Having played soccer since he was 7, John Harris Jr. had never been part of a team that won state and regional titles.
That is until this year with the Columbus Express 08 Boys Orange team.
Two weeks after winning the Indiana Presidents Cup 14-and-under division in Westfield, the squad captured the US Youth Soccer Midwest Presidents Cup in St. Louis, Missouri.
Now, the Orange team is the first in Columbus Express’ 45-year history to win regional and qualify for the US Youth Soccer National Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Columbus will be one of four team represented at the 14U level. The others are from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; El Paso, Texas; and Los Angeles, California. The national tournament runs Thursday through Sunday.
Harris, 13, is the only member of the team from Seymour. He competed in the state tournament but had to miss the regional due to a family vacation. Ryder Meek handled the team’s goalkeeping duties in his absence.
“I really enjoyed (state) because I knew that only three teams before in this club had ever won that, and then I was really excited to hear the news that we were going to nationals after we won regional because no team has done that before,” Harris said.
Being among the final four teams left in the country is a crazy thought to Harris.
“It’s a tournament that we can win. That’s how I see it. I try not to overthink it,” he said. “I’m excited for it.”
Coach Sam LaVelle said Thursday through Saturday, the Orange will play each of the other teams in the tournament, starting with the one from Pittsburgh on Thursday. The best two teams from those matchups will play in the final.
“We’re going to go there and prove why we should be there,” he said. “It’s a great experience for these kids, and I’m super excited and super proud of them for achieving this. This is a bond and an experience that they’ll carry with them for the rest of their lives, which is really cool to be a part of that.”
This is LaVelle’s second year coaching the travel soccer team. He said Harris joined in August 2021, and another player moved in from New York joined in November. The rest have been with him both years.
“Last year, we made it to the semifinal of state and lost, but we had some injuries and stuff, but we knew this year would be a good year,” LaVelle said. “We knew this group would be special, and we knew this group was very talented, and so that was the message from the beginning is ‘You have the chance to do something that nobody from this area has ever done,’ and they took it and they ran with it, and it was their mission and they got it.”
In league play this spring, the Orange finished fourth out of eight teams in the top division of Indiana Soccer. The team had earned a promotion after finishing runner-up in the second division last season.
Taking a record of 3-4-1 into the state tournament, the Orange went 2-1 in pool play. They lost their first match but won the next two to earn a wild card spot. Then they avenged the loss to USAI from Avon in the semifinals with a 1-0 victory and then rolled to a 4-0 win against Southern Indiana United from New Albany in the final.
LaVelle said 13 states were represented at the regional. The Orange began pool play with a 5-0 win against Dakota Alliance and then picked up 1-0 wins against Minnesota Rush and Madison 56ers.
In the semifinals, Columbus overcome some adversity, trailing Chicago Fire 3-1 at halftime and rallying to win 5-3. Then in the championship game, the Orange edged Chicago Rush 2-1.
“What I preach to the boys is ‘Let’s do something that has never been done before,’” LaVelle said. “One other group that’s three years older than us won state and went to regional, but they lost, and that group is seen as like ‘Oh my gosh, they are really good,’ so I preached to the boys ‘You have a chance to be perceived as better than them,’ and so that clicked with them, and they took that.”
The more LaVelle has worked with the players and the more they have worked with each other, the better they have become.
“What I contribute it to is having great kids that want to work hard and enjoy playing together,” he said. “This group, they are all friends, they all come out here on a Saturday night and play, just shoot around and stuff, so they enjoy playing with each other, and I always tell them, ‘We’re just a couple small town kids that enjoy playing soccer together.’”
LaVelle said Harris has been a great addition to the team. Meek is the only other goalkeeper.
“He has brought a lot of athleticism and a lot of talent at the goalie position for us, and it gives us a lot of depth in that area, which is much-needed,” he said of Harris. “What I always say is ‘If the goalie makes a mistake, the other team scores. If somebody on the field makes a mistake, we can recover,’ and so it’s a position where you have to be mentally tough, and John is one of the most mentally tough kids I’ve seen at this age.”
Harris considers himself fortunate to be able to play soccer at this level because he was born with a heart defect and had open-heart surgery when he was 4 months old.
“It prevented me from doing stuff when I was really younger, but it doesn’t hold anything now,” he said. “My mom has really preached to me if I ever get injured and they check my heartbeat to say that I have TAVR before they do anything to correct it.”
When he was 7, he started playing soccer with the Seymour Cyclones. He already was playing baseball and basketball, and his younger brother was playing soccer, so he decided to give it a try.
“I just thought it looked fun,” Harris said.
He played striker one year before switching to goalie.
“My coach played me as a goalie one time, and I really liked it, so I continued to play goalie,” Harris said. “I feel like I’m really coordinated, a lot more than other kids.”
Once his age group of Cyclones disbanded, Harris became familiar with the Columbus Express team and joined it. He played with the Orange last fall, and then they stayed together this spring and summer.
In the fall, Harris will be a freshman at Trinity Lutheran High School in Seymour and will be playing soccer for the Cougars, so he won’t be able to play for the Orange. He plans to play basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring next school year at Trinity, and he will be able to rejoin the Orange next spring.