Jason Harper was larger than some other boys when he was 9, but he still was pushed around, so his father, Rod, suggested his son get into sports.
When no sport appealed to Jason, Rod decided to get his son started in football.
After three weeks, Jason told his father, “This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.” But his Panthers Pee Wee team kept winning, and Jason progressed in football playing against older, but not necessarily larger, competitors.
Early on, he was intimidated by those ahead of him by age and grade, his father said. “But he got accustomed to it, and the next thing you know, he liked the sport.”
By then, Rod said, “All he wanted to do is play football.”
That was four years ago, and Jason has gone from playing multiple positions to being one of two quarterbacks on his seventh-grade Panther Youth Football Midgets team.
Jason tried last year for the “Top Gun” football camp in Dublin Ohio, but missed the cut, his father said. “This year, he got it hands down,” Rod said.
The camp, organized by the same All-American Games that founded the U.S. Army All-American Bowl, is by invitation only, Rod said. To be eligible, Jason had to qualify last May at the Top Gun camp in Stockton.
When Rod learned the news, “I had on a poker face. But inside, I was doing cartwheels. I’m totally happy!”
His mother, Sheila, is happy, too.
A native of Scotland, she was reluctant at first to have her son play football. “I had to do the biggest, best sales pitch,” Rod said, explaining that he used all his sales management experience to earn his wife’s approval.
“After the third game, she said it wasn’t so bad. Now she’s his biggest supporter, always on the sidelines.”
Jason was born in San Francisco, but has lived in Benicia since he was a kindergartener. He went to Joe Henderson Elementary School before moving up to Benicia Middle School.
The three-day Football University all-star Top Gun camp begins Monday at Dublin Jerome High School in Dublin, Ohio, where 800 youths from throughout the country will undergo a concentrated training routine taught by current and former coaches and players from the National Football League.
Among them are quarterbacks coach Jeff Rutledge, former quarterbacks coach of the Arizona Cardinals; wide receivers coach Billy “White Shoes” Johnson; offensive line coach Jim McNally, who has been called the best offensive line coach in the sport; defensive backs coach Ray Buchanan; and wide receivers coach Charlie Collins, also considered a premier instructor.
Rod said his son is working “really hard” at his sport.
“Every dad wants his kid in the NFL,” he said. “I hope he gets a scholarship to college.”
And Jason has a good chance, if professionals’ opinions have any weight.
Among those coaching him is Matt Gutierrez, the Concord native who played on the undefeated De La Salle High School team before becoming a New England Patriots quarterback behind Tom Brady.
“He says Jason is as good a quarterback as any in the Bay Area,” Rod said.
Leave a Reply