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Last year at this time, Michael Harrington was my TA at Harvest Park Middle School in Pleasanton, living the life of every 13-year-old eighth grader.
One year later as a 14-year-old freshman at Amador Valley High School, Harrington is giving lessons to opposing defenses as a starting running back on the Amador varsity.
That’s right – a 14-year-old freshman making a monster impact for a varsity football team.
Just look at the last three games.
Three back he rambled for 191 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-19 loss to San Marin. He followed that with 195 yards and a touchdown in a 24-17 win over Granada, and this past Friday Harrington went for 203 yards and three touchdowns in a 28-0 win over rival Foothill.
Add in his receiving yards again San Marin and Granada, and Harrington is over 200 yards from scrimmage in each of the last three games.
“It is kind of mind-blowing,” Harrington said of the stretch. “But I have kind of been playing up (in age) my entire life.”
It took all of one play this season for Harrington to introduce himself. In the opening game against Vanden, Harrington took the first offensive snap 65 yards for what looked to be a touchdown.
The play was called back for an illegal formation on Amador, but it showed the freshman things were going to be OK.
“When I got in the huddle, I was a little nervous because everyone had been telling me it was such a jump in the speed of the game,” Harrington explained. “But I got the ball and everything opened up. Even though it got called back I felt at that point I was meant to be out there.”
It did, but the Amador offense struggled as a whole, going through the first two games without scoring a single point. The team finally got off the schneid in the third game by beating Liberty 32-28.
Since then, they have gone 2-1 and stand 3-3 overall. It’s a mark that doesn’t sit well with Harrington and his teammates despite the recent success.
“I really think we could be 6-0,” Harrington said. “I don’t feel like anyone has beaten us except for ourselves. After that second game we had a players meeting and got it together.”
It’s worked as evidenced by their 3-1 mark since the meeting. But what lies ahead in their final four games can only be called – daunting.
This week the Dons face San Ramon Valley (6-0), a team highly ranked in Northern California. After that it’s Monte Vista (7-0), De La Salle (6-0) and California (4-3).
“Everyone has been doubting us,” Harrington said. “We just have to go out and play the games like we can.”
Foothill girls’ volleyball
The Falcons won another pair of East Bay Athletic League games this past week, staying one game behind front-running Monte Vista, entering the final week of the regular season.
The week started with a 25-20, 25-8, 25-11 win over Livermore on Senior Night at Foothill.
All six seniors turned in big performances. The highlights were Kati Vogel (14 digs, 8 kills), Shreya Patel (18 assists, 2 digs), Addie Boeschenstein (7 kills), Sewa Adesuyi-Fasuyi (7 kills, 1 block), Camille Jose (12 digs, 2 aces) and Emily Evans (3 kills).
Foothill ended the week with a 25-23, 23-25, 25-21, 25-20 win over California.
The highlights came from Vogel (18 kills, 18 digs), Ilayda Caglar (14 kills, 13 digs), Olivia So (25 digs, 5 service points) and Makenzie Bulaon (19 assists, 11 digs).
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
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