Photo courtesy Winnipeg Blue Bombers Football Club\nRunning back Andrew Harris, who played high school football at Grant Park and Oak Park, is now the premier back for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nAndrew Harris is an all-star running back who was signed with a bit of hoopla by the Bombers a couple of months ago.<\/p>\n
In a league often dominated by American players, Harris is not just a Canadian, he’s a Winnipeg boy.<\/p>\n
He started playing football in Steinbach when he was nine years old and shortly afterwards moved with his mother, social worker Carlene Boivin, back to Winnipeg and took up residence in South River Heights.<\/p>\n
His father spent little time in Winnipeg but was quite an athlete himself. A fast bowler from Barbados, he went on to play league cricket in England.<\/p>\n
Although he was a keen and talented hockey player, the cost of playing at a higher level eventually led Andrew into dropping the sport for football.<\/p>\n
Hockey’s loss was football’s gain.<\/p>\n
He went on to play with the Grant Park Pirates, the school at the end of his street. He then transferred to Oak Park in Charleswood to play for the Raiders, who have consistently fielded one of the city’s top high school football squads.<\/p>\n
And it was at Oak Park that Harris began to excel at running back.<\/p>\n
After high school, Harris moved west to play for the Vancouver Island Raiders of the Canadian Junior Football League, based in Nanaimo.<\/p>\n
While playing there, he was scouted and had his rights acquired by the B.C. Lions, where he played for the past six years.<\/p>\n
Growing up in Winnipeg, Harris always dreamed of playing for the Bombers so it is perhaps a little ironic that he was instrumental in helping the Lions defeat the Bombers in their last Grey Cup appearance, in 2011, when he was named the game’s most valuable Canadian player.<\/p>\n
He’s always remained connected to his hometown — his daughter and mother still live here — and he’s spent his off-seasons here for years.<\/p>\n
It’s good to know that a local boy with this city in his heart who’ll be leading the Bombers rush this season.<\/p>\n
Let’s go Blue. I’m already planning my Grey Cup party.<\/p>\n
Trevor Smith is a community correspondent for River Heights. You can contact him via email at smitht@mymts.net<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":237912591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21,13],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-383671921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-correspondents","category-news","category-souwester"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Trevor Smith - Community Correspondent","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/souwester\/2016\/06\/20\/andrew-harris-comes-home-to-help-lead-bombers","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Andrew Harris comes home to help lead Bombers","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/souwester\/2016\/06\/20\/andrew-harris-comes-home-to-help-lead-bombers","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/souwester\/2016\/06\/20\/andrew-harris-comes-home-to-help-lead-bombers"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-comm-riverheights-smith-supplied-june22.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-comm-riverheights-smith-supplied-june22.jpg"},"articleSection":"Community Correspondents","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"feedloaderapi"}],"creator":["feedloaderapi"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2016-06-20T18:59:00Z","datePublished":"2016-06-20T18:59:00Z","dateModified":"2016-06-20T19:03:45Z"},"rendered":"
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