Muskogee 2024 OL Wesley Harvey follows the plan, transforms himself and becomes a force
MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA - Through junior high, Wesley Harvey towered over most with his 6-foot-4 frame, and he kind of had an idea where that would take him.
"I just figured I'd be playing basketball with my size," said Harvey, now a Muskogee High senior.
Roughers head football coach Travis Hill had other ideas. He knew of Harvey as a freshman while serving as a defensive coordinator on Rafe Watkins' staff.
Eventually, Summer Pride rolled around and Hill took over the football program in 2021.
He approached the then 6-6 Harvey, who was getting a sniff of returning to a sport he once played.
"I took him a little bit under my wing and said, ‘Are you going to let us push you and get after you in order to get to the level that you're capable of?,’” Hill said. “I'm not going to lie to a kid and say he will get a scholarship because high school coaches don't give those. But I did tell him that if he follows our plan, he'd see good things happen."
And he has.
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Harvey was a starter as a junior and then over the summer attended a camp at TCU. He ran the table in one-on-one drills, and Harvey noticed how A.J. Ricker, the TCU offensive line coach, took note.
"He kept giving me reps and I kept winning those, and at one point he was like, 'Good job, man.’” Harvey said. "I remember turning around and looking up at my mom (in the stands) and saying, 'I think we got this in the bag.'"
Now 6-foot-8 and 257 pounds, he's a senior offensive tackle with a commitment to join the program that, on a Cinderella, run reached the national title game last January. Houston and Memphis have also offered the consensus three-star standout.
"I liked Fort Worth and the school, I've made three trips there (the last being the Colorado game Labor Day weekend). I liked the campus and the team and just got a good vibe," he said.
He's come a long way from that challenge issued by Hill.
"When I think of him then, I think of the (cartoon dog character) Marmaduke," Hill said. "That big awkward dog that hasn't grown into his feet yet.
"Wes was 6-6 at the time and long and gangly. He got into the weight room and made major strides doing things that aren't easy for someone that long. The footwork issues came from a lack of strength and maturity. He got faster and stronger and that made him quicker on his feet."
There were also other things Hill noticed with Harvey was transforming his body.
“He's learned to squat properly, where it's about full body movement," Hill said. "It's flexibility in his ankles, flexibility in his knees and flexibility in his hips. Not only will he get bigger, but his flexibility will get better.
"TCU has had some kids like that they've developed, and Wes is one of those who is still a work in progress and they saw that."
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Harvey knew there were plenty of his type on the basketball court.
"But on the football field, my size and length is a rare find," he said. "It motivated me to make the change."
Hill even says now, he's not the best lineman on the field on a unit that as a first-team squad has scored on its last 20 possessions, dating back to Sept. 22 against Sand Springs. Muskogee, a Class 6AII semifinalist last year, is 5-1 with its only loss against 5A power Midwest City Carl Albert.
"But he's got more potential than the rest of them,” Hill said, “And it's going to be nicer for him at the next level when the guys you're blocking are 6-3 and above because right now, the low man wins his share of battles when that man is 5-10 and stronger than you based on how he's built.
“Wes has started to figure some of those things out and now he's making blocks that our other kids can't, like he'll reach a guy two gaps over to be able to make the play and successfully drive him up the field as pretty as you can draw it up."
There's another part of the challenge that had to emerge.
"Wes, for all his size, is not a bully. He's a great kid who had to learn how to be more aggressive," Hill said. "That's not something that comes natural to him, because it's not who he is if you see him in the hallways.
"He had to learn that when he gets on the field, there's a time and place to be the other way and he's starting to enjoy that."
Harvey agreed he had to evolve into that mindset.
"When I'm off the field, I just keep to myself, mostly. I have a small group of friends I hang around, and I go do what I need to do and go with the flow,” Harvey said. “Off the field, it took a minute to turn it on the first time, but it felt good to figure out what that felt like, to push someone down the field."
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Inside Harvey, there's another motivation.
He was estranged from his dad from just before becoming a teenager to meeting him again just prior to his death from heart-related issues in 2019. His dad was similar in size and played college ball at Bacone College in Muskogee.
"It was nice to rekindle things with my dad. He talked to me about football and applying things you learn from sports to life," the Rougher senior said. "If that didn't happen, I'm not sure I'd be having the success I'm having."
Indeed, Harvey has been up to Hill's challenge.
"A lot of kids won't let you do what we did with him," Hill said. "And credit to him, he allowed (our staff) to push him in the right direction."
Photo of Muskogee's Wesley Harvey by Muskogee Public Schools
-- Mike Kays | @SBLiveOK
