[Professional Blog] Harris comes clean

As journalists, we like to believe we get 100 per cent honest answers from the people we interview. But the reality is, we only get what they give and what they give 90 per cent of the time is 90 per cent of the truth. While interviewing Memorial University soccer star turned volleyball rookie Malorie Harris earlier this week, I got an unabashedly honest answer. In the summer of 2005, Harris turned down a four-year full scholarship to play soccer for the University of Texas-El Paso. At the time she was quoted in the Telegram stating that a love of home coupled with taking SATs, improving her grades, and the encouragement of her would-be teammates on MUNs team to stay home and play with them, as the reasoning behind her decision. When broached with the subject again this week, Harris added a couple more items to the list of why she chose to stick it out at home. I had a boyfriend at the time who threatened to break up with me if I went, Harris explained. And I was at the point where it was my first love kind of bull. Another reason she chose to stay home? The climate. Id lose like 500 pounds from sweating it out. I find in soccer Im not that great of a player when theres heat involved; I let it get to me and my mentality. Looking back on it now, Harris says while she might have received more recognition and maybe could have gone semi-pro, she cant dwell on the past. I love my life now. I love MUN. A lot of people really dont, but Im in the library all the time and I love it! For the record, the boyfriend who threatened to break her heart has since been replaced.