Becoming Uncommon: Coaching With Purpose | Jebreh Harris

Becoming Uncommon Podcast | Featuring Jebreh Harris

In this episode of Becoming Uncommon, we sit down with Jebreh Harris, a respected coach and leader whose impact extends far beyond the track.

🔗 Learn more about Jebreh Harris:
https://athletics.apu.edu/staff-directory/jebreh-harris/545

Coach Harris dives deep into what it truly means to lead individuals—not just athletes. He shares powerful insights on how great coaching is rooted in relationships, trust, and understanding each athlete as a unique person.

This conversation goes beyond X’s and O’s. It’s about respecting the art of coaching—recognizing that coaching is not just a science, but a craft that requires intentionality, emotional intelligence, and continuous growth.

💡 Key themes from this episode:

Leadership starts with knowing your people
Coaching is an art, not just a system
The importance of being a multi-dimensional coach
Balancing performance with personal development
Why connection always comes before correction

Coach Harris challenges us to rethink what it means to show up as leaders in sport and in life. If you’re serious about becoming a better coach, mentor, or leader—this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen now and continue your journey of Becoming Uncommon.

#BecomingUncommon #Leadership #TrackAndField #Coaching #Mentorship #StudentAthlete #PersonalGrowth #CoachLife #CerritosCollege #USATF

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, what's up everyone? It's Coach Richardson with another episode of Becoming Uncommon, and I have my good friend, Coach Jabree Harris. For me, Becoming Uncommon again is you know looking at different individuals that have been successful, looking at those routes, those journeys, just because everybody I know and have ever met that maybe thought their life was going to go one way and it went a different route, and the way we got there is always very unique. And I've had the pleasure of knowing Coach Harris for almost 15 years plus now, and so being able to watch his journey, the routes he's been able to take. It's been a lot of fun just to be able to kind of follow him and be able to catch up here and there, especially how small the track and field world is. But other than that, Coach Harris, would you mind introducing yourself?

SPEAKER_00 0:43

I am Coach Jabree Harris. I'm just uh head cross-country assistant track and field coach at Asusa Pacific University, and I've been here for two years.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Yeah. So um, you know, obviously I love the fact that you were able to come educate and talk to our team here today, but I want to look at, you know, something that you brought up to them is like how did you get into coaching?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

All right. How I got into coaching, so I graduated from the University of Tennessee, and I know we had a uh team meeting, and my coach George Watts, he had a practice team meeting for us. Then a guy named Marty Marty Sonnefeld from Knoxville Track Club, he came in and asked if anyone could coach the distance athletes because they needed a coach. And my coach asked someone to raise their hand. Initially no one did. Then coach said, someone please raise your hand, and I did. And that just goes back to me just being a uh a yes coach kid overall, and my coach, they do something, I typically do it. So it pretty much just started with me raising my hand, and it just took off from there, and it just started to feel good to give back what my coaches have given me, be it my summer track coaches, uh, my coaches from my first school, Alabama State, and my high school coaches, and just to see the athletes smile or get personal best or just feel good and start, you know, presenting themselves in a different type of way and taking a different approach to track and field and sport.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

Yeah, I would always say like coaching is very addicting. Like it's it's one of those things to where you it's probably not the most lucrative thing. Like when I mentor young coaches, they go, all right, they're excited to get into coaching. All right, now if you want to be a millionaire, you might want to go into like computers or something like that. But um if you want what I would consider a different level of fulfillment that you can't get anywhere else, I I I would rival coaching with you know the highest level of fulfillment if you're doing it correctly, right? Doing it for the right reasons. Correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Yeah. That's actually initially my coach, after I was coaching a little bit more, he just he kind of suggested, told me not to get into coaching because of no the rigmarole of just NCAA coaching. The highs, the lows, and a lot of times when the lows hit, it hits pretty hard. And it's not a lot, at least sometimes financially, a good, you know, return or even uh quality of life. Yeah. So that that the quality of life part is even more so because it's not a nine to five situation. It's like you're working seven days a week, give or take, depends on what part of the year, you're just always on. So it's it's reward when you see um the give back from the athletes, and of course, people you work with the funness and the travel, that's rewarding.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah. I mean, yeah, because like we, I'm sure you have it now where you follow up with athletes that you've helped and mentored in the past, and you've you know where they started from, and you're like looking at them now, and it's and there's just a different level of just edification of kind of seeing, like, I know when when he was or she was a knucklehead, and now look at them, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Yeah, yeah. And going to weddings.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

