‘A molder of men’
Harris retires after more than 40 years of impacting lives as an educator and coach
Elisha Harris played tight end, linebacker and occasionally running back on his junior high football team. After every game, he’d played so hard that he always looked beaten up.
“You know what, you run just like my Cadillac,” his coach once said. “You’re all bent up and beat up, but it gets me to where I need to go.”
The nickname stuck.
That was one of many stories told about Harris last Sunday, when his wife, Bonita, held a virtual retirement celebration.
Family and friends, along with former players, coaches and teammates, talked about how Harris had impacted their lives in his 40-plus years as an educator and coach. He has remained an important influence as a teacher since stepping down as Indian River’s football coach in 2013.
The retirement celebration reminded me of that old saying: “Give people their flowers while they can smell them.”
Well, Harris got to hear how he’s touched many people’s lives. Harris also was a pioneer. In 1988, he became the first Black high school football head coach in Virginia Beach when he was hired at Green Run.
One of his former players said the team felt enormous pressure to make sure Harris didn’t fail. The players knew if he wasn’t successful, it might be many more years before a school would hire another Black head coach.
Often, God puts certain people in position to break down barriers. Many could have done it, but it takes a special person to take on that role.
Take Jackie Robinson in baseball. There were others who were better, but Robinson had the courage, determination and perseverance to succeed.
When Harris was named coach, he never made race an issue. He instead focused on the athletes.
“We were going to be about scholarships and championships,” he told me earlier this week. “A lot of coaches in Virginia Beach were just using the athletes for their talent, and nothing else was happening.”
Harris was 125-125 as a high school head coach before stepping down. But more important than victories, he wanted to make sure his athletes got an education.
In his 40-plus years, Harris sent more than 100 athletes to college. One year, he had 13 athletes get Division I scholarships. Five of his former athletes played in the NFL and three — Green Run’s Keith Goganious, Matt Darby and Plaxico Burress — played in Super Bowls. Many others have gone on to achieve success in business, education and the military.
Goganious said he didn’t know about Harris being a trailblazer until recently. What he did know was how Harris influenced his life as player and a person.
“It was like having another father,” Goganious said. “It was one of those things where he was always there. He looked out for everybody.”
While Harris never talked publicly about the pressure of having to succeed, others did.
Johnny White was an assistant coach with Harris at Green Run.
“We realized that we had to work our tails off for the simple fact alone of him being the first Black coach in Virginia Beach,” said White, who added the majority of the Stallions’ coaching staff was Black. “During the time, it wasn’t something that we really talked about. He wanted us to succeed as Black males, and prove that we can do whatever anybody else can.”
White is now the head football coach at Douglas County High,
just outside of Atlanta.
“He was a molder of men,” White said. “A lot of things that I do every day in terms of my football team, I learned from Cadillac.”
Harris starred and was captain at Kempsville High and Norfolk State. He also served as head coach at Green Run, Maury and Indian River high schools, and Elizabeth City State University.
He gives credit to many who have helped him along the way, including his former Kempsville High principal, J. Wylie French.
Even when coaching doors closed in Harris’ face, French, who is white, told him to not give up. That includes in 1986, when he went for a head coaching job and was told by a superintendent he had graded out higher than all of the other coaches. Then this: “I’m sorry we can’t give you the job because the city is not ready for a Black head football coach yet.’ ”
Harris didn’t give up. And so many are glad he didn’t, including many current football coaches in the Beach District.
Today, more than half of the high school football head coaches in Virginia Beach are Black.
Salem coach Shawn Wilson remembers playing against Harris’ Green Run teams in the early 1990s. He said it meant a lot to him to see Harris on the sideline.
“As a player, we always saw Black assistant coaches, but only one Black head football coach in the Beach District. To
see a man of color as the head football coach was a Kodak moment for me,” said Wilson, who would later coach at
Green Run. “As my transition into a head coach and taking over at the school that he once coached, it meant a lot to me. I thank Coach Harris for all his years of service.”
Current Green Run head coach Brandon Williams also thanked Harris for “breaking that barrier.”
“He set the bar high here at Green Run during his tenure,” Williams said. “And I take it as my civic duty to bring that pride and community support he had here in the ‘90s back to Green Run High School today.”
Bayside head coach Jon White said Harris did more than coach.
“He emphasized that the world’s problems cannot be fixed through X’s and O’s,”
White said, “but by positively affecting as many lives as possible through the lessons of football.”
Kempsville head coach Daryl Cherry remembers his father taking him to see Harris’ Green Run teams. His dream was to play for Harris. He got that chance when he teamed with Burress and Cedric Warren.
“He taught young men how to be men,” Cherry said. “He taught us how to believe in ourselves and to work hard for your dreams.”
Even though Harris is retired, he knows he’ll be busy with Bonita’s “honey do” list.
He also has some other projects planned.
We know whatever he does, he’ll be trying to make a difference.