John Harrison's Story

John Harrison, age 18, Flourtown, PA

This year, John became the second high school football quarterback in the history of his city to surge past 5,000 passing career yards. Last year, he set the city record for pass completions in a single season. As the starting quarterback for his La Salle Football team in Philadelphia for 3 years and a team captain for 2, John demonstrates his leadership skills every day in practice and in competition. In off-season, he dedicates himself to working out and improving his throwing skills as well as his speed and strength. John’s coach says, "Along with a positive attitude and a great maturity level, John has understood what it takes to be a winner and has implemented what he has learned on the football field in all aspects of his life. With all of his accomplishments both on and off the field, he has remained humble and has credited others with his success."

Intellect, talent, and hard work run in the Harrison family: in 2005, John’s big sister, Virginia, also won a Guthrie Scholarship. John says, "I look up to her for so many things and try to follow in her footsteps, attempting to be as great a person as she is."

With a grade point average of 3.88 in Honors and Advanced placement classes, John is academically as well as athletically gifted. Says one teacher, "John stood out in a class of incredibly bright students. He approached every difficult assignment as a puzzle. He possesses an underlying seriousness of purpose in the classroom, and yet he never takes himself too seriously. He is simply one of the finest and most dedicated students I have taught in my thirty-plus years of teaching."

He has received many awards too numerous to mention both for football and for his outstanding academic achievement.

John also finds time to be involved in community service. He has volunteered to tutor at-risk students at a local grade school through his membership in the National Honor Society, as well as preparing and serving meals for the homeless each month. In the summer, he is a camp counselor at a football camp.