You go to bowls and you just look at them. It's like some stuff you just you start practice, it's like, yep, that just that stays at practice. Yeah, that's that's between us, that's coach-athlete relationship, and it's just like you see them as they're not your your blood children by any means, but you have that that affection, that care, and that love for them, like they're your your children per se, like your sons, your daughters, and to hear them speak, because uh, you know, recently I had I had some athletes reach out to me and like, oh coach, I don't know what you meant back then, but I see what you're saying now. Yeah, and it just uh one of the guys just like, I totally appreciate you and I really love you. Um and just going to weddings and you're somewhat tearing up because you're like, oh wow, they're my daughter's getting married now or something, so it's it's uh it gets emotional, but you know you did your job. Yeah, you know, when when that happens, it's like okay, I feel fulfilled. So it's good.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Yeah, so um obviously, you know, long coaching history, but even before that, so going into college, what were if I was to go back and ask, you know, Coach Harris, like, all right, hey, you're a freshman in college, what are you gonna be doing in the next 10 years? What would you have said?

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Um I would have said I would have been uh an artist. I was um so Alabama State for three years, Coach Horace Crump recruited me there. And I was a graphic design major and made a minor in photography.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

So that's that's definitely my passion. Coaching was not uh a thought at all. Freshman year. Of course, my dad always like, you know, my son's you know, future Olympian. You know, parents being parents, and mom, dad is always encouraging, always. But, you know, my passion is art and creativity in photography. And so if someone was asking me that, I'd be an artist, have my own business. And that was the initial plan. Um but I will say eventually it became to a point where you know, you know, you have your body for so long, so you gotta make decisions. I thought I always thought I would have my hands on my creativity, so I chose to keep it a physical part because you won't be physically fit your entire life. You get old. Yeah, that happens. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

So with the artistic side, where do you think we're do you always know that you had that like artistic side of you, like as you're growing up and going through high school?

SPEAKER_00 6:09

Oh yeah. My brother and I, we used to always just grow up drawing, you know, Superman characters. Okay. Draw them, color them, cut them out, throw them in your bedroom, let them see how they see how they can really fly. So just creativity is just art. So my mom's side of the family, a lot of artists, my dad drew as well. So just art and creativity has just always been around uh my brother and I growing up and just drawing things. Yeah. And my mom was a graphic designer. Okay. So just just her influence was very strong in my trajectory with art and graphic design or just illustrations and creativity and photography.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Wow. Okay. Yeah, because I I don't know, I have I wouldn't consider myself uh artistic type person, like when it comes to those things. Like I I don't know if it's just my lack of patience or my lack of like vision because the artists that I've met, like, they have a vision before they get into it. But it when it comes to drag stuff, like I fully feel and can like almost embody that mindset. Um, and so how do you feel that you carry over some of what you would consider your artistic skill kind of vision and mindset to coaching?

