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Juanita Harris, basketball

By Mike Ciarochi mciarochi@heraldstandard.Com 3 min read
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Juanita Harris is entering her fourth year as a starting guard in the Uniontown Lady Raiders basketball team and played soccer and runs track for Uniontown, as well.

Despite her athletic prowess, Harris will not play a sport in college. Not that she couldn’t, she just doesn’t want to mess with her priorities.

“I don’t want to play sports in college,” Harris said through her trademark smile. “Playing sports in high school, with all of the school work, is hard enough. In college, it’s a lot harder. I need to focus on school work and not worry about playing basketball.”

“I think she could play at the next level, but she doesn’t want to,” Uniontown girls basketball coach Jason Winfrey said. “She’s a smart kid and she has her goals set much higher than just playing sports.”

But she doesn’t want to drift too far away from sports, either. Harris hasn’t decided where she will study, but plans to pursue a degree in athletic training.

“It goes with sports, I love sports,” Harris said. “I’m around it all day.”

In fact, she hangs out with Uniontown’s athletic trainer and pays close attention to what the trainer does.

For all of these reasons, Harris was an easy choice as Uniontown’s winter sports female honoree in the Centennial Chevrolet Scholar/Athlete Spotlight program. She is a daughter of Mary Harris of Uniontown. She has one sister, Danasha Harris, who plays basketball at LaRoche College after also starring at Uniontown.

“Nita’s a very smart, intelligent girl and she brings a lot of knowledge to the game,” Winfrey said. “She’s gotten a lot better over the four years she’s been a starter.”

But more than individual glory, Harris’s wish is for team glory for the Lady Raiders.

“We want a 15 on the banner this year,” she said, referring to a banner in the Uniontown gym that lists section championships by year. “We missed out on the 14 last year.”

She does recall making a couple of technical free throws that helped the Lady Raiders beat Greensburg Salem last season. In fact, she lists that as her most memorable sports moment at Uniontown. So, what would top that?

“A half-court buzzer-beater, that would beat it,” Harris said. “But so would putting a 15 on that banner.”

Harris is a good student and a good athlete, but her most endearing quality is her bubbly personality and infectious ear-to-ear smile that she wears proudly from morning to night. She works as a hostess at Eat ‘N Park, a perfect job for her personality. What has she learned with such a people-person job?

“Patience,” she said. “Some people are just so rude to me and there’s nothing I can do for them. Gotta keep calm and let it go.”

But she does enjoy the work and the people at her job.

“It’s all right,” she said. “I see a lot of people I know all the time. I think my personality comes through because I like to talk.”

And smile.

“That, too. I do smile a lot. I’m just a happy person.”

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