Highland Springs girls basketball coach Franklin Harris knows it's time to step aside

Franklin Harris knew.

No one had to tell him.

He just knew that after 18 years overseeing the girls basketball program at Highland Springs High School, the time had come for him to retire.

Making the call wasn’t easy. 

He enjoyed his job, after all, and he’d performed it well. Actually, very well.

Since he became head coach before the 2007-2008 season, the Springers have become one of the most respected and consistent programs, not just in Central Virginia but in the state.

During his tenure, which includes a winter without interscholastic competition because of COVID, the Springers amassed a 410-63 record, won seven regional titles, and qualified 11 times for the VHSL playoffs.

Thrice they reached the state championship game but lost to Virginia Beach juggernaut Princess Anne (12 state titles in the past 13 years) each time. 

In 2020, the VHSL declared the Cavaliers and Springers co-champions when the pandemic brought the season to an abrupt and premature conclusion.

“Coach Harris’s impact goes far beyond the wins and championships,” said HSHS athletic director Harry Lee Daniel III in a recent social media post. “He has touched the lives of countless student-athletes, coaches, and members of our school community.

“Coach Harris, your legacy at The Springs will live on forever. Once a Springer, always a Springer.”

Harris began his tenure at Highland Springs almost by accident.

He’d coached AAU ball for several years, headed the basketball program at St. Gertrude from 1998-2002, and was coaching the Richmond Timberwolves travel team when he headed out to Airport Drive one evening to watch a couple of his players compete for the Springers.

It was there that he had a conversation with legendary Highland Springs boys basketball coach George Lancaster, whom he’d known for years, in a back room off the Grant Hudson Gym and learned that the girls basketball post was open.

The “closet interview,” as Harris calls it, piqued his interest, one thing led to another, and athletic director Rudy Ward offered him the job.

“That was the Good Lord’s doing,” Harris said. “There was something different about Highland Springs. There’s a true family atmosphere here. I knew I’d found a home.”

From the beginning, even when the girls game moved at a more temperate pace than it does now, Harris coached his athletes to play fast, intensely, and passionately.

“My saying back in the day was we play East Coast defense, which is hard man-to-man, hard zone, very aggressive, up tempo, force turnovers, make teams play faster than they want to play,” Harris said. “And we play a West Coast offense, which is a fast breaking style, free flowing, move the ball, everybody’s involved, use your guards, free style of play.

“I played that way when we were at St. Gertrude. People thought we were crazy. It worked then. That was my style, my mindset. That never changed.”

Harris had his stars at Highland Springs, for sure, but he was adept as well at developing role players who bought into the process, found joy in the grind, and enjoyed the camaraderie.

“I was very blessed at Highland Springs with the talent and commitment from the girls,” he said. “Everybody can say, ‘I have players that love playing,’ but you find that commitment when you hold a 6 a.m. practice and they’re waiting in the parking lot at 5:45 for you to open the door. They were always there.”

During Harris’s almost two-decade tenure, there’ve been many memorable moments. 

Among them was an experience in the spring of 2020 when the Springers played their state semifinal game at Patrick Henry of Roanoke.

“We came out for warmups, and I looked up in the stands and thought, Wow, look at all these people who drove here from Highland Springs,” he said. “They probably filled half the gym. They love their teams. They love their students. They love their athletes. They truly support the athletic program. They know the players. They know the coaches. They’re always asking, ‘What can I do to help you out?’ We’re truly a family.”

What stands out, also, is less specific and quantifiable.

“The state championship will always be there because that’s what you strive for every year,” he said, “but it was also (rewarding) to help your girls along the way and watch them become better players and better people. It was seeing seniors go to college to play ball or just to go to college and become better people.”

Harris has also retired from his day job as a sales rep for General Electric, but he’ll hardly be idle now that he doesn’t have the year-round responsibility that falls upon a head coach in a varsity sport.

He’ll still attend basketball games, he said, assist on football Friday nights, run the clock for soccer and lacrosse, and pitch in wherever he’s needed.

He and Denise, his wife of 41 years, will do some traveling, and, of course, he’ll continue to work on his golf game.

What will he miss?

“Being around the players,” he said. “Being in the gym. Getting ready for a game. The game itself. Mainly the players.

“But I’m 70. I’ve been coaching for a long time. I’ve loved every minute of it. I have no regrets.”