REMEMBERING GV’S ERIC HARRIS
Golden Valley’s Eric Harris is remembered as a great coach, teacher, father and friend
Golden Valley assistant football coach Eric Harris died on Saturday morning, as confirmed by mec. lacounty.gov. He was 38.
“Eric Harris was truly one of the great ones,” said Golden Valley athletic director and assistant coach Carmelo Flores. “He was loved by his family, friends, football players, and students. He was a special person who made everyone feel like they too were special. He will be forever remembered and missed.”
According to a GoFundMe created by his wife, Kari, Harris became sick with a rare form of toxic shock syndrome that forced his organs to shut down. Doctors were optimistic that he would recover because of his active lifestyle.
As a teacher and a football coach, Harris was always energetic.
“It was kind of hard not to be energized and it was hard to not approach things the way he wanted it to be approached,” said Golden Valley head football coach Dan Kelley. “He was such a fiery guy, was a great leader, was a great motivator in how he approached things.”
Harris was a 10th grade history teacher who was recognized as a Teacher of the Year for the 201819 school year by The William S. Hart Union High School District
Governing Board.
In addition to teaching, Harris joined the Grizzlies football coaching staff in 2013 under head coach Robert Fisher. When Kelley took over in 2014, Harris was a key part of Kelley’s vision for the program.
“He ran the special teams, he assists the defense with Tony Brown,” Kelley said. “He coached the linebackers, coached running backs and on top of that he was breaking down film and coming up with great ideas we used continuously. He was loyal. Everything you want in a coach, in a teacher and a friend.”
In addition to his wife, Harris is survived by a 9-year-old son, a 7-year-old daughter and a 1-yearold daughter.
Kelley said he and the team plan on honoring Harris in multiple ways in the 2020 football season. He’s considering putting the number “45” on all practice jerseys for all levels. He plans to keep all of Harris’ names for his plays and still use some of his trademark phrases.
“His big motto was ‘figure it out,’” Kelley said. “When people were in situations and this and that, the kid wants you to figure it out for him. Figure it out, you’ve got to figure things out.
“The other thing is as tough as he was and as hard as he worked, when we come into a position where we’re in a tough spot, we would say, what would Harris do?”
“
He was such a fiery guy, was a great leader, was a great motivator in how he approached things.”
Dan Kelley,
Golden Valley head football coach