Recently retired Miami coaching legend changes course, takes job with private school program

Tim “Ice” Harris, one of the legends of Florida high school football coaching, was thought to be officially retiring. Reports surfaced last week that he had stepped down from his head coaching role at Miami’s Booker T. Washington, nearly 40 years after he started in the profession.

But according to a report from the Miami Herald, his retirement won’t last very long. Harris confirmed that he is set to take over at Miami’s Mater Academy, a private charter school in Hialeah Gardens. The Lions are coming off a 6-5 season in 2024 and compete at the 5A level. This season was their first winning campaign in over five years, but head coach Jase Stewart is moving into an assistant role on Harris’ staff.

“We’re just going to build on the foundation that Jase put down,” Harris told the Herald. “We’re going to put together a great coaching staff and make things better.”

The latter has been one of the most successful coaches in Miami — and Florida at-large — over the past two decades. Harris led Booker T. Washington to state titles in 2007, 2012 and 2013, as well as a mythical national championship during that 2012 campaign. He has made multiple stops as an assistant at the University of Miami, and coached NAIA Florida Memorial before his most recent run at Booker T. Washington started in 2022.

Last fall, the Tornadoes were a game away from the Class 2A state title game, but fell in a 47-27 blowout to Gadsden County.

Harris brings a wealth of experience to his new challenge

Few coaches have more cache around the city of Miami than Harris, who was an assistant at powerhouses like Miami Central and Miami Northwestern and has been coaching in the area since 1986.

Following his first title at Booker T. Washington in 2007, he left become the assistant to the head coach for Randy Shannon from 2008-2010 with the Hurricanes.

He returned to the high school ranks in 2011 and led the Tornadoes to the state title game, where they fell short against Jacksonville Bolles. The next year though, they were back in the title game and won — and followed up with a second straight title in 2013.

At that point, he left a second time to join the ‘Canes staff under new coach Al Golden. The program, led by his son, as well as longtime assistant Earl Tillman, won titles again in 2014 and 2015 to complete an historic four-peat. That tied the Florida High School Athletic Association record for consecutive titles, and his 2012 team was also named national champions.

Following Golden’s firing in 2015, Harris made another return to Washington’s sideline. He coached in Miami for three years — but couldn’t get over the hump to win another title — before being named the head coach NAIA Florida Memorial, where he restarted the football program from scratch. After leaving the college level a third time, he returned to Booker T. Washington from 2022-24 before planning to retire.

In addition to his coaching duties, he served Miami Dade County Public Schools for 35 years as an administrative assistant.