Harrison Beck continues to hone his skills while leading Countryside to the region semifinals.
By JOHN C. COTEY
Published November 21, 2003
Evelyn Bothwell remembers the day she found out her son, Harrison Beck, had exceptional football skills. Not the day, exactly. But she remembers she was cooking, and her oldest son Brent (home from Kentucky Wesleyan, where he played receiver) was telling her the kid had a rifle for an arm.
"I just said, "That's nice,"' Bothwell said.
But Brent was not to be denied. He told his mother he believed his brother had a stronger arm than the quarterback of his college team.
"Mom," he said, "I mean, Harrison can really really throw the ball."
Mom stopped cooking.
"That's when I started paying attention," she said.
Fans who follow football in the county might want to start right ... about ... now!
Though Dunedin's Theo Wilson and Largo's Fred Marshall have hogged the headlines, the Countryside junior is making a strong case for being the county's best ball slinger.
Tonight, the hottest player in the county leads the Cougars into Bradenton for a meeting against No. 4 Bayshore in a Class 4A region semifinal.
It's do-or-die for the Cougars, just the way they like it.
They had to beat Dunedin and did.
They had to beat Largo and did.
They had to beat Alonso last week and did.
Do or die? Ha!
"We don't want to go home," Beck said. "Since Tarpon Springs (in Week 7), every game has been like the playoffs for us. We've known for a long time that if we lose we're done, and that helps (for a game like tonight)."
Beck, who threw the winning touchdown to Jermaine Filer in the second overtime of the victory against the Spongers, is giving the opposition something to fret about.
He has 1,900 passing yards and 16 touchdown passes. At 6 feet 2, 190 pounds, he has the size to go along with his stats, potentially making him a hot Division I-A recruit next year.
The past two weeks, with defenses keying on 1,400-yard rusher Isaiah Gwyn, Beck has thrown for 545 yards and seven touchdowns, five to Filer.
Now that Gwyn is 100 percent healthy, Bayshore might double the efforts to shut down the run.
Or will they?
"The good thing about our offense is we can throw the ball," Countryside coach John Davis said. "We have a lot of confidence he can make the right decisions.
"You know, as good as Isaiah has been, I'm not sure where we would be without Harrison."
Beck played his freshman year at South Iredell High in North Carolina before moving back to Florida after a semester. His brother went to Seminole, so Beck did as well.
But his golden arm dripping with potential, he and his mother decided the Warhawks' Wing-T wasn't the best fit, especially with the pass-happy Cougars right up the road.
"I've lived in the Seminole area for 30 years," Bothwell said. "But Brent went there, and we knew they don't throw the ball. We were just trying to figure out a way to get him somewhere where he could get to throw the ball more."
In his first practice at Countryside, just minutes after finishing stretching drills, he broke his thumb holding for a kick. He returned to throw for 851 yards as a sophomore, showing glimpses of a promising future.
"Last year, I was still kind of young and still learning the offense," Beck said. "Now I have a better grasp, and I've learned a few things at camps. I feel a lot more confident."
* * *
Beck is so devoted to being the best quarterback around that one day last summer, he decided to spend a day at the Nike Quarterback Camp in Gainesville.
Not to compete; he wasn't invited.
But to watch.
Bothwell is so devoted to helping her son reach his goals, she drove him and agreed to sit there for four hours and watch with him.
But a funny thing happened on the way to a sleepy summer day sitting under a tree on a hill in the grass watching people they didn't know go through drills.
Fate intervened - okay, so it was Bothwell - and Beck took a big step onto the quarterback map.
While preparing to hunker down for an afternoon of football drills, Bothwell recognized one of the camp's organizers from a picture on a Web site. Grabbing her son's hand, she said, "Let's go."
"My mom, being the great mom she is, walks up to one of the guys and says, "Hey, you think my son can throw with you?"' Beck said. "So he let me throw."
His arm impressed so much, he was asked on the spot to take part in the invitation-only camp.
"Everyone had a white Nike camp T-shirt," Bothwell said. "He was out there in his maroon Cougar football shirt."
But that's not the only reason he stood out. The 6-foot-2, 180-pounder rifled passes across the field and showed off, arguably, the county's strongest arm.
He did so well there, he was mentioned on StudentSports.com as one of the top throwers there and received a personal invitation from quarterback guru Bob Johnson to another camp in California.
Beck hasn't stopped impressing since.
"When you stand there and watch him throw and see the zip that the young man has, this kid has got the potential to be something pretty special," Davis said.
"There's some things he's going to have to improve, but I think the kid has a huge upside. I was putting together his highlight film the other day, and I tell you what. It's pretty impressive."
