{"id":840037,"date":"2026-08-01T08:46:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/840037\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T08:46:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:46:51","slug":"before-he-was-a-roughriders-star-trevor-harris-was-a-dancer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/840037\/","title":{"rendered":"Before he was a Roughriders star, Trevor Harris was a dancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, she carries on her mother\u2019s legacy, teaching dance classes while creating the kind of environment that leaves a lasting impression.<\/p>\n

Just ask her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom\u2019s probably the best leader I know,\u201d Harris said proudly.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s got five to six hundred kids that dance. She\u2019s the greatest leader I know, because she cares. She does a tremendous job of showing kids that she cares and loves them and pours into them. It\u2019s just been really a great example for me to see my whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a pretty glowing review from someone who\u2019s played for a long list of coaches over a professional football career.<\/p>\n

But before Trevor Harris ever had a quarterback coach, he had Suzanne Harris \u2014 a coach who carried a dance bag instead of a whistle.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout three, he started gymnastics,\u201d Suzanne recalled. \u201cProbably when he was five, we started a little bit of hip hop classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Harris began taking lessons in his mom\u2019s dance studio when he was three years old. (Suzanne Harris\/Submitted)<\/p>\n

There was one memorable class that required a little\u2026 parental ingenuity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put karate in with our gymnastics,\u201d she laughed. \u201cSo they would do like a forward roll and stand up and go \u2018Hiya!\u2019 and hit the wood and break it. My husband would saw part of it through, so all the kids could break it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whole time, team sports were also part of the equation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt our studio, we want the kids to be well rounded,\u201d Suzanne explained. \u201cWe don\u2019t want them to only just do dance. We want them to play volleyball, play football, play baseball, softball.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as it turns out, the dance floor had been preparing Harris for the pocket all along.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were going to different camps, all the coaches\u2026 would always go, \u2018Do you happen to take dance lessons?\u2019 He\u2019d say, \u2018Yes, my mom\u2019s a dance teacher,’\u201d Suzanne said. \u201cHe was always asked that, because his footwork was really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris remembers those conversations just as clearly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was getting recruited by some Division II schools, they told me that I had good footwork,\u201d he said. \u201cShe was the quickest one to tell them, \u2018Well, he does take dance, and so I\u2019d like to take credit for that.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Suzanne insists dance offers more than quick feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think dance does help all kids with their memories\u2026 memorizing different choreography. Hand and eye co-ordination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris also brought something else into the studio: Competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to be in the front row,\u201d Suzanne recalled. \u201cOur middle front-row person is the person that always memorizes stuff real well. The front row is always stronger. He was always competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Suzanne Harris says her son Trevor (left) has always had a competitive spark, even as a young dancer. (Suzanne Harris\/Submitted)<\/p>\n

Not just in dance, either. Suzanne still laughs remembering Harris and one of his best friends battling through school spelling competitions, determined to collect every sticker they could. The stakes were smaller back then, but the competitive fire was not.<\/p>\n

As Harris got older, football started winning the battle for his attention. The dance studio was still home, but more and more hours were spent chasing a different kind of rhythm on the football field.<\/p>\n

Suzanne was still involved \u2014 though her role as quarterback coach was a little unconventional.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs he got older, the football was a little hard for me to catch, because he would throw it so hard,\u201d she laughed. \u201cSo what I would do is take a plastic trash can and I\u2019d hold it above my head and run across the yard, and he would just throw it into the garbage can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Years into Harris\u2019 career as a CFL quarterback, dance unexpectedly made a comeback. The inspiration? Kobe Bryant.<\/p>\n

Harris had been reading The Mamba Mentality when he came across Bryant\u2019s offseason routine.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe talked about how he did tap dancing one offseason\u2026 for footwork and ankle mobility,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I was like, \u2018You know what? If Kobe\u2019s gonna do it, I might as well give it a whirl.’\u201d<\/p>\n

So he did.<\/p>\n

Watch Harris\u2019 fancy footwork:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, she carries on her mother\u2019s legacy, teaching dance classes while creating the kind of environment that leaves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":840038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-840037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}