With mom back in Winnipeg, Andrew
Harris suddenly had the biggest family
of his life.
“It was great,” Harris said the other
day. “From the day arrived, it was like
I’d been adopted by a new, bigger
family. The team was my new family
and I don’t think there was a time when
I didn’t feel like I was part of something
important and friendly and safe.”
Harris was something special out
on the Island. As Abassi once told the
Vancouver Province, “he just ran and
ran and ran and we just won and won
and won.”
In five seasons with the Raiders, he
led his team – his family -- to three
national championships, in 2006,
2008, and 2009. He broke nearly every
B.C. Junior Football League and every
Canadian Junior Football League
record that he could break, including
all-time touchdowns and all-time
scoring. In 2009, he was awarded
the Wally Buono Award for most
outstanding junior football player in
Canada.
He was so good, the B.C. Lions
could not ignore him. He was so fast,
so quick on his feet, that he made
junior defenders look silly. He scored
in bunches, broke huge important
runs and was a one-man wrecking
crew that couldn’t be stopped despite
the defenses that were drawn up
specifically to corral him.
As a result, Lions head coach and
GM Wally Buono, made him B.C.’s
territorial exemption in 2008.
“I think it would have been exciting
to have been involved in the CFL
draft,” Harris said. “Some of my friends
and my teammates were in the draft
and they enjoyed the hype and the
excitement. But it’s pretty hard for me
to complain. I love the Lions and I’m
pretty sure we’re going to have a good
team for a long time.”
When he arrived in Nanaimo in 2005,
Harris wore No. 20. But that changed
midway through his junior career. One
of his closest friends, the fullback who
blocked for him, a young man from
Calgary named Aaron Niedergesaess,
was killed in an automobile accident
near Drayton Valley, Alta.
“My daughter was born and then
22 / sportslife
just a few weeks later, his daughter
was born,” Harris said. “He never had
the chance to know his daughter. We
had become such close friends that I
almost immediately stopped wearing
No. 20 and started wearing Aaron’s
number 33.
“Aaron was one of those guys who
was so inspiring to the whole team, just
because of his story. He had overcome
some serious addictions and had
become a social worker helping people
overcome their addictions. We went
through fatherhood at the same time.
We were so close. Losing him was hard,
but I’ve never forgotten him. He was
close to me in so many different ways.”
It’s the memory of his friend and
the commitment to his ow