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Um, it relates a lot, to be honest. Um, and I talked about a little bit with your your group. So you have the science part of coaching, but also you have the art to where it's a it's an intuition, it's a feel where I'm a drawing or a stroke or a a stubble or something, and I just feel I need to create this. It just it talks to you. And so it's just like with coaching, you may have your workout set, but you see the athlete, you hear a pitch in their voice, and just something triggers. This that it thing happens, and you know you got to change the workout. So same thing with doing a piece of work, if it's like more of an abstract or like I'm drawing some, let's say I'm doing a portrait. I think I need to go this route, but I think it's best. My gut says it's best for me to go this route to layer this picture. Or if I'm doing a photo, something tells me to get my camera up right now. I don't know what it is, but I got my camera up and there's the moment. And you've gotta find that moment and hopefully capture it. So that's a lot with the coaching. You know the foundation, and you may be in not as sure about it right now because it's you probably haven't done it for a while, but it grows on you, just like coaching. When you first get into those first coaching years, you're just like, uh, is this supposed to work? Yeah, I hope this worked. Now you're in the game a little bit longer, you're just like, I know this is solid, I know how to adapt it for this athlete because it's not the same person I coached 10 years ago, but I know the theme of what I got to do, because I know this type of personality. And I would say, well, me being a graphic design major, it helps with recruiting, because as a graphic design major, I had to know my Pantone numbers, my um sans serifs. So when we had our portfolio review, I had to present my artwork in front of a class, in front of my classmates. And if I wasn't, if I didn't know the product that I'm trying to sell, they're not gonna listen to me. So they come with all these questions. So with recruiting, if I don't know the brand that I'm selling, all the wherewithal, and I'm not confident in it, I don't have any buyers.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

So being in gravity design class with portfolio review, trying to present a project to my classmates who could be very uh opinionated, as a recruiter, I have to be very confident and know what I'm talking about, know a lot about the university, know a lot about my uh my training philosophy or even the the staff I'm with so I can tell the truth because people can see the truth. Yeah. They can see when you lie, see when you're telling the truth. So if I don't know what I'm selling, I can't be a good recruiter. So that part of graphic design or art is helpful, and I correlate that a lot with coaching.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Because like I you just said something like intuition, and I've kind of been on this little kick lately where I'm where I'm trying to even teach that not just my own kids but my athletes how important intuition is. Like I think it's almost like a lost art. It's it's something that I don't think people appreciate enough anymore. You know, and I think like if you don't if you don't use it, you lose it kind of thing. Like that little voice inside you um can start getting, you know, more of a whisper if you're not paying attention to it.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

I agree with you. That actually goes from two of my coaches. So George Watts, he was my coach at Tennessee, and my coach back home, Antonio Bennett, like I could go back and talk about VO2 Max, the the all the different types of thresholds and all the science words, and my coach is he just he doesn't not say he doesn't know all that stuff, but if you look at his how he trains and plants, it's all the same things. He may not know all the words, but he knows the art of it all. And like I say, people can have all the sciences, but he knows the art, but that intuition is part of that art to where some coaches sound so smart because they can say all the particular words, the uh you know, the hydrogen atom from off whatever it is, with that lactate and all that good stuff. It sounds really good, but can you coach? Do you know how to listen? Can you relate to people? Do you know how to adapt when that situation presents to adapt when an opportunity presents itself? Because if you like at nationals and you just gotta make that one little cue to that kid, you just gotta feel it. You gotta feel it. But you know a lot from feeling that coach athlete thing from listening a lot, like listening with your eyes. And even how they breathe, sometimes like, oh, I gotta switch up because I hear panic in that that little breath they said. So they did.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

So yeah, like uh Coach Veney, Coach Tony Veney, I I love him to death. He he's he has all kinds of little gems that he kicks down. One of the which I one of um that I stole was uh the athletes don't need to know what you know, they need to feel what you know. And and it's like that oh I always think about that because sometimes it's easy to get caught up in over-explaining things, especially like on the technical side, or even when an athlete has questions, but how can you translate that? Like you said, like you've got to get with them as a person, like you can have all this knowledge in the world, but if you can't connect with that individual, all that knowledge is for nothing. And um, and I I've always appreciated how you've done that because I've you know, watching you and like your relationship with your athletes, like you get to know them as individuals, you don't just they're not just numbers to you. And when as now you've evolved, you've been all over the place coaching, you've coached hot very, very high-level athletes. Um, what are some pieces of advice that you would give maybe a young student athlete that's looking for a coach that's gonna kind of you know help them reach their max potential and help them be a better person whether they know they need that or not? What are some things or pieces of advice as they're like looking for a college or looking for that right coach?

