Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2003 | 9:02 a.m.
Prep football previews
Monday: Year of the QB -- Las Vegas bucks its history with three top prospects at the position.
Tuesday: Foothill builds from the bottom to become a perennial contender, plus Sunrise Region preview with capsules and predictions.
Today: Palo Verde stays at the top with emerging star QB Jarrell Harrison, plus Sunset Region capsules and predictions.
Thursday: Independent schools preview, including newcomers Liberty and Shadow Ridge, with capsules.
A few things are pretty certain about a boy halfway through his high school years.
Girls are definitely on his mind and a few blemishes are going to pop up on his face. His room will look like a hurricane just blew through it. But mostly, he is going to grow.
And grow Jarrell Harrison did this summer. Palo Verde's junior quarterback, returning for his second season under center, gained an inch or two in height. Wider biceps suggest Harrison also hit the weight room to bulk up his 6-foot-2, 185-pound frame.
Yet it is Harrison's growth of another kind that Palo Verde coaches and players salivating at the thought of Friday's first snap. A wild year of helping two Panthers teams into the 4A state playoffs helped Harrison mature from promising youngster into phenom prospect and team leader.
"I knew he'd be a leader, but not at the level that he is right now," Palo Verde coach Darwin Rost said.
That level is as the unquestioned fulcrum of Palo Verde's team, even as a junior. With a smile as electric as his moves on the field and a calm demeanor that belies his age, Harrison offers a total package that even older teammates respect.
"He's a lot better," Palo Verde senior tailback Jamal Brumfield said. "He's more confident now as a junior. He believes in himself more."
He quarterbacked a team to the state football playoffs as its youngest starter. He started and starred in the state basketball championship, then became the player who wanted the crunch-time responsibilities as the Panthers' point guard this summer during camps in Arizona and San Diego.
"It was just like, wow, OK, it was his team," Palo Verde basketball coach Phil Clarke said.
Really, Jarrell Harrison always had a canvas, and he is learning through experience just what wonders he can work with the God-given paints. As he stopped looking at his age and started relying on his talents last year, Harrison bloomed last year.
He hopes to showcase the expanded skills that he worked on this summer as Palo Verde opens up its conservative double-wing offense to include more passing and more calls for him.
"I'm real ready to show everything I have," Harrison said. "I think some people last year kind of slept on me because I was kind of young, but I'm ready to go. They might say that I can't throw, that I can only run. I'm ready to show them that I can do both."
At most, Palo Verde threw the ball a couple of times per game in 2002, easing Harrison into the system without forcing him to make tough reads and throws. He still made a difference with his quickness on plenty of keepers, but Harrison did not feel satisfied.
Eager to show off all his talents, Harrison worked out this summer with Jamal Brumfield and Jamal's father to hone both his throwing mechanics and his defensive back skills. Harrison will see some time on defense this year.
Rost will be happy to call more passes with a more poised quarterback to throw them.
"He seems more comfortable back in that pocket," Rost said.
Harrison and Brumfield, both team captains, kicked their training into high gear two weeks before the start of fall practice, working out for two to three hours nightly at Doolittle Community Center and Cheyenne High School. Former Palo Verde teammate Gerard Lawson, who signed with Oregon State last year, urged Harrison to hit the weights to make himself into a better college football prospect and Harrison listened.
Everything about the kid is improved, Rost feels.
"He's like a senior," Rost said. "He matured so much during our season, but totally took leaps and bounds during his basketball season. He sounds like a whole different kid than I talked to (last) fall."
A slasher who can leap and cut, Harrison is an athletic force and he now knows it. Clarke said Harrison began demanding the ball in tight games this summer, and the Panthers advanced to two camp championships. Success naturally bred confidence and Harrison is parlaying assuredness on the court into control on the gridiron.
"I feel that I have the ability to take over a game, but (within) the team concept," Harrison said. "In those types of situations, I want the ball because -- I just want it. If they look up to me as a leader, then I want the ball as a leader." Rost and Clarke both said Harrison needs only to keep his academics in order and he will become a college player. As an athlete and as a person, he is already well on his way to the big time.
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