Making A Difference: Spartanburg’s Wynn, Harris treasure longtime relationship

Douglas Wynn is the coach of one of the strongest and most consistent position groups in South Carolina high school football.

The longtime Spartanburg assistant coaches kickers. He taught himself to do it, and he’s finely honed the talents of some Spartanburg players who have gone on to ply their trade at the highest level.

We’ll get to all of that in a few minutes, though. First, if you want to understand the care Wynn has for his players, his approach to the profession, the type of person he is beyond the football field, we’ll have to talk about a long-ago trip to Walmart.

It was a trip where Wynn left the store with something much greater than whatever it was he went for to begin with. He left having made sure a young man had a chance.

“There’s no telling where I’d be right now…”

Nate Harris was strolling through WalMart with a friend. Playing football at Spartanburg wasn’t something he had on his mind.

“I was the starting quarterback at Whitlock,” Haris said. “Football practice has already started. They went Thursday and Friday, but I didn’t want to cut my hair, and that was Coach (Doc) Davis’ rule. You had to cut your hair or you couldn’t play. So I didn’t come. That Saturday night, me and Michael Wannamaker, my best friend, were in WalMart. And I just saw an arm come out of nowhere and grab me.” 

The arm belonged to Wynn. The instructions that accompanied the grab are best left to your imagination. But Harris can give you the short version.

“Cut your hair and get your (tail) out for football, and I’ll see you at practice on Monday,” he said with a laugh.

Wynn, Spartanburg’s quarterbacks coach at the time, knew Harris was an athlete. But that’s not what he was focused on.

“Nate was a good athlete,” Wynn said. “But he just looked to me like he was going in the wrong direction. He needed somebody to pull him in. I just wanted to make sure he played football that year. If he didn’t make it past that, at least I couldn’t say that I didn’t do my best.”

Harris showed up at practice on Monday, with a fresh haircut. He went on to become an accomplished receiver for the Vikings. Today, he’s Spartanburg’s assistant head coach, serving as WR coach and recruiting coordinator. He said that’s due in large part to Wynn.

“If it wasn’t for that, there’s no telling where I’d be right now,” Harris said. “Since that day, he’s been my mentor, my best friend, my big brother.”

“We can change a lot of things in a kid’s life…”

On the field, Spartanburg’s kicking program has been impacted by Wynn’s desire to help.

“It happened one summer camp over at the old high school,” he said. “I was coaching OLBs, and three kickers were standing over on the sideline. They had no one to coach them. I just casually strolled over and talked to them, and said come on, let’s go do something. I was with them from their 8th-9th grade year until they finished.”

Those kickers were Will Joyce, now at South Carolina, Will Fowler, who kicked at South Florida, and Henry Bishop, who played collegiately at Samford. Add in guys like Landon Kunak and Blake Transiskus, and the Vikings’ special teams have been incredible. Not bad for a coach who learned through YouTube.

“I had to learn a lot,” Wynn said with a laugh. “I looked up a lot of different stuff from Ray Guy and tidbits from guys like him. I learned how to do the basics and get them through.”

Then there are the Love brothers. John was an outstanding kicker at Spartanburg and is now at Virginia Tech. Will, the Vikings’ current kicker, will join his brother with the Hokies after graduation.

“The Love family has been good to me,” Wynn said. 

John was a Shrine Bowl kicker and Will was selected for this year’s Sandlappers squad, bringing Spartanburg’s total to four of Wynn’s last seven kickers to earn the honor. 

“It never gets old,” Wynn said. “After John graduated, I knew the rest of the state had about three years. Because I knew Will was coming.”

Spartanburg kickers have earned their honors through their talent, yes, but also through Wynn’s guidance. Some of that success was earned at the old Spartanburg High school, where practice and games were completely different as the Vikings played their home game at Wofford College – and on narrower college standard goalposts.

“They were kicking on college goalposts, on different hashmarks, and they did a great job of adjusting to game days when we were playing at Wofford,” Wynn said.

The most important thing is that his kickers are comfortable and calm, Wynn said. That’s a far cry from coaching linebackers and other positions that demand immediate reaction.

“You don’t want them excited at all,” Wynn said. “You want them as relaxed as they can be. If they’re excited, they’re going to over-kick it and it’s not going to go where they want it to go.”

Going where they want to go can apply to players as well as their mechanics. Take Harris, for example. 

“If he didn’t grab me, I wouldn’t be where I am now,” Harris said.  “I make sure I return the favor. I try to pay it forward. Where I am 25 years later is because of him, and men like Manus Caldwell, a pastor from Georgia. Coach Harrison from Whitlock, Coach Davis, Coach Miller, guys like that. But it started out with him. I didn’t know those guys. But I knew him, and he knew of me. I don’t know what he was doing in WalMart that night. But he grabbed me out of there, and that changed my life.”

Wynn treasures the relationship as well.

“I’m glad he listened to me,” Wynn said. “He ended up being a great player for us that year, even though he changed positions on me. And he’s been a great, great young man, a great adult, father, football coach. We do almost everything together. We pressure wash together too, now.”

Both take their roles as leaders of young men seriously. Wynn sees what Harris is doing now as the result of something he did himself years ago, and considers the legacy behind it.

“It means a lot,” he said. “If I connect with just one, and he connects with somebody else, and the chain continues on, that’s what we’re here to do. We can’t save everybody. But if we can save a few, we can change a lot of things in a kid’s life.”