t take much selling for Nall, seeing as how she spent four years of her childhood there.

Nall lived in Oxford from 1995 to 1998, when her father, Hugh, was the Rebels’ offensive line coach under Tommy Tuberville.

And as far as Mary Ashton can tell, it’s changed for the better since.

At least the parts she probably didn’t frequent much when she was 6.

“The athletic facilities are up-and-rising. They just built a new indoor facility, new weight room, new track,” Nall said. “But Oxford’s still the same. It’s still Southern hospitality and I love it. We still have a lot of friends there, so I’ll definitely feel at home.

“I’m excited about going back to home.”

Senior Year
Both Harris and Nall have accomplished more in their three years of high school than most athletes can even imagine.

Both have their name in the official AHSAA state record book at least once — Harris for his 200 and high jump and Nall for her 11-7.25 pole vault at the state championships last year — and Harris is hot on the heels of the overall state 400 mark of 46.58, set in 2002 by Williamson’s Arthur Davis.

Davis also continued on to Mississippi State, and was a two-time All-American in the 4x400.

But neither Harris nor Nall is content to rest on past performances.

Nall, for one, has a brand new resource to help her move forward.

Kate Conwell, the 2005 NCAA pole vault champion in the pole vault and a two-time Olympic Trials competitor, will help coach the Auburn track team this season.

Not a bad person to have in your corner.

“What I’m lack in is my technique, it’s not where it needs to be, and she’s all technical,” Nall said. “So she’s really helped me and I’m looking forward to working with her even more. She knows her stuff and she’s a great coach.”

Harris has the overall 200, 400 and high jump marks driving him, along with a desire to leave his community with a little something more to remember him by.

Last year the Panthers finished third in the 2A state meet, 32.5 points behind champion Mobile Christian and with Harris himself contributing 30 of their 75.5 points.

Harris wants nothing but the top for himself and his team this time around.

“That’d be something nice to take back to Lanett,” Harris said. “I want to leave an example for the young kids coming, too. Because I know around this area football is the main thing. It’s Alabama regardless, and you live football around here.

“But you can get a scholarship in track. And a scholarship any way will help you get to college.”

| 737-2568