Manchester track siblings push each other to succeed

Siblings Chris Rogers and Morgan Harris are looking forward to a merry Christmas and a “hoppy” New Year.

The bouncy Manchester High juniors are the king and queen of spring in the Dominion District. Both wear the crowns of reigning District triple jump champs.

As step brother and sister, they take turns prodding each other to hop, skip and jump further into the sandy pits.

“I push Morgan; Morgan pushes me … we’re competitive in everything,” said Rogers.

“Even video games,” quipped Harris, completing her brother’s thought for him, as if on cue.

Veteran Manchester coach Gene Bowen, having groomed some of the area’s premier leapers, suggests Rogers, 17, and Harris, 16, are where natural ability and dedication come to meet.

“They’re great athletes,” says Bowen. “They’re also good listeners with positive attitudes – competitors who give you 100 percent.

“Put all that together, and you’ve got the chance to be very successful.”

Last spring, the sinewy, long-limbed, 6-foot-2 Rogers won the district (45-6) and region (46-9) triple jump and was eighth (45-8) at states.

The more compact Harris – calling herself “5-2 at most” - was first in both the District long (16-6) and triple jumps (35-11) and, like her brother, took eighth at States in the triple.

Even for the most gifted, there’s no short cut to the winner’s circle.

Along with doing indoor and outdoor track for MHS, Rogers and Harris compete for the Central Virginia Jaguars summer program, under Gene Scott, and do weight-agility training with fitness guru Bob Blanton.

It’s a year-round commitment as both gave up other sports – primarily basketball - to maximize track & field.

When others are resting, Rogers and Harris are likely fine-tuning their muscles on their own.

“The big thing with jumpers is the core,” said Rogers. To accentuate his abdomen and lower back, he relishes doing “300 crunches a night.”

And then there are the “six-inch” drills in which he lays on his back and holds his feet off the ground – sometimes “fluttering” – for 3-to-5 minutes at a time.

Sister Morgan, answering to “MoMo,” points to her “mirror drills” for sharpening her physical attributes.

In front of a mirror, assuring proper form, she stands on one foot with a knee raised to waist level.

Then she stretches that leg out while maintaining balance.

“I try and hold it five minutes,” she said.

Then she repeats the exercise with the other leg.

“You’ve got to have power to be a jumper … your body takes a lot of pounding,” she explained.

Rogers and Harris reside with parents Allyson Schaeffer and Craig Harris, and younger brother, Tre Harris, a Lancers’ freshman distance runner.

Manchester boasts a history of jumpers, with much of the credit going to Bowen and Bailey Bridge Middle School coach Dana Walker.

Ex-Lancer Antonio Miller was the state Group AAA, triple champion in 2006 and ’07, and Nikki Nunn – now on scholarship at Purdue – was the region long-jump champ in ’09.

It was following a middle-school clinic, orchestrated by Bowen and Walker, that Rogers and Harris began long and triple jumping.

Expectations are high.

Rogers says his goal is to “hit 50 feet this year, 52 feet by the time I graduate.” That would place him among the nation’s elite.

Harris says she’s gunning for all of Nunn’s impressive school records.

Based on prior achievement, you tend to take their predictions seriously. So for the next couple years, anyone taking on these siblings is in for trouble.
Triple trouble.