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ANTIOCH — In his final two years as a man-among-boys high school running back, Antioch’s Najee Harris was held under 100 yards rushing just once.
The next week, he exploded for 304 yards and three touchdowns in a playoff win over San Ramon Valley.
That was Najee, virtually unstoppable and why he is the Bay Area Preps HQ high school football offensive player of the decade.
The 6-foot-3, 226-pound megastar became the No. 1 recruit in the nation. He is now nearing the end of his third and possibly final season at Alabama.
Harris is eligible for the NFL draft this spring.
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“I’ve been a head coach for over 30 years and he’s the best player I’ve ever seen,” Rancho Cotate’s Ed Conroy told this news organization when Harris was a junior in 2015. “He has speed to run around you, he’s big enough to run you over and he’s patient with his blockers.”
In his senior season, Harris carried 291 times and averaged 9.5 yards per attempt, finishing with 2,776 yards and 34 touchdowns.
He was even more efficient as a junior, averaging 11.3 yards per touch while running for 36 touchdowns. He finished with 2,744 yards in 243 carries, impressing opponents for having a non-stop motor.
“With someone that has that much athletic ability, that’s not the norm, where that kid is going to battle and give everything he has every time he carries the football,” Rick Sira, Amador Valley’s football coach at the time, said after Harris’ junior season.
That year, Harris had the two best rushing games of his Antioch career — 396 yards and three touchdowns in an early-season win over Milpitas and 390 yards and six touchdowns in a 55-54 North Coast Section semifinal loss to Foothill.
“Najee’s unbelievable,” Foothill coach Matt Sweeney said
Milpitas assistant Vito Cangemi lauded Harris for his instincts.
“He knows when to be patient,” Cangemi said in 2016. “He knows when to explode. He knows when to lower his shoulder. That’s really the mark of an all-around good back. He’s really good in the blocking game. He’s definitely a kid who has a great opportunity to play on Sundays.”
Harris finished high school with 7,948 rushing yards. Ninety-four of his 99 career touchdowns were on the ground.
How choice was made
The players of the decade and the all-decade teams were chosen in a vote by the Bay Area Preps HQ staff.