Today: North Stanly.

Or if he sometimes allows himself a grin as big as that of a 6-year-old kid holding a $5 bill in a candy store.

You see, Harris is all of 26 years old, and he is already a high school football head coach.

And Harris is not just the coach at any old high school. He is the coach of the North Stanly High Comets — a team that is not just some rag-tag outfit struggling through a rebuilding process.

Harris is the coach of a squad that has a legit chance to reach the state 2A playoffs and to leave some scorched earth once it arrives.

Harris doesn’t have an abundance of bodies, but he has ungodly speed and potential. He has inherited most of last year’s burn unit that hung a mind-numbing 50 points on North Rowan.

Harris has a quarterback, Wes Herlocker, who can turn a 4.3 40 and can turn the simplest sprint-out into a 90-yard touchdown gallop. When the East Carolina-bound blonde finds open field; you may visit the concession stand. It’s over.

And when Herlocker doesn’t feel like running, he can effortlessly punt the ball 60 yards or so with one of the strongest legs in the state.

Harris has a back named O.J. Owens who is a shade quicker than Herlocker, and is on the wish list of every recruiting coordinator in the country. O.J. runs 40s in the 4.2s.

And then Harris has a human jet of a scatback in Kamal (pronounced Ka-mail) Watkins, who does a pretty fair impression of a teenage Barry Sanders or a sawed-off Nick Maddox, right down to his No. 20 jersey. He’s already enjoyed two 1,000-yard seasons.

Harris obviously has more talent in his small-school backfield than Ed McMahon uncovered in a thousand episodes of Star Search. The youthful coach has the opportunity to make an immediate splash in prep football.

And he knows it.

He also knows he hasn’t paid his dues — at least not as many as most head coaches are expected to pay. But Harris isn’t apologizing. He’s just thanking his lucky stars.

“I know most head coaches come through the assistant ranks, not directly from middle school,” said Harris. “But the position here was open. I threw my hat in the ring and it happened for me. Believe me, I realize how fortunate I am.’’

Harris’ odyssey to get to North Stanly was like the song says, one long, strange trip.

He lived in Washington, D.C., until the fifth grade. That’s when his mom moved to Charlotte.

He went to middle school in the Queen City, then for a semester at East Mecklenburg High, before moving back to D.C. to finish high school.

He played football at Archbishop Carroll High with future Syracuse hoops star Lawrence Moten and with future Orangemen quarterback Marvin Graves.

Harris earned a football ride as a fullback to small-college power Central State (Ohio).

By his senior year in Ohio, Harris had found his life’s calling. He wanted to coach.

“I started as a volunteer,” said Harris. “But it didn’t take long for me to know that coaching football was what I wanted to do.”

After graduation, Harris’ life took a turn back toward North Carolina. He had two younger brothers — Jacques and Jhuan Taylor — living in Rowan County, and his mom wanted him nearby to help give them some direction.

Harris said yes, and returned to North Carolina in 1996. He coached at Salisbury’s Knox Middle for a year, then went to Charlotte, where he wed an old sweetheart and coached teams at Northeast Middle for two seasons.

Then — right out of the blue this summer— came the opportunity of a lifetime at North Stanly.

Now, Harris is teaching algebra to 9th- and 10th graders in Room 27 and pinching himself a couple of times a day to make sure this is not all just some crazy daydream.

D AS IN DISCIPLINE : When you ask Comet players about the difference between this year and last in North Stanly football, you hear one word over and over: discipline.

No one has anything at all bad to say about Harris’ predecessor Scott Smith, who’s now an assistant at Richmond County, as a coach or as a human being. But the consensus among players is that he wasn’t mean enough when kids messed up.

“Discipline is the thing I can add here,” Harris said.

He’s already shown that he can and will crack down on wayward souls.

“The difference this year is there’s no back-talk,” said Watkins. “Coach Harris is going to keep everyone straight. This team needed discipline, and it’s getting it.”

“Both my coaches (Smith and Harris) have been good coaches,” added Owens. “But I think more people are on the same page this year.”

NO NONSENSE : Harris doesn’t do much hollering himself. He’s more of a quiet leader.

But some of the new assistants he’s brought in don’t mind pumping up the volume one bit.

The loudest — and scariest — is Efriem Harrison.

Harrison runs a boot camp at his station.

Foul up and you’re immediately legging laps or performing pushups.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a varsity star or a scared freshman. When Watkins drops a long aerial from Herlocker, Harrison bellows at Watkins, “Drop and give me 10, Kamal.”

KING OF THE BOARD : One veteran assistant who is back with the Comets is offensive line coach Steve Jackson.

Jackson has his charges playing a modern version of king of the hill, called king of the board.

Two burly jayvee lineman stand on a plank and butt heads, shoulders and bellies, until only one is left standing on the wood.

The action here is animated. For sure, none of the Comet linemen are “kings of the bored.” Everyone stays on their toes under Jackson’s watchful eye.

WHEW! Another vet assistant is Steve Baucom, who talks about what a shock it was on the first day of practice when only 25 kids turned out. That’s 25 kids total — counting varsity and jayvee.

SMALL TALK : But only 22 of those kids figure to play varsity. That means double-duty for the team’s better athletes.

That will be nothing new for Owens, who always goes both ways, but it will be largely uncharted waters for Watkins and Herlocker, who figure to make their debuts in the defensive backfield.

“Our numbers are small, but our hearts are big,” offers the 5-8 Watkins.

THE RIVAL : The Comet coaches, old and new, have counseled the team that the conference games are the key to the season, because they lead to the state playoffs.

But there is still no doubt that the early non-conference games within Stanly County for the “Stanly Cup” remain huge games for the kids.

Particularly the one with Albemarle. That game is Concord-Kannapolis, Stanly-style.

“The problem is, too many seasons have ended here once the team lost to Albemarle,” said Harris. “Win or lose, it’s got to go on.”

“Albemarle’s big,” said Owens. “I’ve got cousins on that team. Heck, I’ve got best friends on that team.”

TOUGH BREAK : All-conference and all-county player Leon Barger will not be in action this season due to an extraordinary piece of bad luck.

Barger turns 19 on October 15, and is too old to compete. By one day.

He’s a good kid and an honor student and vows that the setback won’t keep him out of college.

Meanwhile, his little brother, John, will carry on the family name for the Comets.

“I’m going to help push him all I can,” says Leon.

KOOL KAMAL : Harris’ two little brothers are both players at North Rowan.

When he asked them for a preliminary scouting report on North Stanly, they remembered one name and one name only — Kamal Watkins.

“That tells you something about Kamal,” said Harris. “Even kids that just see him once a year, don’t forget him.”

Harris said that when North Stanly and North Rowan hook up this year — in what will be a literal family feud between him and his brothers — lots of family members from D.C. are going to make the road trip to Spencer.

SCRIMMAGE: North Stanly will take on Parkwood on Saturday night as part of a jamboree at Monroe.