On Kyle Harrison

There’s this weird time in your life where pro athletes that are the same age as you start hanging it up. The first time you experience an athlete’s entire college and professional playing career, while you’re an adult, is particularly jarring. I’m now old enough that it’s happened quite a few times, but there are a few athletes that still just stagger you. You can’t imagine the sport without them on the field playing it. Kyle Harrison is one of those players for me. He and I are fairly close to the same age (he’s almost exactly one year older than me), so he falls into that window of guys I can’t imagine the sport without. So it was particularly jarring to see him walk off the field and to know he wouldn’t walk back on as a pro player again.

I already know it’s going to be one of those things that just keeps on shocking me too. Every pro roster release for field, I’ll scan the list and think to myself, “did they forget Kyle Harrison?” or “That’s a locker room that could use a guy like Kyle Harrison.” The fact that this won’t and can’t happen is just a huge loss for lacrosse, there’s no other way to say it.

The first time I talked to Kyle Harrison was after the first PLL season. I wanted to write about how players were adjusting to touring, what it was like, how their bodies felt, and particularly wanted the point of view of the younger players and more seasoned vets. When I called Kyle, he answered the phone with a friendliness that suggested we had known each other for years, as if I’d called just to say what’s up on a Sunday afternoon. He explained he was in the car with the kids so it might be a bit loud, I said no problem because my kids were crawling around me at the same time. I couldn’t have enjoyed the level of familiarity and fun in our small talk any more than I did. I nearly forgot the reason I’d called in the first place when I went to start the interview. I’ve talked to players who you can tell are only talking because someone else set up an interview, or they just can’t wait to get off the phone, and this conversation was as far from that as possible. But that’s who Kyle Harrison is. That’s what I learned from that conversation and from texts and conversations since. If Kyle Harrison can help you, he will. There are not nearly enough people out there who will be happy if someone else’s life experience is improved while their own is not, but Kyle Harrison is one of those people.

There is no shortage of legacy pieces, retrospectives, farewells, and other articles about Harrison’s career. And they’ve all be worthwhile. Harrison is worthy of it. He means so many things to so many people in the lacrosse world. To me, what makes Kyle Harrison’s legacy special is that we still haven’t experienced the full impact of it. African Americans are still extremely underrepresented on a lacrosse field, and it’s no secret that there are people in and around the sport that don’t exactly make African Americans feel welcome. In 2019, I think about 4% of the NCAA men’s college lacrosse population was black. Today, when there’s a highlight video posted somewhere of a young African American player, the reactions are predictable. He’s a “raw athlete”, or he “looks like he could be a good SSDM.” You could post an African American player dusting people on offense and shooting the lights out, looking polished as can be, and these are still the comments you’ll get. Any real lacrosse fan out there knows this needs to change. Kyle Harrison is part of how that happens.

He’s the player who was elite at everything. He could play defense, he faced off, he was the top offensive option on some absolutely loaded Hopkins teams, and at midfield. A two-time Midfielder of the Year in college. A Tewaaraton winner. A first overall draft pick. And he did it all with a joy that I honestly haven’t seen otherwise. You can drop Kyle Harrison into a championship game or a Tuesday night men’s league game, he’s having fun. He’s gliding around with grace and even though as you watch on TV you can’t see his face, you somehow know he’s smiling. What’s more, you don’t even realize that he actually isn’t ever coming off the field. Kyle Harrison showed us all that too. On a lacrosse field, anyone can do anything. It doesn’t matter what you look like, or what box someone else tries to put you in, this is a game for everyone to enjoy.

That’s what makes Kyle Harrison’s lacrosse career so special to me. He is the living breathing proof that in lacrosse, you can do anything, and it doesn’t matter what you look like. Elite offensive dodger and shooter? You can do that. Faceoff? Sure. Defense? Go dominate. Hell, you want to try and launch your own league and create more opportunities for everyone in the lacrosse world? You can do that. Any young African American player who gets pigeonholed as one of those “raw” players that should just stick to SSDM can point to the career of Kyle Harrison and say, no I shouldn’t. There’s a generation of young African American players who could not have a better role model, on field and off. They’re in the backyard right now, split dodging and stinging a jump shot to the far corner, joining thousands of others who look like them and want to play lacrosse at the highest level. To me, that’ll be the biggest part of Kyle Harrison’s legacy in this game. A generation of players growing up knowing that they can do whatever they set their mind to on a lacrosse field. They can, and will, change the game for the better, like Kyle Harrison did.