April 6, 2017, Center High School –
Center Head Basketball Coach Hiram Harrison has been a huge part of the Roughriders’ success for the past 11 seasons. This year Center went 33-5 and boasted a perfect 8-0 conference record in route to taking the District 16 4A Division II title. Center ended their season with a narrow 2-point loss to the Argyle Eagles (31-5) in the Regional Semifinals. The loss followed a 14-game Center winning streak. Center won three of four of their playoff games before being eliminated from playoff competition.
Harrison began coaching over 30 years ago, in 1986. He graduating from Smiley High School near Houston, and then attended Navarro and Stephen F. Austin University. He met his wife Retena, a former Center Schools employee, while attending SFA and they’ve been married since 1986. The couple has three grown children. One of their children has a career in teaching, one works locally at Port-a-Cool, and another is pursuing a certification at a barber school in Florida.
The couple started Harrison’s coaching career at El Paso where he began as a Junior Varsity coach. Almost immediately, he moved up to both Varsity and Junior Varsity coach due to an unexpected job vacancy. He taught and coached at El Paso for six years.
Harrison was recently recognized as the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) Class 4A Outstanding Coach of the Year for the 2016-17 season. Two of his players, Octaxius and Jaterious Evans, recently received TABC Boy’s All-Region Awards. Octaxius also landed a TABC All State 4A Recognition Award. Jaterious received the District 16 4A Most Valuable Player Award.
Harrison stated “Center is a great school and I like working with other quality coaches like coach Astin Greer, Alex Munoz, and Chris Randolph, who have coaching, as well as, head coaching experience themselves. I like Center’s Class 4A size because I know all the kids, and with a school this size, we can take pride and make time to help the kids when we need to.”
Harrison has six returning varsity players slated to come back for next season. Reggie Daniels, Caleb Parks, Jaterious Evans, Kameron Elmer, Jamarh Johnson, and Jadus Johnson, along with a handful of JV players, will be a good base for another quality varsity basketball roster for the 2017-18 season.
