It has been hard to overlook anything about Devan Harris since he made his debut as a Danvers High basketball player back on December 20, 2013. Word had gotten around town that the transfer from Hingham High used nifty footwork at the offensive end of the floor and an uncanny nose for the ball at both ends to grab rebounds ad infinitum.
The 6-foot 3-inch Charles Barkley type, who tended to play the game with his mouth wide open, a most appealing aspect of his beguiling court personality, (remarkably, he never bit his tongue, I don’t think, in 50 games he played for the Falcons) became the second Falcon cager in three years to be selected a Boston Globe All-Scholastic.
Starting his junior year fully aware of the season-long absence of his friend Vinny Clifford, the lone returning starter from the Division 3 state champion team of the year previous, Harris led the overachieving Falcons to a surprising 20-3 record and a berth in the Division 2 North final, its first year as a Division 2 entry since moving down to Division 3 I don’t know how many years ago.. In the process Harris averaged 18.9 points and nine rebounds per game in the 17-2 regular season, then averaged 23.7 points and 14.5 rebounds in the 3-1 tournament run.
No wonder that he was named Northeastern Conference co-MVP after the Falcons won their third straight NEC Small and NEC overall titles and The Globe named him to their all-scholastic unit
Here’s where the oversight enters the picture.
Harris’s numbers were comparable this past season while pacing the Falcons to an unprecedented 27-0 record, more NEC titles and the Division 2 state championship. Among the highlights of his season were scoring 40 points on one occasion, sinking the clinching free throw with no time remaining in as exciting and tension-filled game of the 27-game season, a 79-78 victory at NEC Large champ Lynn English, and sinking the team’s final four points on 4-for-4 foul shooting at the state title-winning game (52-49) win over Marlborough at DCU Center.
For the second time The Globe named Harris’s coach, John Walsh, Division 2 coach of the year, and the publication once again named Harris to its all-scholastic team. That’s where we overlooked one of Harris’s greatest accomplishments.
This blogger’s apology and congratulations go out to the young man who sparkled at power forward at both ends of the floor for two unforgettable seasons. Thanks, Devan, for coming to Danvers. You gave we Falcon basketball fans a joy we surely would not have otherwise experienced.
We also thank his two star frontcourt teammates, Peter Merry and Vinny Clifford, for making quick friends with Devan while all three played on the same summer AAU team in 2013, which led to Harris’s move from Hingham, a hockey town, to Danvers, which he helped make into a powerhouse.
Harris finished with 936 points in his two seasons at DHS, finishing as the second-all-time scorer in program history, trailing only the late great Ed Gieras and his 1024 total.
Thus, Harris became the first back-to-back Globe all-scholastic in program history, when the only other DHS Globe hoop all-scholastics before him came in 1973 (Danvers Skinner) and George Merry (2012).