During a trip to Southern California for a track meet in April, Archbishop Carroll’s Nyckoles Harbor asked a hotel cashier if he could get a discount on an overpriced bag of candy. When she declined, Harbor flashed a smile and countered: “You can’t make it, like, three dollars? I’m a national track athlete — number one in the country.”
The incredulous cashier asked for his name, searched it on her phone and moments later provided gratis gummies — a scene captured in a YouTube docuseries titled “I AM: Nyckoles Harbor.”
Being a 6-foot-6, 245-pound teenager who can run 100 meters in 10.28 seconds (as he did that week in April outside Los Angeles) has its perks. It also makes Harbor a magnet for attention, and the 16-year-old — who will compete at New Balance Nationals this week in Philadelphia — is learning how to navigate his newfound fame.
“I don’t like to look at it as pressure because I expected this to happen,” Harbor said. “I just got to be humble and make sure that I’m getting better and better each day. … I’m a showman, so I want to do everything I can to put on for the people, put on for myself and make everybody proud.”
Back on Carroll’s campus, the junior’s presence is massive. As he strolls through the halls, classmates whisper to one another when they catch a glimpse of him. At practice, teammates congregate on the metal bleachers and debate whether it’s speed or power that makes Harbor so great.
Highlights of Harbor’s swift 100-meter dashes have gone viral — shared by Bleacher Report and ESPN — in large part because he’s also a defensive lineman, a top-20 football recruit in the Class of 2023. He has attracted more than 15,000 new Instagram followers this year and was the subject of that 46-minute YouTube special.
While he occasionally cashes in on his pseudo-celebrity, he has developed the proper perspective, those close to him say.
“Got to let him taste the celebrity stuff from time to time because he’s a kid and he’s earned it, but we also have to help him understand that his goals are bigger than being a viral splash in the pan — which he does understand,” Carroll track and field coach Rafiu Bakare said. “He doesn’t shy away from the work.”
This article is from the Washington Post, read the full article here.
Photo: Nyckoles Harbor is a two-sport star for Archbishop Carroll. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)
