A special relationship: Sports bring fathers and sons together | Sports | Berkeley Independent

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A special relationship: Sports bring fathers and sons together

Published Tuesday, June 23, 2009 11:22 AM

By Dan Brown
Berkeley Independent

Dan Brown/Independent

Berkeley basketball coach Charlie Harrison flanked by his sons Bradley (left) and D.J.

Dan Brown/Independent

Timberland Wolves football coach and athletic director Art Craig and his son, Cody.

In sports, there exists a special relationship that exists between player and coach. Some would even go so far as to say the relationship is like a father to his son.

In a couple of cases locally, that relationship is literally father to son.

Berkeley High School basketball coach Charlie Harrison and Timberland High School football coach Art Craig are both in the unique situation coaching their own sons on their respective teams.

They will be the first to tell you: such a relationship is a double-edged sword, and the blade is razor sharp.

“I always wonder in the back of my mind if I’ve held Cody back at times because he is my son and I don’t want it to look like he’s getting playing time because he is the coach’s son,” said Craig, whose son Cody is his quarterback. “I’ve had other coaches come up to me in the past year or so and tell me, ‘You need to let your son throw the football.’

“I didn’t want anyone to think I was giving Cody preferential treatment over the other guys. He’s going to Coastal Carolina, (and) he basically got that scholarship on just 14 starts in his high school career. Who knows what opportunities he might have if I’d played him when he was younger?”

The plus side to such a father/son and coach/player relationship is that Craig gets to see his son every day.

“There are many fathers out there who don’t get to see their sons on a daily basis,” he said. “I do.”

The same scenario is being played out on the Berkeley Stags’ basketball courts as coach Charlie Harrison has not just one son but two playing for him this year in D.J, a rising senior, and Bradley, a junior.

“As a father coaching his son you are aware that’s your son on the court,” Harrison said. “You are extra proud of him when things go right and you are just that much more anguished when things don’t go so well.”

Both coaches will tell you in a heartbeat they wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.

“I don’t know many fathers and sons that could be any closer than we are,” Harrison said. “Anything they do, I probably feel quadruple what they feel. It comes from being around them all the time.

“I wouldn’t trade what I have with my two sons for the world.”

For Craig, it was a chance to see his son grow up on that daily basis.

“I’ve seen Cody every day since he was in seventh grade, good or bad, every day,” the coach said. “Not every Dad can say that. That’s special to me. I know where my child is and if he needs five dollars he can come to me and get five dollars. He knows I’m here if he needs me.”

Drawing the line between dad and coach, though, often is difficult and both coaches are acutely aware when they cross that line.

“The toughest thing is that you hold your child to such high expectations,” Craig said. “A lot of times they make the same mistakes other kids make and you don’t understand how they can make them.”

“Pretty much when we walk out of the gym on the ride home we don’t talk,” Harrison said. “When we walk in that door when we get home, the game is over. At home we go back to being father and son.”

Both coaches experienced unique seasons with their sons in 2008.

Craig’s Timberland Wolves suffered a heartbreaking loss in the Lower State AA Finals against Dillon, a loss that cost the team a trip to the state finals. Harrison’s Berkeley Stags endured an excruciating 17-game losing streak in the midpoint of the 2008-2009 season.

Both coaches agreed leaving the game in the locker room under those circumstances was not easy.

“It’s not easy for me to do,” Harrison said. “There aren’t many coaches not worth their weight in salt that doesn’t take the game home with them. Basketball is my life. I love this game and often get caught up a little too much in it.

“My wife is the stabilizing factor at home. Whenever I go off on one or the other my wife Maria brings me back down to earth. The most important thing about my relationship with my boys and not necessarily in that order is sports, academics, religion and family.”

“When we are at school or on the field we are player and coach,” said Craig, who will have sons Dylan and Wyatt follow Cody through high school. “I treated him like a true football and not Art Craig’s son. When we go home it’s dad and son. We separate football time and family time.

“At first we couldn’t do that. We’ll sit down together and watch films of past games and those are really special times. You enjoy them because you know one day too soon it’ll be over.”

A son playing for his dad is often put in the precarious position of being in the spotlight whether they want it or not. You are the coach’s son.

For D.J. and Bradley Harrison, and Cody Craig, all accept the bad with the good, but to a man, none of them would trade this experience. They know they are getting to experience something special.

“I played for my dad ever since sixth grade,” said D.J. Harrison, a guard on his dad’s Stags basketball team. “I’ve played varsity ball with him ever since I was a freshman. The best part of playing for my dad is that there are so many kids in America who don’t get to be around their fathers and I get to see mine every day.”

Cody Craig orchestrated Timberland’s remarkable run to the Lower State finals last fall and he understands the extra pressure of a son playing for his dad, but said the positives far outweigh any negatives.

“(The) best part about playing for my dad is we get to spend a lot of time together. It’s coach/athlete on the field and father/son at home. We know where the line is between the two,” Cody said. “Plus I get to see my dad every day, all the time.”

For Bradley Harrison, a rising junior, his experience in playing for his dad begins in earnest come November, having split time between varsity and JV as a sophomore last year, but he’s been playing for his dad all his life.

“I had a basketball in my hands before I could walk probably,” he said. “The best part about it is that he’s there and it makes me work that much harder and I get so much more out of it. I respect him a lot more than most teenagers do. I see how hard he works at things and it makes me want to do the same.”

None of the three sons think that any aspect of playing for their dad is bad, difficult maybe, especially following a tough loss, but they wouldn’t trade these times for anything.

“If I mess up and do something I don’t want to look over there and see that I let him down,” Bradley said, “and it makes me work harder.”

D.J. agreed, adding, “The hardest part about playing for my dad, he’s going to get on you more than anyone. At the beginning of my high school career I put a lot of pressure on myself, but I’ve learned as my career’s gone along not to do that. It’s been a learning experience.”

For Cody Craig he is his father’s quarterback and the ball touches his hands at the start of every play. He knows there is extra pressure being both the quarterback and the coach’s son.

The hardest part is he’s always going to be harder on me out there. He expects more out of me than other players. During my first couple years I had a hard time dealing with it but I got used to it. I learned how to deal with it.”

All three joke that the ride home following a tough loss is never fun, but their dads do a good job of leaving the game in the locker room.

“The ride home after a bad loss is the worst the part,” D.J. said with a chuckle. “It usually takes about a day and a half to work its way out of his system, but we all separate the relationship of coach and dad.”

With both Craig and D.J. Harrison awaiting their senior seasons, they know this special time in their lives will soon be drawing to a close.

“It will be unusual having someone else out there telling what you to do,” Craig looking ahead to his dual collegiate career in football and baseball at Coastal Carolina. “It’s going to be different not seeing him every day. I’ve been playing for my Dad ever since seventh grade, and he’s been teaching me my whole life.”

“I see how proud my dad is when I do well,” Harrison said. “I can see it in his eyes and it makes me feel good inside.”

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