Live from DC: Five-star Nyckoles Harbor announces college decision
The long wait will soon be over as priority South Carolina football target and five-star “athlete” Nyckoles Harbor is set to reveal on Wednesday the college he’ll attend.
The Washington (D.C.) Archbishop Carroll two-sport superstar is set to decide among assumed finalists South Carolina, Oregon, Maryland, Michigan, and Miami during a 1:00 p.m. ceremony at his high school.
Check out the video stream below…
• Subscribe to Gamecock Central until Aug. 31 for only $29.99
Live updates from Archbishop Carroll
Harbor took official visits to all of those schools except Miami with his most recent and final visit going to Oregon over this past weekend.
Harbor is the No. 21 overall prospect and No. 1 athlete in the 2023 cycle, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He is also the No. 1 player in Washington D.C.
The 6-foot-5, 225-pounder is also an elite sprinter with Olympic aspirations.
“Coach Beamer was one of the first few to ever look at me when I was a freshman,” Harbor told Gamecock Central in August of last year. “When he got the head coaching job at South Carolina (he) offered me to get me down to the school and just to show me great love when I was a three or four star. He’s still there, still showing the same recruitment, but just going even harder now since we’re getting closer to when I’m going to commit.”
Aside from Beamer’s long-standing relationship, South Carolina defensive ends/outside linebackers coach Sterling Lucas and tight ends coach Jody Wright have also been heavily involved.
“It’s definitely grown a lot, tremendously, over the last couple months,” Harbor said last August of his relationships with the Gamecock football staff. “I didn’t know Coach Wright until a couple months ago, but the relationship we’ve built over that time is getting stronger. Coach Lucas, that’s my guy. With him, the relationship’s always been strong and it’s just getting stronger from now on.”
Azuka Harbor, his father, tells On3’s Chad Simmons it has been a very difficult decision for his son. More than 70 schools offered him scholarships over the course of his recruitment, and he did immense research to get down to his final five, and ultimately the school he will commit to.
“That’s a very difficult thing to do, to tell these people no,” Azuka Harbor said Tuesday. “I think the honorable thing to do is to call the coach and let him know, ‘thank you for all of the things you have given to me, but at this time I want to go on this route.’”
Harbor doesn’t plan to do a hat ceremony or make a theatrical scene out of the event.
“We will be very respectful of all the schools that have recruited him,” Azuka said. “It’s not going to be, ‘I’m going to show this school’ because they all gave us a chance. They all treated us good.”
On3’s Chad Simmons contributed to this article.
