ANNAPOLIS - They call him "Boulder" because he looks like one, a compact ball of flesh and bone. The nickname fits Navy fullback Clarence Cee Harris - though anyone 5 feet 3 who'd play big-time college football must surely have rocks in his head.
Day after day, practice after practice, Harris chugs on, a dinghy amid the destroyers. At 63 inches, he's something of a national wonder, the shortest of all players in Division I-A.
Why risk getting squashed some more?
"We're all made differently; it's what you do with it that counts," said Harris, a sophomore from Chesapeake Beach, in Calvert County. "If you perform, it doesn't matter if you're 7-foot-11 or 4-foot-1."
To Navy, Harris stands 10 feet tall.
"Cee is small in stature but large in every other area - enthusiasm, effort, encouragement," said Charlie Weatherbie, Navy's head coach. "He's humble yet tough, the kind of young man you'd want for a son.
"He lives every day excited about life."
Good thing, given Navy's record. The Midshipmen (0-7) play host to Toledo at noon today at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.
Offensively, Harris has answered the call. He had eight carries for 25 yards and a touchdown against Air Force, a 5-yard score followed by triumphant head butts - though teammates had to stoop to reach Harris' helmet.
The Mids say his size is a plus. "Cee runs up between the tackles and gets lost," said Matt Wells, who coaches Navy's fullbacks. "Sometimes, I don't think linebackers can find him.
"He's a 205-pound bowling ball. His head just sort of sits on his shoulders; his traps [trapezoid muscles], which are on the back of most necks, are up by his ears. But he's confident in himself, and in whom God made him out to be.
"He'll make a great naval officer."
Harris' size nearly kept him out of the Academy, where the minimum height is 5-2 for men (5-0 for women).
His father, also named Clarence, is 5-9; his mother, Shiela, 5-1.
"I got off to a good start - 18 inches at birth," Harris said. "Look at my baby pictures. I was a round, stocky guy."
He never outgrew his genes.
"Cee always was short and muscular, chubby but solid," his mother said. "That hasn't changed."
At Plum Point United Methodist Church, where he sang in the choir, folks called Harris "Little Cee"; his dad, a construction worker, was "Big Cee."
By the time he entered Northern High, in Owings, "Little Cee" was darn near full-grown.
"I can still see him in his first basketball uniform - when he tucked his shirt in, it almost came out through the bottom of his shorts," said Rick Weber, Northern's assistant principal and basketball coach.
They compared him to Muggsy Bogues, the 5-3 point guard for the Toronto Raptors of the NBA, and a former star at Dunbar High.
"My sophomore year was my last go-round with height," Harris said. "I looked around at other guys and knew I had to be twice as good and work twice as hard."
At Northern, he captained three sports teams, made all-conference in football and was voted homecoming king. At the ceremony, "Little Cee" was crowned by "Big Cee," who'd been the school's first homecoming king 25 years earlier.
The son remains close to his parents. Even now, whenever he leaves the house, he gives his mother a peck on the cheek and an "I love you Momma."
"I was raised to be respectful," he said. "I've been blessed with so much in life. I wouldn't change anything, not even my height."
Still, he must wonder. His brother Taros, 14, is nearly half a foot his senior. Sister Rachel, 13, inched past him last year.
"The average man is, what, 5 feet 8?" Harris said. "It doesn't look like I'm going to make it. I'm still waiting for that five-inch spurt."
Could happen. After all, David Robinson, Navy's all-time basketball star, really shot up in college.
"Hopefully, the Navy will issue me a couple of inches," he said.
Harris keeps a bounce in his step, a Bible by his bed and this thought in his head: "When you lose your smile, it's time to get out."
"My first visit [to the Academy], I saw the brotherhood here, and what a great opportunity this is to serve your country," said Harris, 20. "I haven't stopped smiling yet."
That visit gave him incentive to keep applying to Navy, though he was rejected the first time - and the second - for scholastic reasons. Eventually, Harris was accepted to the Naval Academy Prep School (NAPS) in Rhode Island, a one-year segue for prospective midshipmen who need to polish their academics.
Armed with more knowledge, he plans to tackle a major in economics.
"Cee goes into everything with a great attitude," said Heath Sanders, a 6-3 center and his roommate at Navy. "There's a lot of stress here at school, and it's common to get down at times - but you rarely see Cee upset.
"It's like living with a cheerleader, only not as annoying."
