Washington, DC—Archbishop Carroll (DC) four-star athlete Nyckoles Harbor took in his second and final scrimmage on Saturday morning as McDonogh came to town, giving Harbor one final tune up before he kicks off his junior season. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound athlete displays his pure athleticism on seemingly every rep as his straight-line speed translates well as a wide receiver and outside linebacker. The track star ran a 10.38 100-meter as a sophomore and was entrenched in track this summer to build on his skillset. His combination of size and athleticism is exactly why he’s tabbed as a can’t miss prospect, but to Harbor, he still views himself as a pure 'athlete.'
It’s really that athlete, wherever I want to go,” Harbor told Inside the Black and Gold. “The ball is in my court now to pick which side I want to go on. Offense or defense, this season will really define which side I want to go on.” Harbor is prepared to lead his team and feels he’s in peak physical condition heading into the fall. “We got one more week till we play our first game so just grind through the whole summer, it felt good. My body feels good, just getting ready for it now.” While he remains unsure just where he wants to line up, his goal is to become the consensus number one recruit in his class.
“Just show I can dominate on all sides of the ball—offense, defense, special teams. Wherever you need me, I can play and I want to prove I’m the top player in the class of 2023.”
But Harbor is already a well-known commodity locally and sits inside the top-100 in the latest 2023 rankings on 247Sports and already holds a long list of offers with Oklahoma, Florida State, Florida, Texas, Notre Dame, and Oregon among the early contenders. But Harbor took visits to Maryland, Penn State, North Carolina, South Carolina, Clemson and NC State this summer and knows of a handful he wants to return to. First up this summer was the hometown Terrapins as the staff was first to offer Harbor back in November 2020. “The trip to Maryland was good. I saw the facilities the first day that college players saw it so I mean, it was really special for me to see it on that day with all the other recruits. It’s a nice facility, I like what Maryland is doing over there.” Head coach Mke Locksley is chiming in on the top 2023 target and early on, the Terps are in the thick of Harbor’s recruitment.
“I love the coaching staff from Maryland. Coach [Elijah] Brooks, coach [Mike] Locksley, I feel like they’re really in-tune with the season and prove to everybody the DMV isn’t anything to play with. That’s what they’re bringing up there so it’s caught my eye.”
Clemson has yet to offer but has shown consistent interest, but it was tough for Harbor to not be impressed with Death Valley. “Clemson is Clemson, everybody knows about that,” he added. They got the best facility, nicest players. If you commit there, you really got a dogfight every day and I feel like that’s what you really need, competition every day to really get better.” Harbor took the short trip to Columbia, South Carolina where he was able to meet the Gamecock staff for the first time. “The first thing I really saw was Shane Beamer, the head coach, was standing outside the whole facility by himself and greeted me, coach Rob [Harris] so that really impressed me a lot.”
While Harbor does not have any dates for game visits heading into September, the four-star prospect knows of four schools he wants to get to. “I’m at least going to go to a Penn State, Maryland, Michigan, South Carolina and then I got to talk to coach Rob and my mama about everything else, but definitely those four schools I’m going to go to.”
Harbor is rated a four-star prospect and a 92 overall by 247Sports, sitting as the 94th-best prospect nationally and the top prospect in D.C.