“When one door closes, another one opens.”

For Coach Harris, the door that closed was basketball, when he was cut from the middle school team. “Height may have been an issue,” he says. He caught on instead with the wrestling team at his alma mater, Potomac High School, then coached by Hall-of-Famer Don Scarr. A two-time regional champion for the Panthers, he succeeded in love as well as war, meeting and eventually marrying his high school sweetheart, Corey.

After one year at Shippensburg (PA) and three at Virginia Tech, Travis returned to Potomac, coaching for five years there and later for six years at a youth club, the Stafford Highlanders.

The year 2013 marked a career change; he retired from teaching and now owns with his wife several Mosquito Authority pest control franchises.

He couldn’t stay away from wrestling, however, and gained glory with his next move. In 2016, he joined the wrestling staff of Brooke Point High School.

In the six seasons since (first two as assistant, the most recent four as head coach), his Black Hawks have put together a remarkable string of six consecutive Division 5 state championships, a feat that included 15 individual champs in that period.