From Crocs To Starting Goalkeeper At Indiana, JT Harms Wants Titles

JT Harms dove into goalkeeping at 9 years old. He trained with far older players at academies, but his progress stalled at Duke. At Indiana, a position battle brought humility — and confidence.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – JT Harms moved from playing soccer on Xbox to goalie on the field when he was nine. 

A virtual FIFA game at a friend’s house was stopped for his friend’s one-on-one soccer training.

Invited to tag along, Harms wore his Crocs and watched his pal work on shot finishing with Andreas Davi, who played for the Bayer Leverkusen Academy in Germany’s top-tier league and now owns the FC Milwaukee Torrent.

When they needed a goalie, Harms jumped in after his friend volunteered he had played goalie in recess. He impressed Davi, who invited Harms to his weekly goalkeeper sessions with high-school athletes.

“It was awesome, those guys were like idols to me,” Harms, the 21-year-old keeper entering his senior season with Indiana, recalled in an interview with HoosiersNow. “I just got obsessed with it and stuck with it. And I got obsessed with goalkeeping and fell in love with the game.’’

He also kept charting his own course and playing with older players. At 14, Harms left his hometown of Whitefish Bay, Wis., to attend the Shattuck-St. Mary’s boarding school academy in Minnesota. He conditioned with the Under-19 team at Shattuck, which competed against fellow academies in the U.S. Development Academy circuit.

“That was my story growing up,” Harms said. “I was fortunate to be in environments where they made sure that I did struggle and when you struggle, you grow and you have to be ready for that. You have to be ready to deal with failure. But I was, and thankfully for that, I had coaches who were patient with my development and they could see the end product.”

Harms never truly competed in traditional high school soccer. He played in the United States Youth National Team system and joined Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew SC Academy. Again, Harms was invited to train with the First Team – surrounded by veterans – from roughly his junior year in high school.

“I remember being that age and being in first team environments when I was with the Columbus Crew,” Harms said. “Some of those guys who are veterans in the league in their 30s with children. The little insight they would give you, whether on the field or off, and the little bit of advice, you know, that means the world to you and you really hang on to that.”

Harms played with the Crew SC Academy for two seasons prior to college, racking up save percentages upwards of 85%. The shot-stopper was the No. 47 recruit in the 2020 Class, according to Top Drawer Soccer, and a member of Duke’s No. 3 Recruiting Class. That year, Indiana boasted the top-ranked class, which included current starting defender Joey Maher.

Harms expected to play regularly at Duke, but his play stalled. In the fall of 2020, he played half of the season opener, and that was it. In the spring of 2021, Harms injured his ankle in the first practice and eventually needed surgery. The then-freshman appeared in only one match, playing one half against No. 18 UNC Wilmington and combining for the shutout draw. Duke missed the NCAA Tournament, where Indiana was the runner-up.

In fall 2021, Harms was still nagged by injury as he entered his sophomore year at Duke. He was named team captain but played in just two matches against non-Power 5 opponents. He needed a fresh start and entered the transfer portal, landing at Indiana where it felt like he was reconnecting with an old friend(s).

"I fell in love right away and I knew that this is where I wanted to be," Harms said. "I had some friends who had been in the (Indiana) program already: Aidan Morris from Columbus Crew, Maouloune (Goumballe), who I played with at Columbus, and same with Sam Sarver. So, I was able to talk with all those guys and get their insights, what it's like as a player at IU, and there wasn't a single bad word. In fact, they all said it was the best time of their life.”

Morris was named an MLS All-Star this year. Goumballe and Sarver are still at Indiana.

Indiana head coach Todd Yeagley said he and the coaching staff knew of Harms prior to his time at Duke, but Indiana didn’t have any needs then at goalkeeper. Former Hoosier Roman Celentano started all of the matches in the 2020-21 and 2021 seasons. He was an All-American twice and the first-ever two-time Big Ten Goalkeeper of the Year.

But the position was up for grabs after Celentano was taken No. 2 in the 2022 MLS SuperDraft.

“(Harms) was the guy that we liked on the prep side,” Yeagley said. “Once he hit the portal, we knew we needed another competitive No. 1 that could be the one. He already had connections with some of our guys, that's an instant positive. And he was a [sic] freshman captain at Duke, which says a lot, and he wasn’t even a starter.”

Harms wasn't just handed the starting role by Yeagley in 2022, despite prior bonds with Columbus teammates and building rapport with the coaching staff. Harms made an error in the first preseason scrimmage. In the next, he made three saves in rapid succession. Teetering performances defined Harms early into his first season with the Hoosiers.

At top-ranked Clemson in the season-opener, he made six saves but allowed three goals. Harms was removed from the starting lineup in Indiana's following match and replaced by longtime Hoosier, then-redshirt senior Bryant Pratt. Portland scored three goals with Pratt in goal, who remained as the starter in the next match. After he suffered an injury 53 minutes in, Harms substituted in and secured the shutout.

With Pratt sidelined, Harms started the next match against No. 9 Akron, held the clean sheet, and only let one goal slip past in 19 shots faced at No. 20 Butler. But by October, the battle resumed, with Pratt starting five matches that month.

