WASHINGTON — Nyckoles Harbor’s coaches feel it is silly to review him to any other high university athlete in The us – and, pretty frankly, unfair to the other youngsters.
As an alternative, Archbishop Carroll Higher Faculty soccer coach Robert Harris mentions Harbor in the very same breath as expert stars, though likening the 17-12 months-old’s bodily attributes to ingredients in a pot of gumbo – a dash of Usain Bolt and Calvin Johnson below, bits of Derrick Brooks and Von Miller there.
“I most likely would toss a little Randy Moss in there,” Harris proceeds. “And we would get the capabilities of what (Harbor) can maybe be in the upcoming.”
Hyperbolic? Sure. But Harbor is the exceptional athlete who can even invite these kinds of comparisons.
At 6-foot-6 and 225 pounds, he has the size of an NFL edge rusher and the pace of a potential Olympic sprinter. In soccer, he is a 5-star recruit who plays on both sides of the ball, with 47 tackles for a loss and 10 landing catches around the past two seasons. In track, he ran the 100-meter sprint in 10.22 seconds – the seventh-speediest under-18 time in the world this calendar year, in accordance to Environment Athletics.
“He’s seriously a single of the most unique prospective customers that we have observed in Rivals heritage, relationship back again to 2002,” claimed Adam Gorney, the countrywide recruiting director for Rivals and Yahoo! Athletics. “There just are not several athletes at his level, wherever.”
A clip of Harbor on the monitor went viral on social media earlier this calendar year, displaying him cruising previous – and towering around – fellow sprinters at a meet in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
A lot more a short while ago, the headlines about him have centered around his soccer recruitment.
Usually viewed as possibly a tight finish or defensive stop in college or university, Harbor is just one of the top rated uncommitted 2023 potential customers in the state, with Maryland, Michigan and South Carolina between the top rated faculties vying for his determination. According to Rivals, he has 46 Division I scholarship delivers.
Harbor said he briefly entertained the imagined of turning professional in observe but instead programs to equally operate and play soccer in university, with the NFL and a prospective Olympic qualification in the back of his head.
“My target over-all is to at least get to the Olympics and gain a medal,” Harbor reported. “A gold medal would be pleasant.”
Twin-sport athletes in soccer and monitor are barely uncommon, and a number of adult males have competed skillfully in both of those. Renaldo Nehemiah, for occasion, established a hurdles environment report and played three years in the NFL. NFL wideout Marquise Goodwin competed at the 2012 Olympics in long soar. Devon Allen, another hurdler, has spent this time on the Philadelphia Eagles’ exercise squad soon after a fourth-location finish in Tokyo.
What separates Harbor from these two-sport phenoms, according to Archbishop Carroll observe coach Rafiu Bakare, is his measurement.
With far more than six months to go until his 18th birthday, Harbor is already about the identical dimensions as Seattle Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf, but more rapidly. (Metcalf, for reference, ran a 4.33-2nd 40-property sprint at the NFL blend.)
“He will make his personal class,” Bakare stated of Harbor. “When it arrives to the rapidly twitch and this sizing, he’s on his personal. He’s on his own right now.”
Harbor figures he was 8 several years old when he first took recognize of his individual exclusive athleticism, namely that he was just a lot quicker than everyone else around him. A progress spurt in eighth grade – from 5 ft 8 to 6 ft 2 – ensured that he would be taller than virtually all people else, far too.
The son of Nigerian-American qualified soccer player Azuka “Jean” Harbor, Nyckoles explained competing in football and track – as nicely as the transition period of time amongst them – has always felt natural to him. His system is accustomed to shifting weights. All through soccer year, he reported he’ll bulk up to 230 or 235 kilos. By the end of observe year, he could possibly be as light-weight as 220.
More than the years, Harbor’s coaches claimed they have observed many persons try to nudge him toward a person sport or an additional. But he’s in no way wished to focus, so instead, they help him uncover a balance – assembly frequently about scheduling and instruction, to avoid potential conflicts.
“I just giggle when individuals attempt to formulate their feeling and then make it reality, due to the fact this is not the male you do that with,” Harris said. “Whatever he wants to do, I truly feel like he can complete.”
At Archbishop Carroll, he’s been a pressure in both athletics.
As a sprinter, Harbor’s private bests are in the exact same ballpark as the higher-university periods recorded by current Team Usa athletes. The 100 is his most popular celebration, but he also ran an indoor 200-meter dash in 20.79 seconds earlier this year – without the need of working with commencing blocks. (His PR in the 200 is 20.63.)
In soccer, meanwhile, he aided lead Archbishop Carroll to a uncommon Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Metro division title. In 1 match, Harbor caught five passes for 251 yards and three scores on offense. In yet another, the opposing workforce assigned three players to block him on defense.
Gorney, the Rivals recruiting director, stated Harbor however has a large amount of place to improve on the soccer discipline, but his measurables make it “just about a guarantee” that he could be in the mix as a to start with-spherical NFL draft pick.
“This is somebody who, if he goes to the combine, is just going to established records,” Gorney reported. “There’s just almost nothing to consider that he wouldn’t. He’s likely to blow people absent.”
Very first up, though, is college. Harbor has used the earlier thirty day period taking formal visits to a handful of schools and does not program to indicator a national letter of intent throughout the early signing time period, which starts Wednesday. “Feb. 1 is when absolutely everyone will know where by I’m likely,” he said.
Even though Harbor’s recruiting target has been on football, he’s also looking at each and every school’s track program and coaches. Eventually, of study course, one thing will have to give concerning the two athletics. Attaining or dropping excess weight to excel in a single will get started to damage Harbor in the other.
“At the close of the day, my entire body will explain to me which way I have to have to go,” he claimed. “If likely again and forth in bodyweight is as well considerably in some cases, then I’ll have to choose.
“Faster or afterwards, I’m likely to have to pick.”
Call Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.