At Center Court with Ivan Harris – Ohio State Buckeyes
12/29/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
If you need a good ear for your problems or a good scare to forget them, Ivan Harris is your man.
At 6-feet-8-inches tall and with long arms, the freshman forward can be helpful for teammates and scary for opponents on the basketball court. Off the court, he just wants to help, even if that help is in the form or a scare.
He learned in high school he is a good listener, and when friends and teammates are having tough times, Harris likes to be someone they feel comfortable going to for help. He enjoys talking to people about their problems, whether they are problems with relationships, school or something else.
He said he has his father to thank.
“He’s a very good example for me,” Harris said. “Usually if I have questions he tells me right on the dot.”
Harris knows, however, that talking is not always the best solution. When reality gets to be too tough, he turns to the fantasy world of the Sci-Fi Channel, where he can pretend he is an out of this world character, such as the Incredible Hulk.
Scary movies also give him an occasional release from reality that he welcomes. He has been a connoisseur of scary movies since around the age of 10, when he saw “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” the first in the line of movies featuring villain Freddy Krueger. Since then, Harris has enjoyed seeing all the movies in that series and also is a fan of the “Friday the 13th” movies.
“Since I was a little kid, I’ve liked to scare myself,” Harris said. “Then laugh about it because I know it’s not true.”
Harris’ enjoyment of scary movies is perhaps appropriate, since he shows no fear in his desire to help others. In fact, he is thinking about making counseling more than just a hobby. Though he is undecided on a major, he is considering sociology.
“I want to help people,” Harris said. “Maybe as a teacher or something like that.”
After spending his senior year of high school away from his hometown of Springfield, Ohio, at Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Va., Harris now finds himself at a third school in as many years. That can make it difficult to find people to confide in him, but he is quickly getting settled at Ohio State. He said he and his roommate, fellow freshman Nick Dials, are close.
Dials and Harris’ other friends should make the best of Harris’s advice now. If he ever decides to make counseling his profession, his suggestions about life might no longer be free, and those bills can be scarier than “Freddy vs. Jason.”
