Athlete of the week: Nayla Harris

Updated: 4:38 p.m. Jan. 27

Kinesiology freshman Nayla Harris is a runner for the UTRGV Women’s Track & Field Team. Harris graduated from Seguin High School in Seguin. She reached the Class 5A State Track & Field Meet every year it was held during her high school career.

Q: What movies or shows do you like?

A: “My favorite movie is ‘Step Brothers.’ I love the stupid, funny movies that make no sense and make you not want to laugh, but you’re going to laugh anyway. I’m watching [Netflix’s] ‘Ginny and Georgia’ right now. I think it came out with a new season, so I’m watching that. It’s pretty good, the second season. I don’t want to get through it too fast.”

Q: How did you get started in track?

A: “When I was in elementary school, and it was, like, recess and [I was] always playing games and running around chasing around the boys and stuff. They would be like, ‘You can’t catch me. You can’t catch me,’ and I would end up catching them. We would race and I realized I’m fast. I’m faster than these boys. I started track when I was like around 10. … I wasn’t as good as I thought I was, but when I got to middle school I started getting better and winning and stuff. So, I did track in middle school and in high school, too.”

Q: Who is one of your role models?

A: “[Jamaican sprinter] Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. I feel like she is so fast and she has a bunch of things she does. She had a baby, too, and she’s still running. She’s not getting older, but she’s still doing things that no one really would be doing after giving birth and having kids. She’s a positive role model. She’ll go out to poor neighborhoods and be there and talk to them. [Another person is] my mom. First, she was married then got divorced. And it was just me, my brother and her. She worked all the time. … She still did things for us. She made sure we still had fun and not knowing really what’s going on. She worked and got us to different places and did things for us. Then she married my stepdad and everything got better. I’m so grateful that we have a mom like her. I know there are some people that don’t really have moms that really care about them.”

–Compiled by Jose Medina