Shraee Harrison takes off at the sound of the gun, quickly separating himself from the rest of the field in this 400-meter race.
In the infield, a man shadows Harrison’s every move, yelling out the numbers. It’s Harrison’s dad, Alvin, who clocks his son’s first 200 split time. Harrison, a San Benito High junior, wound up running a 52.20, a pretty pedestrian time by his standard.
However, it was the first race of the season and on San Benito High’s dirt track, which doesn’t lend itself to fast times. Since that first meet of the season on March 11, Harrison has run a 49.27 in the 400 and a 21.90 in the 200, both personal-records (PRs) and currently the top-ranked times in the Central Coast Section this season.
Last year’s CCS champions in those events recorded times of 47.01 and 21.73, respectively.
“I’m feeling pretty good right now, but I know there are still a lot of things to work on to get faster,” Harrison said. “I’m looking to run in the 46 range in the 400 and the high 20s or low 21s in the 200. I believe in myself and I think it’s possible.”
If the term “the sky is the limit” ever applied to anyone, it would be Harrison, who didn’t run track last year as a sophomore to focus on basketball. Harrison loves basketball because it involves constant play with teammates, while track, with the exception of relays, is mostly an individual sport.
However, the 16-year-old Harrison knows his future is on the track. That’s why he goes to Hartnell College every Monday to endure punishing training sessions with his dad, Alvin, who won silver in the 400-meter run in the 2000 Olympic Games while also winning gold as a part of the U.S. 4×400 relay teams in the 1996 and 2000 Olympics (the U.S. was eventually stripped of the gold medal from the 2000 Games after Antonio Pettigrew admitted he used performance-enhancing drugs).
In 2004, Alvin was suspended for four years after admitting to using steroids. At 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds, the younger Harrison has the prototypical build of today’s fastest short-and mid-distance sprinters: tall, lean and sculpted. LaShawn Merritt (6-2, 182), Usain Bolt (6-5, 207) and David Rudisha (6-3, 157) are all examples of how taller athletes are excelling in the sprints.
“It’s the new era of the bigger man, especially with the sprints,” Alvin said. “Bigger men on the track mean faster times will come because they’re exerting more power with the ground force reaction. But right now I just want Shraee to get accustomed to running with cadence and rhythm, and he’ll get progressively faster.”
As a former Olympian, Alvin doesn’t want to put any more undue pressure on Shraee than there already is.
“There’s a lot of pressure on Shraee, whether people know it or not,” Alvin said. “There’s external pressure because of who I am and what I’ve done. If he’s not fast, then people will say there’s something wrong.”
And if Harrison goes on to accomplish great things, there will be naysayers who say he should be winning races by default because it’s in his genes. The fact is, Harrison trains as hard or harder and smarter than anyone—Alvin makes sure of that.
Simply put, Alvin will get the best out of his son because he’s competed at the highest level, and while he’s emotionally invested in his son’s success like all fathers are, his identity isn’t forged from what Shraee does on the track—it’s more important as to how Shraee handles himself on and off the track and in life.
If Shraee doesn’t end up accomplishing anything of note during his high school track career, Alvin wouldn’t think any less of him.
“I’m most proud of Shraee for being Shraee and the person that he is,” Alvin said. “I’m just proud of having him as my son. Every father wants their son to do better then them in a lot of things in life, and thus far he’s doing that well. I can’t ask anything more of him.”
Alvin doesn’t want his son to make the same off the field mistakes he did in the past, and it shows. The way Harrison conducts himself in the athletic arena—with good sportsmanship—reflects on the influence Alvin has had on his life.
Even though he is a standout in an individual sport, Harrison doesn’t crave the spotlight. Like any teenage athlete, Harrison will accept the plaudits that come his way, but he won’t go out of his way to put attention on himself.
The Harrisons have a great father-son relationship, and a mutual bond that has proved inseparable.
“He’s a really good role model, and I look up to him a lot,” Shraee said. “I try not to let what he did get to me because I’d always be on a pedestal, but sometimes it could be a good thing to always have high expectations on you. We’re really close, and he’s my best bud.”
Before, during and after a race, the two talk about the mental and physical part of the sport. Alvin will give a pep talk occasionally, but most of the time, he simply reminds Shraee to nail his splits or make a constructive comment on his form.
In addition to the 200 and 400, Harrison runs the second leg of the team’s 4×100 relay team and the anchor leg of the 4×400 relay squad. However, Harrison is also going to try the 800 soon, and if he shows tremendous potential in that event, he might try to complete a trifecta that’s never been done before in CCS history: win the 200, 400 and 800 in the same championships.
“The goal is to win the league title with the team and all of the events I enter for CCS,” Shraee said. “Then I want to go on to state and nationals and do well there.”
At 40 years young, and just a couple of pounds heavier than the 175 pounds he packed on his 6-2 frame during the prime of his career, Alvin said he can still run a 400 in 48 or 49 seconds.
In other words, Alvin is still faster than Shraee in the 400, an amazing feat in itself. Alvin ran the 400 just one time while he prepped at North Salinas, a week after the CIF State Meet in the Junior National Championships in his senior year, 1993.
He clocked a sizzling 46.25, a preview of the greatness that was to come. Twenty-two years later, Shraee has shown flashes of brilliance, displaying tremendous potential in the process.
Shraee watches clips of his dad on Youtube, and it’s proved to be an inspiration.
“I watch him to see if I run like him,” Shraee said. “It kind of motivates me to be out there and run strong.”
When Alvin was competing professionally, he didn’t get too nervous before a big race. But when it comes to watching his son race, that’s a different story.
“It’s crazy, but I get really nervous before he races, a lot of anxiety,” Alvin said.
San Benito High hasn’t had an individual—boy or girl—win an event at the CCS Track and Field Championships since 2011, when Scott Medina won the 300 intermediate hurdles.
Every time Harrison runs an event, his dad is running along with him in the infield. Alvin’s shadow, of course, looms larger than most, but Shraee has done just fine carving his own identity.
