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Culture & Events

Seven seconds. When the three-pointer splashed down, one side of the gym erupted, the other side gasped. Seven seconds. That was all the time remaining on the clock when the other guys hit the clutch shot. And that’s how close the Mission Prep basketball team came to going to the state championship game. Despite the disappointment—or maybe because of it—head coach TERRANCE HARRIS knew that the magical season and improbable playoff run would never be forgotten. The lessons the San Luis Obispo native had hoped to impart to his players were now hard-wired. Here is his story . . .

Where are you from originally, Terrance?

About a mile down the road. Literally, I grew up off of South Higuera Street. My dad came from Fresno and my mom came from Los Angeles; two city kids that came here to go to school at Cal Poly, got a good education, and never left. I was born and raised here. Went to school all the way through at Mission, then off to Cal Poly. I spent a year in San Diego but came back at my first opportunity. I’m just a small-town kid. Life has pretty much revolved around sports, church, school, and family—that was, and still is, the routine. I played a lot of sports growing up; played basketball, football, and baseball. I was the youngest of three boys. My folks still live in the house that I spent the majority of my childhood in. We live about a quarter mile from my parents now, in the same neighborhood, and my two older brothers still live here with their families. This is home. The SLO Life is my life.

And, so, you followed in your parents’ footsteps to Cal Poly? Yes, I majored in psychology. I was one of our university ambassadors; started off as a student assistant in the admissions office. And then after I left for a year, I came back. I started working in admissions and recruitment and worked my way up through the ranks. I carried on the family tradition by going to Cal Poly, and that’s where I met my wife, LeBren. We didn’t actually date when we were in college. We knew someone in common who introduced us, but we were just friends. She was busy running track— and I was just running around. But we became friends. She got to know my family because she and a group of her friends would come over to my parents’ house occasionally on Sundays after church and have a homecooked meal since they didn’t get too many of those being away from home. We’d also bump into each other randomly when she was coming back from working out at the track. Then, we had a class together. We used to walk back and forth to that class together, but we were just friends for the longest time.

Okay, but somewhere along the line something happened. I needed some help. I was pretty clueless. Finally, one of her friends says to me—we were in the rec center just shooting around, playing basketball—she said, “Are you ever going to make a move on LeBren?” And I’m like, “Oh, uh . . . is that . . . okay.” I was a little slow and naive and needed some assistance from a friend. But that sort of planted the seed. Still, from there, it was some time before we moved in that direction. Like I said, “slow and naive.” By then, we had both graduated and I was coaching basketball. She had moved to Ohio to go to Cleveland State for her master’s program, and we were playing in a tournament out in Chicago. So, she came to visit me at the tournament, and we spent some time hanging out, and that was actually when we said, “All right, well, let’s see.” We waited until we lived a couple of thousand miles away from each other, but now we’re saying, “Let’s see if we can make this work.” So, here we are all these years later with our three little girls at Mission, twins who are now eleven and our youngest who is five.

And you’re pursuing a doctorate now, too, right? Yes, it’s in Educational Leadership, which is a focus on what’s transpiring in higher education from demographic shifts to policy that impacts funding and enrollments, those kinds of things. With the Ph.D., I’m trying to better myself and also eliminate ceilings and barriers. I’m at a point in my professional career where a lot of the folks in the cabinet-level positions have doctorates. And, so, for me personally, that was a part of the motivation, staying up to speed and on par, eliminating obstacles, and opening up opportunities. Also, to be a lifelong learner. And, quite honestly, a big part of that was, there was so much going on nationwide, civil unrest and a lot of dialogue around issues of diversity and culture and those types of things. I’m not an activist. I don’t think of myself as an activist, but I did think, “Well, how can I be engaged and involved and become a difference-maker?” So, I thought that through the research I’d be doing and gaining a doctorate might create some opportunities to impact public policy, to impact the root causes of injustices that occur. And so, that was a part of the catalyst as well, to position yourself to be able to have a seat at the table, to be involved in discussions when things come up, to have a good baseline of understanding and knowledge to help positively impact the world around you.

