Jason Harris enters his third season as an assistant women’s basketball coach at North Carolina Central in 2020-21, having arrived in Durham following 17 seasons as a successful coach at the high school level in Virginia, Maryland and Florida.
Harris has been instrumental in aiding the NCCU women's basketball team to new program success in his first two seasons with the Eagles.
In 2019-20, NCCU set a new NCAA Division I program record with 13 wins and a program-best 9-7 league record since rejoining the MEAC in 2011-12. The Eagles advanced to the semifinals of the MEAC Tournament for the first time in program history after defeating N.C. A&T in the quarterfinals, but the Eagles were unable to play in their first ever MEAC semifinal because the season was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic.
NCCU picked up its first DI postseason win to cap Harris' first season with the maroon and gray. The ninth-seeded Eagles upset eighth-seeded Delaware State University, 80-64, in the first round of the 2019 MEAC Tournament a for the historic program victory.
Harris spent the prior four seasons as the head varsity girl’s basketball coach at Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria, Virginia. The all-time winningest coach in program history was also recognized as the Bishop Ireton Coach of the Year in 2015.
“Jason arrives with a wealth of basketball knowledge and structure,” said Stafford-Odom. “NC Central women’s basketball will hugely benefit from his close affiliations with quality players and programs in the northeast and throughout the globe. Jason’s choice to bring his passion, experience, and gifted skill development capabilities to us, will immediately elevate our level of play. His training craftiness is a commodity and he has proven to be successful with creating a winning culture.”
Harris started his coaching career at Falls Church High School in Virginia from 2001-02, before moving on to stints at Montrose Christian School in Maryland from 2002-03, Montverde Academy in Florida from 2003-05 and Westminster School in Virginia from 2005-14 before taking over the program at Bishop Ireton in 2014.
Founding Premier Sports Performance Academy in 2006, Harris served as the Chief Executive Officer and coach for its under-17 elite team for over a decade. During this time, Harris supported over 50 student-athletes who would go on to earn NCAA scholarships. Harris has also taught as a physical education instructor for 12 years and served as an Assistant Director of Athletics for two years at Montverde.
Harris graduated from Fordham University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology. He was a four-year letter winner and two-year captain for the Rams, where he was named one of Dick Vitale’s Top 5 Long Distance Shooters in the nation in 2000. In 2021, Harris was one of five Rams named to the Fordham men's basketball A-10 25th Anniversary Team.
