Harper hoping to come back from mediocre season

by Tony Parker

After setting career highs in goals thrown and caught two years ago, and gracing the cover of Ultimate 2006, Harper suffered an ankle injury that kept him out of most of the 2006 season and greatly hampered his play on the field.


"You know, I didn't even believe in the curse," Harper said. "Even after Young, Fitzsimmons, and Conte all got hurt, it seemed like a bad string of luck rather than a full blown curse. After I got hurt, well, I don't want to say there's a curse but there's definitely something strange going on."

Harper became the fourth player in a row to get hurt after having his image placed on the cover of the Ultimate video game. Overall, seven cover athletes in the nine years that the series decided to place athletes on their cover have gotten injured over the course of the season.

After getting back from injured reserve, Harper had a difficult time relearning the offense and becoming the productive player he was only a year previous. He never seemed to find the timing with any of his receivers, and his throws lacked the power and accuracy he had a year ago. Even his defense, his one crutch throughout his career, seemed to be failing him.

"At my age, putting in as many years as I have, and the kind of injury I suffered, people begin to wonder if I'm done," says Harper. "But I never stopped believing, and neither has my team."

Harper was also unphased about talks of trading him to Birmingham.

"I'm sure those trade talks were just ugly rumors. I mean, I'm one of the owners of this team. How could I be traded?"

Harper's season began to turn around late at the game in Houston. Harper previously had a thirteen game scoreless streak when he scored against the Houston Gamblers in the closing moments of the game.

"A lot of people want to say that the score didn't mean much, we were down fourteen already, and that we were playing one of the worst teams in the league," Harper said, "But, I really think that the score really helped boost the team's confidence. It certainly did mine."

And it seemed to be the case. The Divots were able to use that momentum to defeat Mrs. Johnson's 15-7 in the season finale. Harper scored five goals that game.

"I hope I can build off of that win," Harper said. "And I hope to have the kind of season I had two years ago. More important the numbers, though, and how I do as an individual, is how the team does. And I hope our team builds from that win and we put together a season we can be proud of."