Raymont Harris
Raymont Harris is a 1989 graduate of Admiral King High School, where he was active in National Honor Society, football, baseball, and track. He went on to earn a full athletic scholarship to The Ohio State University, graduating with a degree in Communications and a minor in Black Studies. While at Ohio State, he earned Academic All-Big Ten honors and began a journey that would take him from Lorain to the National Football League.
Following Ohio State, Harris spent six seasons in the NFL, earning recognition as both “The Quiet Storm” and “The Ultraback.” While football provided a platform, it became only one chapter in a career defined by leadership, service, and reinvention.
After his playing career, Harris worked in sportscasting and corporate banking before returning to The Ohio State University, where he spent fifteen years in athletic development and major gift fundraising. During his tenure, he helped secure support for scholarships, endowments, and facility enhancements while mentoring student-athletes as they prepared for life beyond sports.
One of his proudest accomplishments at Ohio State was creating The Complete Athlete program, an initiative designed to prepare student-athletes for the personal, professional, and leadership challenges that await after graduation. Long before athlete development became a national priority, the program focused on helping young people build identities and skills that extended far beyond the playing field.
In 2022, Harris founded Elite Mindset & Performance (EMP), a leadership and performance development company built around a philosophy he had spent decades refining through athletics, business, fundraising, and mentorship. Through keynote speaking, workshops, and consulting, he works with athletes, educators, executives, and organizations across the country on leadership, pressure, mindset, and performance. He is also the author of Control the Controllables: Mindset, Pressure, and the Power of Control, a book that shares the lessons and framework developed through a lifetime of navigating adversity, change, and high-performance environments. Beyond his professional work, Harris remains deeply committed to service.
He founded The Jean and Raymont Harris Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting families impacted by maternal health challenges. The foundation honors the memory of his mother, Jean Harris, who passed away while giv-ing birth to him.
Today, Harris continues to work with athletes, educators, executives, and organizations across the country. The philosophy at the center of his work is simple: pressure is constant, control is limited, and performance improves when people learn to focus on what is actually theirs to control.
The Lorain Schools Alumni Association proudly welcomes Raymont Harris into the Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame.
Jay and his wife Ellen have been married 50 years and are proud grandparents of Milo and Maeve. Though he no longer has family in Lorain, the city's classrooms, friendships, and operettas remain very much a part of who he became.