Have you ever experienced injustice yourself? Of course. I feel very blessed and very fortunate. I’ve lived a really good life. I truly have. But the world isn’t always warm and fuzzy. And there are times and spaces where, whether overtly or covertly, I experienced things that were uncomfortable, experienced things that were unjust, experienced things that didn’t speak to equity or being treated humanely, which is probably too strong of a word, but with the respect and dignity that >> humans should treat each other with. I’ve certainly had my share of tough experiences, like I said, some more overt than others. But for me, the emphasis was less about me and actually more about me knowing and understanding where I sit and the fortunes that I’ve been given; but, I know the world hasn’t been as kind to others as it has been to me. Given that, I’ve been asking myself: “How do I put myself in a position to help those around me that maybe aren’t as privileged as I am?”

Who gets the credit for the privilege you’re describing? My parents. I give them a lot of credit for the way that they raised us, the way they taught us, the way that they positioned us, and in some ways probably insulated us. And we were very fortunate growing up to be around a lot of good people, and have a lot of good relationships, a lot of good opportunities. Not everybody is as fortunate. And I’ve always believed in bringing others along. You know the saying, “When you find success, you build a bigger table, not a taller fence.” Because I’ve been the beneficiary,

I’ve had a lot of good people around me who have helped me to the point where I am at right now. So, now, in this second half of my career, the second half of my working experience, where I’m benefitting from leaders who’ve been in front paving the way for me; well, now it’s my turn to do that for others. And so that’s a focus of where I am. I’m spending a lot of my time now asking the question: “How can I help the next generation?”

Which leads us to coaching. How did you get into it? So, when I graduated from Mission, I went to Cal Poly and tried out for basketball. I didn’t make the team, but I wanted to stay engaged in the sport, I wanted to stay involved. I thought that giving back to a place that gave me so much would be pretty cool. So, I reached out to the coach at Mission and said, “Hey, do you have a need for an assistant?” And he was like, “Absolutely!” We coached together for six or seven years. And then I ended up succeeding him as the head coach of the program when he left. I figured I’d be there in that role for maybe a year or two and then >>

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How so? I believe that basketball is a tool to help young men become men. There are a lot of parallels between what you experience being a part of a team and what you experience throughout life. There are upsand-downs, there are successes, there are failures, and how you respond to those failures is just as important as the successes that you find. I always talk to those young men about the fact that being part of a team is going to be with you for the rest of your life, whether it’s in business, whether it’s your family. You don’t get to exist in isolation. There’s give and take in everything you do. And so, being about something bigger than yourself is critically important, and in basketball, and all team sports for that matter, you get to learn how to do that in this safe space, safe environment.

How do you communicate this idea with your team? We have a little bit of a mantra, muditā, which is a Bhuddist concept that essentially means “to have joy in the success of others.” This is really, really challenging in today’s world. One of my coaches loves to say, “We’re trying to teach young men to be unselfish in a very selfish world.” Well, being a part of a team is about us. It’s not about any one individual. And so just trying to get young men to understand that, to buy into it and truly, truly root for one another and to embrace the idea that “your success is my success and vice versa.” That’s not easy. And it’s not like we achieve nirvana, but the closer you get to that place, the better the experience is going to be for everybody involved. >>

What else are you trying to impart? We also talk about being the best version of yourself. Every individual that shows up has a different skillset, has a different knowledge base, has something different to give. And I can’t ask you to give what someone else is capable of; I need you to be the best version of yourself that you can be. Whatever that means. Again, it’s a metaphor for life—just comparing myself to the man or woman next to me, that’s just going to rob me of my own opportunities. I need to be the best version of me that I can be and do the work to find out where I can support the people around me and help them become the best version of themselves. And don’t be somebody that you’re not. Don’t compare yourself to somebody else. Instead, give me your best effort. Be the best version of you that you can be. And we’re going to be successful if everybody on the team is doing that.

What do you do when you’ve got a little downtime? Downtime usually means finding a chance to spend time with the family. Somebody will call and say, “Hey, what are you guys doing? Come on over.” Both of my brothers have kids, so our kids, the cousins, get together quite a bit. There’s always great food, and a lot of it. Usually, some sports are involved. Either the game will be on, or we’ll go watch the kids play somewhere. But whether it’s a family dinner, or a Sunday brunch, it’s usually the whole family. And when the kids are playing sports, we all show up, rolling deep to games. Afterwards, we’ll celebrate with a meal. My mom and dad and both my brothers are all really good cooks. I was the youngest of three, so with a mom that was a great cook, a dad that was a great cook, and two older brothers, I became really good at eating. And I left it at that. I enjoy the fruits of their labor. And so did my friends when we were growing up, they’d say, “Oh wait, let’s go to your house on Sunday.” Because they knew there was going to be some feasting going on over there. SLO LIFE

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