Legendary Florida high school football coach retiring after 40-year career

One of Florida’s most successful high school football coaches is calling it a career after nearly four decades on the sideline.

Tim ‘Ice’ Harris, the head man at Miami’s Booker T. Washington, has decided to retire, according to Florida-based publication 305Sports. He had four different stints as the program’s coach beginning in 2007 and has been coaching in the Miami area since 1986, including at powerhouses like Miami Central and Miami Northwestern, as well as two stretches at the University of Miami.

In his previous three stints, Harris helped lead the Tornadoes to their first three state championships in 2008, 2012 and 2013. He left the program after their first state title to 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 and 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 2013 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.

During his time away, the Tornadoes won a sixth state title in 2019 under interim coach Ben Hanks, a former All-SEC linebacker at Florida. After three season at the college level, Harris returned to the Tornadoes one more time in 2022. His final team, in 2024, reached the Class 2A semifinals.

The school has already placed a job listing for his replacement.