| NEWS |
  
|
| FEATURES |
| ENTERTAINMENT |
  
|
| COLUMNS |
     |
| CONTACT US |
|
| HOW TO SUBMIT |
|
|
| BACK ISSUES |
|
|
 (Photo courtesy of Princeton's Office of Athletic Communications) caption:
|
Harris' Leap Into Track History Came as No Surprise to Samara
By Bill Alden
Longtime Princeton University men's track coach Fred Samara focuses on getting inside the minds of his athletes in order to help them reach their potential.
"My philosophy is to work on an athlete's mind and ability to compete," said Samara, who has been coaching at Princeton for 23 years.
"Anyone can work hard physically. My job is to get the athletes to have the ability to think for themselves and make adjustments in the heat of competition."
Samara, a track legend who was the second U.S. finisher at 15th place behind gold medallist Bruce Jenner in the decathlon at the 1976 Olympics, certainly got his message through to high jump star Tora Harris.
Earlier this month, Harris, a 2002 Princeton graduate and a two-time NCAA champion during his Tiger career, came in third at the high jump at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials to book a place at the Athens Summer Games next month.
Samara was in Sacramento in person to witness his protégé¹s magical moment which saw him leap 7'5 1/4 in making the U.S. team. "It was awesome," said Samara, recalling the meet. "All track athletes want to make it to the Olympics but very, very few make it."
While many across the U.S. may have been surprised to see a Princeton alum soaring to the Olympics, Samara was confident Harris would come through.
"I always thought he had a great shot," maintained Samara, who served as the personal coach of 1984 Olympic shot putter Augie Wolf, a 1983 Princeton grad and the last Tiger to make the U.S. Olympic men's track team.
"He's always been good in the big meets, the NCAAs, the Heps, the Penn Relays. He's been in so many big meets, nationally and internationally, that he knows how to compete at this level."
When Harris came to Princeton from his native Atlanta as a freshman in 1997, it appeared more likely that he would be competing one day in the NFL rather than the Olympics.
"Tora was an outside linebacker, he was tremendous," recalled Samara, a 1975 national AAU decathlon champion and a two-time track All-American in his college days at Penn. "He really had a chance to be a pro football player."
While the 6'3 Harris saw action for the Tigers' football squad that freshman season, it soon became clear that the high jump was his true athletic calling.
"As his freshman year unfolded, he got more and more successful at the high jump," said Samara, recalling Harris' first Princeton season in which he took titles at the Heps and the IC4A meets. "He came to a point where he wanted to be a track guy."
Although Harris may not have entered college determined to become a champion high jumper, he possessed a special competitive instinct in the event.
"He was always a very good competitor," asserted Samara, a former national decathlon chairman for The Athletics Congress (now USA Track and Field), the national governing body of track and field. "He has a good head, he didn't panic. You could see when he was young that he was going to be a champion."
In becoming a high jump champion, Harris drew on some of the lessons he learned in the classroom as a mechanical/aerospace engineering major.
"He got really scientific," said Samara of Harris who jumped a personal best of 7'7 at the Heps Outdoor Championships in his senior year at Princeton. "He would take films of his jumping to the engineering lab and break them down. He was very mathematical in his approach."
The coach has remained part of Harris' life after graduation as the jumper has moved to the Netherlands to train with a new coach and compete on the pro circuit in Europe.
"We e-mail each other a lot," said Samara. "I gave him my thoughts on the mental aspects of competing as he moved toward the trials. I told him to rely on experience and have faith in his ability. The deciding line between athletes often is losing faith in their ability."
Having dealt with the pressure of being in the glare of the Olympics, Samara believes Harris has what it takes to succeed on that grand stage.
"He needs to go at things the same way," explained Samara. "Making the U.S. team was the hard part, he's been through it all, the NCAAs, the world championships, the trials. He need to keep his performance at the same level and let the enthusiasm of the moment carry him higher."
No matter how high Harris goes in Athens, his achievement gives a special lift to Princeton's reputation, athletically and academically.
"It's special for the program but it's even more special for the University and the athletic department," declared Samara.
"It says a lot about the University, the athletic department, and the track and field program that a person like Tora can do what he's done athletically and still get a degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering."
