{"id":272456,"date":"2025-07-18T16:17:19","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T16:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/272456\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T16:17:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T16:17:19","slug":"second-chance-puts-former-athlete-back-on-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/272456\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Chance Puts Former Athlete Back On Track…."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Speaking of his life turnaround:\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m here.\u00a0 What I really want to do is buy, sell, and race horses.\u201d\u00a0 \u2013\u00a0 Cordon Harris (Photo Provided)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A former football standout is getting a second chance at life, thanks to his diligence to make the most of opportunity he now sees with fresh eyes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Bob Roberts for Press Pros<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"The size of a raceway horse stall is about 10 X 10.<\/strong> The size of a prison cell is approximately 6 X 8.<\/p>\n

Freedom, and the lack of it, is rarely measured in squares and rectangles or inches and feet. But there is quite a difference between 100 square feet of freedom and 48 square feet of incarceration.<\/p>\n

Cordon Harris knows all too well the math of both environments. Chiseled and heavily tattooed, Harris is a groom on Northfield Park\u2019s backstretch. He\u2019s been one since February of last year, working for TheStable.ca<\/a>, a fractional harness ownership stable co-founded by Anthony MacDonald.<\/p>\n

But 20 months ago, Harris was staring at the walls of an Ohio prison instead of knocking running backs off their feet on a college or professional football field.<\/p>\n

\"\"In 2019, Harris, a native of Green, an Ohio city in southern Summit County, crossed the line from being an everyday citizen to becoming a 54-month-serving convict when a simple deal to purchase a pair of shoes from an acquaintance evolved into criminal activity.<\/p>\n

He pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and felonious assault and was sentenced to a minimum of four years and a maximum of six years in state prison. He was just 19 and had to leave behind a football scholarship to the University of Toledo, which he earned after a standout high school career as a defensive end and a linebacker at first Green High School and then Akron Archbishop Hoban.<\/p>\n

Harris served his time at the Lebanon Correctional Institute, less than two miles from Miami Valley Gaming racetrack in Warren County.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was bad,\u201d said Harris. \u201cThose prison cells were tiny. If I extended my arms, I could touch the walls with my fingertips. There were roaches in the cells. They\u2019d crawl up next to your face while you\u2019re sleeping. I just tried to stay out of trouble. I saw some bad stuff there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris did 4\u00bd years, spending most of his time working out, getting introduced to the art of tattooing, playing chess, or taking a class in Culinary Arts.<\/p>\n

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

Wilson Health proudly sponsors your favorite area sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI had no interest in being a chef, but they feed you food in that class that you can\u2019t get in regular prison,\u201d he said. \u201cI got to eat ribs, and bacon, and a little steak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris was released in October of 2023, 18 months early. He carried with him the record of his misdeeds. All at the age of 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot too many people want to hire a guy with a record,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was very difficult finding a job. Honestly, I couldn\u2019t get a job anywhere else because of my record.\u201d<\/p>\n

A by-chance meeting with Caleigh Nichole Boyd in a club in Canton, Ohio not only led to a date, but to a companion and a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was grooming at Northfield Park, but I had two surgeries and I couldn\u2019t do stalls or any heavy lifting for a while, said Boyd. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to quit, so I said, \u2018Here you go. Come with me and do my stuff.\u2019 He learned fast, and now he loves it. He fits right in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a strange twist of fate, Boyd was close to Harris when he was in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I didn\u2019t know him then, but I was paddocking down at Miami Valley when he was in Lebanon,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Harris, according to MacDonald, is thriving as a groom of pacers and trotters.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a good guy, a really hard worker,\u201d he said. \u201cCordon has a good head on his shoulders and is really likeable. He and his girlfriend do about a dozen horses. Some days they work from dawn to midnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris\u2019 rehabilitation at the races has impressed MacDonald and bolstered his faith in the youth of America.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s reassuring and refreshing to see young people work that hard,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are nights I see them paddocking two or three horses until past midnight. Cordon always seems to have a rake in his hand. He\u2019s always doing something around the barn.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The Ohio Harness Horseman\u2019s Association is a sponsor of standardbred racing on Press Pros Magazine.com.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pulling hard for Harris to succeed is Amy Hollar, the Ohio Harness Horsemen\u2019s Association representative at Northfield Park.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s awesome. He\u2019s given me no reason to think otherwise\u201d she said. \u201cHis past is hopefully well behind him. He\u2019s impressed me in just the couple of years I\u2019ve known him.\u201d<\/p>\n

What impresses Harris most is his paycheck.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite day of the week is Saturday, because that\u2019s payday,\u201d he said. \u201dSome days, I can\u2019t believe I\u2019m here. I make about $1,000 a week. We work hard and get just one day off, but the money is good, really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris sees similarities between football and harness racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful sport, I like how the horses love going fast,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are athletes like I was. And the money that I\u2019m making has me planning on being a horse owner. What I really want to do is buy, sell, and race horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Harris hopes to follow in Boyd\u2019s footsteps. She recently purchased her first horse, a pacer named Captainess, who races out of the barn of trainer Terry Merriman at Northfield.<\/p>\n

Harris lost his place on the football field to a reckless act, but he might find a new way to compete \u2013 in the sulky of a standardbred.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been too busy grooming to get behind a horse, but he could become a driver,\u201d said MacDonald. \u201cHe\u2019s certainly athletic enough to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe,\u201d said Harris. \u201cIt\u2019s competitive and I sure like competition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris continues to adjust to his freedom. Upon his release from prison, he had trouble sleeping, but he says the nightmares and the restlessness are now history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try not to think about my past, but sometimes I do,\u201d he said. \u201cI did wrong and I paid for it. As for the tattoos, I got them all in prison. But I wish I didn\u2019t. I was young.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris is older now, calmer, and wiser. Harness racing is helping to keep him on track.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Speaking of his life turnaround:\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m here.\u00a0 What I really want to do is buy,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-272456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114875141250423464","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}