SPEAKER_00 12:43

I would say um listen. Listen, listening is very underrated. So when you let's say they approach a coach, uh like your athletes just did when I we were presenting about Asusa, they like the presentation, how I present it our program, how I present it myself. Um so I think more or less just listening to what that coach or that university is really saying. Not the bells and whistles, not the the jargon and everything is peachy when we all know business is not absolutely gorgeous every day.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Everybody on the team don't get along all the time. But if there's a coach who's like, hey, we're a family, family sometimes fight. I think a person can understand they can appreciate transparency versus hey, we're here to win nationals all the time and we're great. Well, that's everybody saying that. But can you be real with me? Yeah. I think people appreciate genuineness and transparency. So when you're looking for that, I say, go look for that. And it's just honesty.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

And I'd rather, you know, sometimes as a coach, I may give the worst workout in the world. I could be the world worst coach, but if you trust and believe in me, we're gonna go far. Oh yeah. I see you see that all the time.

unknown 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

And uh you hit on something early. I was gonna I wanted to comment on it to where like um times have are changing, to where you may you meet those kids because knowledge is so accessible, where some coaches or athletes could talk all this stuff because they could read up all the sciences, and then you go back and forth with they know all them, they know the words better than you, but they don't know the art better than you. So we get into this situation of the culture now to where the so-called education of our sport, we should be doing this right now, we should be doing that. I saw this school doing the depth jump or something. Yeah, but um, but they know everything, and it's it's it's unfortunate because we know from experience we may get to that, but everything comes in progressions.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Progressions.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

But the main thing, are you coachable? You may know everything as an athlete, supposedly, but are you coachable, are you willing to learn? Because as coaches who've been coaching for a while, like you just mentioned Coach Vinny, we're always trying to learn. Like I'm always trying to learn. I you know, so I think that's that's a could be a lost art, wanting to learn versus knowing everything, yeah, especially as an athlete.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah. I think that comes with a little bit of insecurity sometimes. Like you think just because you can comprehend something that it's going to give you comfort and solace of like that that fear of the unknown. Like we could start every season and have all these concepts or expectations and goals, but we don't know how that season's gonna end up. We don't know how the other team's gonna run. We don't know what the weather's gonna be like on this day. Like there are so many factors. And I I found that a lot of those, you know, I would call them know-it-alls or people that try to use information as a substitute for confidence. Yeah. Um, and and it it falls on its face every time. And it's sad, but it's just how it goes. Sometimes people gotta learn the hard way.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

And those athletes, they just want security. Can't fault them for that, but we all want security. And uh I would like to say what those athletes who I don't say know it, but they want the information, those ones you I mean, you just really watch your wordings with them. Uh be intentional how you word things, but still show love and care.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Because, you know, sometimes my my personality could probably be off-putting to where it's like, uh, you know, I hear you, but wait. But it's it's it's it's it's a it's a fine balance to try to figure out how to communicate with the ones who are highly smart. Their brains are always overthinking, which is not a bad thing. But let's work on how we control the progress the progress of that that beautiful brain of yours. Yeah. Let's use it in a healthy way, not in a part to where you're gonna go down this rabbit hole of just destruction. So when we have those athletes, I you identify it. We definitely I have to uh really be intentional in my wordings and my um our relationship a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yeah, that's um that's what I love about you know coaching. It's always it's like not one season is ever gonna be the same. Like no matter how much I want it to be. But and that maybe that's why I love it. You know, I come, you know, you you we know that there's gonna be some agony every year, but we come back to it uh regardless. But I want to get to now, like, you know, with the transition of like APU, national powerhouse, division two national championships, a history of NIH national championships, um, now going to D3, you know, regardless of you know, people's opinions or what they think things are go, you know, how how they are. Um, what are some of your insights now that you guys are making this transition that you think the common person or the you know the curious student athlete needs to know?

