Sometimes, it is the unexpected journey that offers the most rewarding outcome. 

On Tuesday, that rang true for Berkshire School’s Jack Harrison. The talented midfielder from England was awarded the 2014-2015 Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year, a prestigious honor handed out to the best high school soccer player each season. 

How Harrison ended up receiving such an award is an equally epic tale. 

Harrison’s soccer odyssey begins with Manchester United, a destination that most players can only dream of ending their careers at. At six years old, he was identified and brought into the Red Devils youth setup with the goal of helping him develop. With the esteemed name, also came an unworldly amount of pressure on the young players there. Harrison did well on the field there, but it was not quite the perfect fit. 

“It was a rigorous schedule with the training and school and I was trying to balance that,” Harrison told TopDrawerSoccer during a phone interview on Tuesday. “When I was 11 or 12 years old, my mom started to look for other options. She found this scholarship program that helped kids from England get an education in the States.”

Harrison’s mom explored this path, but the program did not take children under the age of 14. He waited until his first year of high school before making the jump from the high-pressure fields of England to the nurturing environment of a boarding school. 

His destination was still to be determined though. 

“There was another school in Tennessee that was part of this scholarship program,” Harrison said about when the day came for him to explore his options in the States. “We both decided to visit just one school because it was so expensive.”

Harrison and his mother select Berkshire School, a boarding school in Sheffield, Massachusetts with enrollment of 392 students. It’s a small blip on the map, but it was a honing light for Harrison. 

“I fell in love with the campus immediately,” Harrison said. “It was very exciting to be out here.”

Harrison quickly emerged as a standout on the field and grew as a person in the classroom as well.

“During my research for this, I kept hearing the same things from opposing coaches. Jack [Harrison] is a pitbull on the field, but an absolute gentleman off of it,” Taylor Twellman, the presenter of the award on Tuesday, told TopDrawerSoccer. “He is someone who is really well liked and respected.”

Twellman lauded the humbleness of the young man, who he said was quick to give credit where it was due for this honor.

“That was one of the things that Jack spoke of very early on, the school,” Twellman said. “It was about the school.”

It was a school that welcomed him with open arms four years ago, and a place where he built relationships that will last a lifetime. 

“All of my success with my roommate [Justin Donawa],” Harrison said when asked about his favorite memory for his time in high school. “Being with my roommate and winning the [New England Class A] Championship for the past three seasons . . . it doesn’t happen very often.”

It’s easy to take that type of success for granted, but Harrison said that Donawa was there to keep pushing him. The friendship paid off for both as Donawa has already made his debut for the Bermuda Men’s National Team and will be heading to Dartmouth to play in the fall. 

The journey was not always easy though for Harrison. He left behind life in England to move to another country in his formidable teenage years. 

“It was definitely hard to leave my mom,” Harrison said. “It was hard for us both to make that transition.”

Harrison’s mom is a single-mother and Jack is her only child. “Without my mom, I wouldn’t have been able to do this,” Harrison said. 

“It’s hard for her to understand how big this is,” Harrison said when asked about telling his mom about the award. “I think she has some idea. I think she knows with all of this commotion.”

Outside of his comfort zone, Harrison grew into a player that stood out as the best in the country and is headed to Wake Forest in the fall as one of the key pieces of a standout recruiting class. 

His determination on the field made him a nationally recognized name. His humbleness in the hallways left his legacy with Berkshire.