Melvin Harris

Sports shape Harris’ success

By Dair McNinch

Charlotte Native Melvin Harris sees the need in his city as he passes the same groups of homeless people during his daily routine.

Unlike most people, however, he chooses not to just walk on by.

The same drive and compassion that motivated him to spearhead the movement for his Church Youth Council to volunteer in homeless shelters across the city exists in every other aspect of his life as well.

Giving back to his community doesn’t just stop with what he’s done as president of his youth council, he’s been consistently spending time since sixth grade helping with Crisis Assistance Ministry: a local homeless shelter. Still, Melvin wishes he could do more.

“Every time I drive to church I always pass this homeless shelter, and they can’t always fit everybody,” Melvin said. “I’d like to create more shelters and a program that helps them get on their feet, get educated and try to do something with their lives.”

Melvin attends Lake Norman Charter High School, where he’s played soccer since seventh grade. He picked up running track since his sophomore year and ran the 4×2 in the state championship his junior year to help his team win the 2A state title.

Melvin’s lifelong love and connection with sports has made what he wants to do with his life clear from the start.

“I want to become a sports journalist, preferably for ESPN, Fox Sports, or CBS just because I love sports, and being able to talk to people through radio or my articles would be my dream job: talking sports,” Melvin said.

Melvin has gone to great lengths to get his foot in the door of the career he covets early on. Not only has he worked for his school paper for years, he’s already interviewed professional athletes as well.

“Stephanie Kornegay (retired LPGA golfer) was my first time interviewing a professional athlete,” Melvin said. “I was so nervous but it was so cool and surreal. She was very cool with it, gave me great answers, and I got to do it where she works now, in her niche.”

Just as his aspirations encompass both writing articles and doing work on the radio, so have his efforts early on in life. Since 2018, he’s kept up with his own sports talk podcast on iTunes: The Drop Spot.

“I really wanted to have experience with my own production, because I either want to write in the journalism field or do radio broadcasting,” Melvin said. “I listen to a lot of podcasts and I thought it’d be cool to do my own because I already like talking sports with my friends, and this would just be recording it.”     

Melvin plans to continue his show through college, picking up more listeners along the way and eventually earning sponsorships and professional representation.