SPEAKER_00 17:40

Well, the standard doesn't change. Uh the expectation of uh Jack Hoyt, who is the head coach of the program. Uh we want to make sure our standards and expectations stay the same of the history and the tradition of Asusa Pacific. Um of course for private Christian school, make sure our faith leads the way for everything that we do. But athletically, uh just bring in the right people who want to achieve and give back to the program. Uh the great thing about our sport is that we can compete anywhere. If you're good enough, you get an enemy you need to use no matter what division you are. So whether you're division three, division two, NAA, JUCO, you talk with a coach, get a relationship, if they have the march to get it, they're in a competition. And that's our sport. And that's so that will not change. We will get we will put you in the competitions you need to be to go against the best if you're of that level, yeah. Or just that opportunity. So it's we're changing divisions, we're not changing standards.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Yeah, I love that. That's you should make a t-shirt with that one. Um, but uh, but when it comes, like I want to now get your point of view as we wrap up, you know. Definitely appreciate your time. Come in, talking to our athletes, meeting with me today. Um, what is some a piece of advice you would give your younger self, like coming out of college or maybe even going into college your freshman year, you know?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

What would I give myself? Um to be fair, smile more. I think, well, I know. Okay. I'm a thinker, yeah. So a lot of times I get in my thinking mode, and sometimes my face doesn't seem pleasant, I seem like I'm thinking or I'm overly serious. But people are watching, so they think I'm probably mad, but I'm thinking. So I do, and I have been aware of that. I do have to be more intentional, which is put a smile on. And um that's one thing I would tell my younger self. Just and my coach used to give me about that. Like, you have a great smile, you should do it more. And I was like, you know, just but I I I would that that little bit right there I'll tell myself to smile more. Um and just um other than that, I I like my path. Yeah, it was a varied path, and a lot of a lot of different situations I had to adapt to is make who I am, but I could smile more.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Yeah, I love that. Actually, I became more aware of that for myself because like they're especially working with like younger kids and high school kids, is that they might see me in a distance and I have this natural scowl. Yeah, and they were like, Oh, I can't go talk to Coach Richardson. And it's like not knowing that I'm probably joking and jovial, like I'm ready to, I'm ready to crack it with you, whatever. And but my face doesn't say that. So I have to be more approachable. I'm working on it, I'm working on it. So I love that because I'm taking that in at 40.

SPEAKER_00 20:28

And I picked that up from uh Coach Damon Martin at Adam State. Okay. I taught at his um uh high altitude distance camp for two summers, and I liked, even though he might have been upset, he still had a slight smile of welcoming. And I'm just I'm looking at it like I love learning. So I'm just I'm watching how he spoke to his group. You know, he's a national championship coach, he's done a lot of things, but I liked his presentation to the high school athletes and his athletes, and I just paid attention to like, I need to do that, and I need to do that better. Yeah, so that that's when it really resonated more. So even though my coach told me this a long time ago, I just saw Coach Martin do it, and I was like, I need to pick that up. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

All right. So where can they find you? Where can they reach you?

SPEAKER_00 21:14

All right, I'm at Asusa Pacific. My number is 626-648-1282. Um that's the number, and my email is very simple. J Harris at apu.edu. And if you are to say my first name, it is Jabri. But to the athletes, it's Coach Harris. Just to make sure we say my name correctly. Um but Jabri or Jabrae is actually fine on how to say my first name. All right.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Sounds good. All right. Well, everybody, thank you again. And with becoming uncommon, you realize that there's a lot of different twists and turns, but ultimately, when we carve out our path, you know, it's something that we could look back on and be proud of. So thank you. Thank you. All right, appreciate it, man. That was good.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Cool. I'll just win.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

I'm gonna make sure nobody drowned in standing water.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

Oh boy. What is going on?

unknown 22:15

I actually took note from that.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:19

No, it's everything's always a fire. I don't know why.