MaxPreps Weekly Honor Roll, presented by the United States Marine Corps: Keion Harris, Redford

After Keion Harris' stellar play at cornerback last season, teams are shying away from throwing in his direction.

That's certainly a compliment for the 16-year-old defensive back for the Thurston (Redford, Mich.) football team. In his first year starting as a sophomore, Harris didn't have a receiver complete a pass against him. This year, Harris only allowed three completions in the first eight games.

"He's as good a corner as we've had in a long time," Thurston football coach Robert Snell said. "A lot of times you can't get stats because teams don't throw the ball to the outside too much."

Harris, who started competing in football at age 8, played safety as a freshman. He was moved to a cornerback the following year and won the starting nod on the right side.

Snell has been impressed the past two seasons with Harris' skills on the field.

"He has excellent reaction and turning skills and he also has a lot of length to him," Snell said. "Although he's about 5-foot-11 in height, he has really long arms. So he's able to reach balls that a lot of kids his size can't get to. But I think one of the big things is his technique. He is just outstanding at the corner, especially in man-to-man. We play a lot of man-to-man on the outside, and so he's locked up. He's able to press and is able to take away short and long routes."

Harris loves playing cornerback and shutting down his opponent. It's something he takes pride in.

"You're on an island and it's just you and that one man," Harris said. "He's got to beat you personally, you can't just get away from him, and just accepting that challenge."

Harris is intense when he's on the field. Another aspect of his life he's passionate about is helping others in his community. He makes it a point to volunteer as much as possible – generally eight to 10 hours a week -- while juggling his classroom work and extracurricular activities.

"I think that has a lot to do with his family life and the way he was brought up," Snell said. "It comes through in the school as well as with the team, he's always looking out for the other kids. He does whatever is asked of him on the field, and that's just in his personality. He's a church-goer and I think he believes in his faith. He's always looking to do things for others."

Harris is in his second year as a member of the Southfield Kappa League. The mentoring organization is committed to training young African-American men for leadership. The group helps out the community in a number of different ways.

"The ultimate goal is to get us into college," Harris said. "When we become seniors, they give us scholarships."

Through the Southfield Kappa League, Harris has volunteered at the Detroit Soup Kitchen, helping those stopping in to get a hot meal or even just to talk to the individuals. Harris has been volunteering at the soup kitchen since he was in seventh grade. Also through the organization, he helps clean up parks, including Southfield Park. Other activities Harris has partaken in through the Southfield Kappa League include holding a pancake breakfast for senior citizens and walking annually in a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. peace walk.

Harris' favorite volunteer activity every year is a Thanksgiving food drive.

"Feeding people that can't feed themselves and just getting to see the smiles on their faces," Harris said.

Learn more about the MaxPreps US Marines program at www.maxpreps.com/marines

Harris also helps with the annual Think Pink Showcase, which is partly organized by his mom, Perrmella. It's a cheerleading showcase where Harris helps with everything from selling items to helping people get tickets. The annual event benefits cancer survivors. Perrmella was diagnosed with kidney cancer when Keion was in middle school, so it's a cause that's close to his heart.

"I didn't really understand it when it first happened, but now that I realize, I think, ‘Wow, my mom really could have been gone at one point,'" Harris said.

Harris doesn't ever talk about his volunteer work amongst his friends at school or on the football field, but it's important to him.

"He's a very modest young man," Snell said. "He's not the type of person that would do community service to tell people, ‘Hey, look what I do.' He just does it because he thinks it's the right thing to do, and he should feel good about himself for the things that he does."

Volunteering makes Harris feel good. He also gets to meet some pretty good people.

"You meet people who are less fortunate and you can reflect on how fortunate you are and be grateful for everything you have," Harris said. "Last Christmas, we met a lady who had like two or three kids and she was struggling to get her kids some presents. It just felt real good to help her out."

In the classroom, Harris is a 3.4 GPA student who takes Advanced Placement honors courses along with being a member of the National Honor Society since he was a sophomore. Harris takes part in the school's Link Club, which helps incoming freshmen at the beginning of the year with such things as finding their classrooms and getting acclimated to high school life.

Since Harris is a great student-athlete as both a student and an athlete, he's been receiving a lot of college interest. Harris would like to play football at the next level, and he has a shot at Division I.

"That's always the hope, but if it doesn't come I'll still have opportunities in Division II and NAIA," said Harris, who also plays on the school's basketball team.

Snell has another season-plus with Harris before he heads off to college. The coach is going to savor every shot he gets to be around one of his favorite athletes.

"I tell you, if I had 40 kids like that to coach every year, man, I'd be the happiest coach in the world – whether we won or not," Snell said. "I'd be happy just because of the type of person he is."