The Bears are in their 100th season yet this is Harper High School’s 108th season as a football program, and unfortunately this will be their last. Harper is being shut after this school year.
The football program headed by legendary coach Maris Carroll is playing with yet a handfull of players, yet they stay aggressive.
“They are reselient,” Carroll said. “They want to play. They understand the Cardinals. We don’t need many, we just need to come out and play. They just got it in their heart that they want to play.”
“My family has always been at Harper so I’m no quitter. I started something and I’m going to finish it,” said Traivon O’Neil, quarterback.
“I love this team, for my first year playing for them. Just love it. No one likes to see it end. It’s hard seeing it end this soon. Makes me feel like a legend. All of us. Legendary together,” said La’Vell Ingram, Harper Cardinals.
“It feels special because the coach is going to be in the Hall of Fame and my father went to this school too. Coach is like our father. When he’s on the bus he’s making sure we do our work and come to school on time. He checks up on us. He feeds us. He does everything we have to do. He does everything besides being a coach,” said Richard Shelby, OL/DL for Harper Cardinals.
“My son also played here. And he always said, “Dad, you’re going to be the one to turn off the lights on the program,'” Carooll said. “It’s a bittersweet thing y’know, that we are closing it down and they’re not going to have football next year, so it’s fitting and things like that.”
