Ole Miss RF Calvin Harris says HS football stardom prepared him for SEC baseball

OMAHA (NE.)- Calvin Harris has taken a huge step forward in his second season with Ole Miss baseball. He has posted a .330 batting average in 94 at-bats this season. The right fielder hasn’t always been hitting clutch dingers at the College World Series.

He’s from Dubuque, Iowa and grew up playing football, basketball and baseball in high school. But the diamond and gridiron were both very special to him.

“It was close. I enjoyed both, they were really fun. I enjoyed baseball a little bit more but I enjoyed playing football too.” Harris said.

Harris says being a three-sport athlete helped prepare him for the SEC.

“You can carry over other things athletically from the other sports into baseball and this is similar to the state tournament for football. Not as many people, but similar in terms of importance and atmosphere,” Harris said.

Head coach Mike Bianco is intrigued by multi-sport athletes when recruiting.

“Love guys who play multiple sports,” Bianco said. “Now it’s kind of rare with people playing travel baseball and baseball year-round.”

Harris played quarterback and was a star. He led Western Dubuque to a state championship and won 3A player of the year in 2019. He says that success has translated to his college baseball success.

“Biggest thing is handling different situations. When you’re QB, there’s a ton of things you need to do and it carries over to baseball whether I’m playing catcher or somewhere else,” Harris said.

“You love to get kids who play high school football for several reasons,” Bianco said. “There’s a toughness and physicalness to it. In most high school programs they lift weights earlier than the other sports.”

Bianco is impressed with football’s team-first mentality.

“They either win on Friday night or they don’t. They don’t talk about yards, completions or tackles. They’ll say ‘we won 21-7′”, Bianco said. “If you recruit a baseball player that didn’t play other sports they usually talk about their individual stats. Cal was a tremendous high school athlete and football player.”

Bianco is incredibly proud of him and says Harris could arguably start for any other team in the SEC.

“He’s the ultimate team guy who wants to help,” Bianco said. “He played first base for us, now he’s in right field catching balls and will do whatever it takes to win. That means a lot to us”.

While Ole Miss has benefitted from Calvin’s talent, the sophomore has gotten a lot out of his time in Oxford.

“Over time it has become special to me. It’s a family more than anything,” Harris said.

Ole Miss will play the winner of Arkansas and Auburn on Wednesday night at 6. The Rebels are one win away from their first championship series appearance in program history.