"My mom and dad, God bless them for putting up with me through that period," Harms said. "They're the first ones to tell me after a game that I played great and I know sometimes it's not true. But regardless, they'll tell me I played great and as long as I'm giving everything that there's nothing else I can do… They really gave me good perspective throughout that period."

Harms started Indiana’s last match of October. The Hoosiers needed to beat Maryland in the regular-season finale to win a share of the Big Ten title. Indiana led 1-0 returning from halftime, and Harms saved one point-blank shot. But the Terrapins headered the 87th-minute equalizer past the motionless keeper, drawing to win sole possession of the title. This, however, was the point where Harms said, “everything clicked.”

Ten days later, Harms and the Hoosiers avenged their loss by defeating the Terps in the Big Ten Tournament semifinal, 2-1. Despite the team’s 3-1 loss to Rutgers in the Big Ten Tournament Championship, Harms made impressive saves one after another to keep the score tight.

“I really grew into what coach asked for me and what the team needed for me,” Harms said. “It was just a run of performances where it just came naturally and it felt right. The relationship was smooth (with teammates), we didn't even need to speak to each other to know what we needed from each other on the field… The communication was strong and from there on out, I mean, Penn State, Maryland away, and then the tournament run, we just we started to gel.”

Indiana earned the No. 13 national-seed in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, marching straight to the national championship behind four consecutive shutouts. In the final against Syracuse, Harms compiled six saves – tying his season-high from Clemson — while facing 20 shots by an attack that featured two All-American forwards. Following two overtime periods, the match went to penalties and Indiana lost the shootout, 7-6.

Harms had guessed the right direction for Syracuse’s winning penalty, but it was unreachable given the height, passing above his oblique. In the press conference afterward, Harms was emotionally sapped, saying that if he were an Indiana fan he’d be eager for the team moving forward, but that it would take time for him and his teammates to regroup.

The string of shutouts, followed by the disheartening loss, was an opportunity to apply advice Davi gave Harms when the 15-year-old called him to report his first youth national team call-up: Don’t get caught up in the moment or become too high or too low.

"We laugh about it now and (Davi's) always messing with me" Harms said. "The first thing he's going to tell me is just keep working and keep grinding at it, never lose that confidence. Especially, coming from another program and having been through highs and lows, I knew last year going through that process is just trust your game. You've been through it, you've played a million games… I knew what I could do and if I just stayed calm and trusted the coaches and their path for me that, ultimately, I'd get my chance and I'd have to take it."

Prior to Indiana's preseason in the first few weeks of August, Harms returned to see his number change from No. 0 to No. 1 — Celentano’s and Pratt’s former number. The now-senior wants to honor the goalie number tradition. He holds an encyclopedia of Indiana’s past keepers, similar to his stack of journals containing goalkeeping notes back home.

“It's every goalkeeper's dream to wear the No. 1 for whatever club they're at,” Harms said. “It shows that you've earned the spot, you've earned the right to it. Coming in, I had to start from ground zero quite literally and work your way up and earn your keep… It was nice to see that the coaches rewarded that. I'm very proud, and there's a long tradition of great No. 1’s at IU.”

Harms conceded no goals in the team’s three preseason wins, splitting time in net. On Thursday, in the team’s season-opening 1-1 draw at Notre Dame, Harms was occasionally shaky, but didn't crumble. On one Notre Dame free kick, Harms abandoned his line and the goal was flicked over him. In the second half, however, Harms stood tall to make his only required save of the night. Though he muffed the draw-sealing catch in the muggy conditions with around 40 seconds left, the Hoosiers didn’t concede the go-ahead goal.

Harms, who was named a team captain before the season-opener, is self-confident, sounding perhaps cocky at times, but he’s humble, too. He spoke fondly of his backline, which includes veteran returners Joey Maher, Brett Bebej, Jansen Miller and 6-foot-4 transfer Hugo Bacharach – who the 6-foot-1 Harms won’t stand next to when lineups are announced. There’s also freshmen Alex Barger and Joel Demian. Harms said the team’s motto this year is to be ruthless, and not let teams stay in games – to not give them hope. 

When asked what he’s most eager about this year, Harms couldn’t wait to blurt out titles. It didn’t matter which, he wants all of the hardware. Harms said that goal is shared amongst the entire team in 2023. When transferring to Indiana in the spring of 2022, his new Hoosier teammates were already speaking about playing in their next national championship.

Harms admitted that culture surprised him, but after all, he and the rest of the team eventually made that year's College Cup. He now understands Indiana players don't hope to win; they expect to win. Harms thinks he's the best video game FIFA player on the whole team, though he's overheard there are skilled underclassmen. Sophomore Seth Stewart maybe once has been tough to beat, but Harms said he hasn’t lost in the team's locker room. He doesn't mind if that's controversial.

"Ability to relate to teammates high-end," Yeagley said. "Selfless, has a really big heart and he has great characteristics you want as one of your leaders… those things we all knew were there. Now, you're seeing a really confident kid who has earned it. Obviously, that run we had in pretty much the last third of the season, JT was a big part of our success; we wouldn't have made that run. I feel like he's just doubled down on that right now. And we need him to do it."

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