Columbus Valley - In The Game High School Sports Magazine

For a coach with the success that Grace Christian’s Joe Harmon has experienced, one would assume a certain amount of ego to become involved. Harmon has coached teams to 12 state championships, two national championships, and some 21 regional titles in his years as a head coach.

Numbers like that would cause a lot of men to think highly of themselves and cause them to try and advance through the coaching ranks and make a name for themselves.

Not Joe Harmon.

Harmon first got into coaching in 1984 when he was asked to start the athletic program at Christian Heritage Academy in Columbus. A minister at Edgewood Baptist, Dr. Ray Shawa, asked Harmon to take on the duty, and he did. That set in motion a remarkable journey that has led Harmon to coaching stops in Columbus and in Louisiana. Everywhere he has gone has benefited from the man who uses coaching as a ministry and a side job.

“I own a business, so coaching is not a full-time job for me. I use it as a ministry and a way to give back to the community and help the kids,” says Harmon, who owns Master Productions, Inc. His company does staging, seating, and setups for big events such as concerts, graduations, and special events. His company set up the bleacher seating for the 1996 Olympic Softball Competition at Golden Park.

Harmon got into coaching for the first time as a result of an injury.  While playing for RC Cola in the Columbus Industrial League, Harmon got hurt in a game and was unable to play. Then the team’s coach suffered a heart attack and Harmon took over. He then took on the Christian Heritage program when the school opened. He stayed at CHA until 1990 when he began his first stint at Grace Christian.

During this time he and then Columbus State athletic director and head men’s coach Herbert Greene made a deal. Harmon and his family would do concessions for all sports at CSU and Harmon’s Grace teams would have a place to play home games. They played virtually all of their home games in Woodruff Gym until Harmon left for his next coaching stop. During that time, CSU had what many consider the best concessions of any team in the conference – so good that many teams purchased their post-game meals from Harmon rather than ordering from restaurants.

In 2000, Shawa moved to Louisiana. He called Harmon and asked him to help get the athletic program on the right track at Hamilton Christian Academy in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Harmon accepted, and for three years he commuted to Louisiana and helped build a successful program. “It was 605 miles from my driveway to the gym down there,” says Harmon. “I went down every weekend and we got that going and had a good time there.”

Before his arrival in Lake Charles, HCA – who had to play in the regular Louisiana public school league because there were no other Christian schools nearby – had never won a region game. In just two short years, Harmon led them to their first region championship and garnered Louisiana Coach of the Year honors for his efforts in 2002.

That honor was just one of many Harmon has received over the years. He led teams to four state championships at Christian Heritage, and he has coached teams to eight more while at Grace. He also won two national championships (1993, 1994) at Grace and was named National Coach of the Year by the National Association of Christian Athletes in 1994.

Harmon came back to CHA in 2003 and remained there until the school closed in 2007. He then moved back to Grace and has since won state titles in 2009 and 2010 and had another Final Four appearance in 2011. For 10 years, Grace played in the Georgia Christian Athletic Association and now they play in the Independent Christian Schools of Georgia and Alabama (ICSGA).

Remarkably, Harmon and his Grace Christian teams have experienced all of this success without the benefit of one very important element to a basketball team – a gym.

“We do not have a gym at Grace, so we have had to practice and play all over the place,” he says. “We have even practiced outside before.”

Harmon gets on the phone on a daily basis and calls around to find an open gym floor to practice on, and he is able to play his home games at North Columbus Gym on 29th Street – a city-owned facility.  Despite their nomadic status, Grace has not lost a home game in four years.

Harmon feels athletics are vital to the overall academic success of students. “I feel like athletics is intertwined with academics for these kids. Everyone has to have outlets, and athletics gives them this. When they play sports, they become part of the school. Sometimes, in all schools, you get kids who are not strong in the classroom, but when they get involved in sports, this gives them more reason to pay attention to their academic work and they work harder,” he says.

“We try to get all of the kids involved in some way at Grace. We get kids to be managers, we get them to be bookkeepers and things like that. People say that sports builds character, but I think that is sort of backward. I think sports reveals character. Now we have an opportunity to help these kids grow not only in sports and academics, but also in developing their character. It is amazing what can happen with kids when they get involved in sports and become part of a family like that. Some come from broken homes and a team gives them an opportunity to be a part of something and grow,” he adds.

Grace does not recruit so Harmon plays each season with the hand he is dealt. This makes his level of success even more impressive.

How does he explain this success?  “I believe when you can take a group of kids and get them to work hard and play hard, you are going to have success. I used to talk to Coach Greene a lot about this and he always said that the hardest thing sometimes is getting kids to sell out and play hard all the time. If you can get kids to do this, then it seems like good things just automatically happen. That is what we try to do – work hard and play hard and play as a team,” he says.

Harmon lists Greene as one of his main mentors and guides in coaching. “I spent a lot of time with Coach Greene, but I also learned a lot from Jay Sparks. I always felt they ran their programs right and above board and I think if you do that, then good things happen,” Harmon says.

Harmon says that the greatest gift he gets from coaching is the involvement with the kids. “I love being involved in the lives of these kids and watch them grow and mature and succeed. We teach them that sports is temporary, but education goes on and on and it is fun to watch them go on and succeed in life.”

Harmon and his wife, Diane, have been married for 43 years and have two sons, Joey and Rusty. They have six grandchildren. He says that his greatest hope is that the players he has coached see the importance of doing the right thing and making the right decisions.

“I talk to kids all the time who have played for us who are grown up, away at college, and it is great to see them living their lives the right way. That is what this is all about – being able to help kids grow and become successful in life,” he says.