Photo by Ted Melton.
Harold Joiner’s size and strength make him a tough running back to tackle.
Strewn across Mountain Brook High School head football coach Chris Yeager’s office are pieces of mail from various institutions across the country, all wanting one thing: a look at his tall, gifted running back, Harold Joiner.
When Joiner walks into Yeager’s office, he is handed the stack of letters, which nearly clean off an entire portion of Yeager’s desk. Joiner sits and leafs through them: Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Auburn, Ole Miss, and on and on the story goes.
The 6-foot-2 junior running back has been a big reason for Mountain Brook’s turnaround in 2016, bouncing back from consecutive 3-7 seasons in 2014 and 2015 to a playoff berth this fall.
“As far as his personality and his character, he’s quiet, and he’s handled all the attention and has been very humble about it,” Yeager said. “There was a stretch where he had an injury, and now he’s on the good side of things.”
Joiner is one of those football players who, as football scouts would say, “looks good in a uniform.” Because of that, those letters from colleges have come in. He has now gotten offers from Auburn, Ole Miss and Jacksonville State.
He plays exclusively running back at Mountain Brook, but his size and stature give him the potential to play a number of positions at the college level.
“He’s got a very high ceiling,” Yeager said. “He’s got a lot of options; wide receiver, H-back. With his size and speed, there’s just not many players with that (combination).”
He’s got so many options in the future that Auburn extended a scholarship offer without a position in mind for Joiner.
“I was pretty excited,” Joiner said. “I didn’t see that coming.”
That offer is one of the reasons Joiner accelerated his timetable to decide his future. He once thought he would wait until his senior year to decide whether to pursue football or basketball for his future, but that decision has now been made pretty easy.
Yeager’s first impression of Joiner as an athlete actually came on the hardwood.
“It was the first time I ever saw him physically,” Yeager said. “I see him on the basketball court, and I see he’s got fine motor skills. It’s unbelievable as big as he is. I’m watching him handle the ball, and he’s going up and dunking it and all that. My eyes popped out of my head.”
Yeager recalled a summer practice last year.
“He comes with us in the summer, and we throw a pass to him on a seam route, and with one hand he just snatches the ball out of the air,” Yeager said.
Joiner won’t play basketball this year for the Spartans but instead will run track and specialize in the 100- and 200-meter dash, along with the 4x100 relay team. He ran track in middle school before beginning to play AAU basketball.
On the football field, Yeager described Joiner as having “skill-player speed but linebacker size,” which makes him especially hard to bring down in the open field.
“Usually, (defenders) get lower than me, but they’re not stronger than me, so it’s very hard for them to get me down,” Joiner said.
Yeager has noticed that Joiner actually prefers that type of contact now, as well.
“This year, one thing he loves to do is when he’s in the open, he loves to lower that shoulder,” he said. “He’s really turned into a very physical back. The tough thing about that in this region is that it’s such a physical region.”
With the physicality of Mountain Brook’s region, bumps and bruises for every player are expected. Joiner has battled a pair of nagging injuries that have probably limited his numbers somewhat.
“This region can beat you down,” Yeager said. “It’s such a grind.”
Through eight games, Joiner was averaging 4.7 yards per carry, which is not an eye-popping number in today’s football landscape, where offenses reign supreme and put up video-game-like numbers on a regular basis.
But the Mountain Brook offense does not need Joiner to average 10 yards per rush. The Spartan offense is built on fundamentals and exploiting matchups to be successful. When they execute, they matriculate the football down the field in a successful manner, and Joiner mentioned that he thinks Mountain Brook’s offensive style is unique to all other teams in the area.
Joiner carried the ball just 97 times through those first eight games, but his carries have not been limited solely by injury. The Spartans consistently give three running backs carries throughout each game, but Joiner has bought in to that role, especially as the season has progressed.
“A lot of times you can have an issue with a person not wanting to share, but we are trying to keep a fresh running back, and he’s had a great attitude about that, as far as seeing the big picture. He’s been a great teammate,” Yeager said.
“It keeps me fresh,” Joiner said, who has benefited and been able to return to full health as the Spartans prepare for playoff action.
The postseason begins Nov. 4, and Joiner will be experiencing the first state playoff action of his career, like many of his teammates. He believes the Spartans have every chance of making a run if the team simply continues “working on its craft.”
Yeager also sees the chemistry within the team and the players’ willingness to “sacrifice for one another.”
“Sometimes the best athletes don’t win, but I think always the best team is successful,” Yeager said.
