Today’s interviewee is Marist senior defensive end/wide receiver Luke Harpring, whose team opens the season today at Gainesville in a game between top-10 Class 6A teams. Harpring made GHSF Daily’s preseason 6A all-state team and Georgia Power 100. He committed to Georgia Tech in June. Harpring’s father, Matt, is a former Georgia Tech and NBA basketball player.
1. Could you tell us a little about the team this year and what your role is in the mix? “I’m looking forward to the year. It’s going to be a fun year. We’ve got a lot of our returning skill players and offense coming back. Our whole backfield is returning from last year. We have our junior quarterback now [Jack Euart]. He’s returning. We lost all of our seniors in our line, and now we have to rebuild. But I think we’ve been doing pretty well over the summer. We’ve been stepping it up over the past couple of weeks, and we’re making some progress. Our defense has been pretty good over the past couple of years. This year it’s going to be good again. I feel like we have a lot of returning guys on the defense, so yeah, I’m looking forward to it. It should be fun.”
2. Your opening game is today. Last year Gainesville won. What was an important takeaway from that game? “I feel like a big fault of ours last year was that we didn’t come out ready to play. It was our first game. We didn’t really know too much about the Gainesville coaching staff. It was the first year for their coaching staff at the time. So we didn’t know as much about them as we would another team. I feel like we came out a little slow, and they were really able to capitalize. We were down 20 at halftime, and that set us back. So, hopefully, this year we come ready to play on Friday and ready for anything they send to us.”
3. This summer you announced your commitment to Georgia Tech. What was the process like for you during recruitment, and what advice do you have for any high school senior athlete going through the same thing? “Mine was a little different from some people’s. I would say I’m a late bloomer. I didn’t really start growing until the start of last year when I hit my major growth spurt, so it was kind of late for me. It was fine either way. When you think about it, it only takes that one good school that you want. And for me, it was Georgia Tech, and I knew when they offered me that it was a place I would belong. My advice to other people would just be to go with your gut when deciding on schools because you’ll know when you go visit when it’s the right place for you. So, just go with your gut.” [Harpring was 6-2, 185, at this time a year ago, according to coach Alan Chadwick. He’s now 6-3, 212. “He is stronger, more physical, more confident and harder to bring down as a ball carrier,’’ Chadwick said.]
4. Your father is a Marist and Georgia Tech alumnus. Was it the plan to follow in your father’s footsteps? And in an earlier interview you mentioned how basketball was your first love and is in your blood. What was it about football that drew you to enjoy it more? “I wouldn’t say it was always the plan, but it was definitely always an option. When I went on my visit it kind of sealed the deal after experiencing everything, meeting the coaches and players. I just felt like it would be the place for me. As for basketball, I feel like a lot of basketball skills flow into football skills. Naturally just being a basketball player and a receiver, a lot of basketball moves and skills translate to the football field. I switched to receiver when I was a sophomore, and I never played receiver before, but it all came naturally to me and I was able to really transition well. And I just feel like that was the place for me all along, and I made the right decision switching.”
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