SHERMAN OAKS — The collective claps sped up as Notre Dame senior Joshua Harel set his sights on the high bar during the CIF State Track and Field Championships in Clovis.
Harel, with a cadence behind him, ran using his walk-in 8-step approach, jumped and angled his back in midair. The perfect height, the perfect technique and a reason to finally smile in a season full of wrinkles and doubt for Harel.
He cleared 7 feet, 2 inches in the high jump on his 14th jump of the day and captured first place at the CIF State Championships for a second straight year. Harel was 1.25 inches from tying a record held by Lee Balkin of Glendale since 1979.
Harel’s dominance in the high jump on the CIF’s biggest stage has earned him selection as the Daily News’ boys track and field athlete of the year.
“It’s always me against myself,” Harel said. “The fact is that I want to do better and I’ve always known I can do better. The failure is what drives me to keep going. I finally got some momentum these last meets and I know during competition, I feel like I will I do something crazy. It’s not a matter of if it’s happening, it’s a matter of when.”
Triumph through injury
Three weeks prior to the state meet, Harel contemplated sitting out the CIF Southern Section Championships and ending his season.
His knee was injured and the pain increased after he received a platelet-rich plasma injection that was meant to reduce the inflammation caused by patellar tendonitis in January. Instead of helping, the injection had the opposite effect.
Harel had already secured a scholarship to USC. Why risk getting injured if he wasn’t fully healthy? He had jumped in nine meets during the spring but was far from being healthy.
“I couldn’t walk without pain for 10 weeks straight,” Harel recalled.
But then his father Oren chimed in and encouraged his son. Why not give it a chance? He competed in meets but was limited in what he could do in practice.
Still, jumping 6 feet, 10 inches in the Mt. Sac Relays on April 18 and the Mission League Finals on April 30 was hardly ordinary. He qualified for the CIF-SS Finals by clearing 6 feet at the CIF-SS Division 3 prelims on May 9.
Still, 6 feet, 10 inches? Harel won the state title with that height last year and called it a failure.
But then he practiced on the Tuesday before sectionals and Harel’s body began to feel better. Notre Dame trainers used pressure rollers to treat his leg. Harel started his ascent toward repeating at state.
Harel set a new personal best of 7-1 that Saturday at the CIF-SS Finals.
His momentum carried into the CIF-SS Masters Meet and again he scaled 6-10 before his finale at state.
Harel stood atop the podium after winning the state title, knowing the challenges his body had overcome to end his high school career on the highest note possible.
“I feel like I could do more,” Harel said. “Three weeks was my turning point, but really I only had three good meets. With more reps, I would’ve done 7-3. I’m going to that at the Nike Outdoor Nationals in Oregon. I get a huge clearance. I’ve got more left in the tank. Did 7-2 on my 14th jump, 7-3 when I’m on fresh legs – I should be on fresh legs.”
Notre Dame senior Josh Harel is the LA Daily News’ 2026 boys track and field athlete of the year. He is photographed at Cal State Northridge. (Photo by Ethan Hanson, LA Daily News/SCNG)
Rise of a prodigy
Oren Harel knew his son had a gift at an early age. The talent for jumping likely stemmed from trips to Wal-Mart, Costco and Target.
As the energetic boy walked the aisles with his father, he would jump up and try to touch any sign or barrier above him. He kept jumping and he kept reaching.
Oren, curious about how high Josh could reach, decided to measure and film his vertical jump. A video posted to YouTube shows 10-year-old Josh leaping 27 inches. The average standing vertical for NBA players is 30.8 inches.
“I was dunking at 13, and then before I was 14 years old, I was throwing down windmills,” Harel said.
Harel went to the AAU Junior Olympics and scaled 6-5, breaking a 42-year-old national record. He also won the high jump and triple jump without any professional training at the time.
Just him, his father and the high bar Oren created using an pole cleaning stick wrapped in Styrofoam. The two would train at Cal State Northridge.
After that, things were different. There were more eyes watching him to see what he would do next.
Harel also went through a growth spurt that saw him go from being 5-4 in the seventh grade to 6-1 as a freshman.
Notre Dame senior Josh Harel is the LA Daily News’ 2026 boys track and field athlete of the year. He is photographed at Cal State Northridge. (Photo by Ethan Hanson, LA Daily News/SCNG)
Harel missed his freshman year at Chaminade while battling Osgood-Schlatter Disease as his bones grew faster than his muscles and tendons.
He went through nearly four years of injuries, but now after winning state, there’s more freedom in Harel’s legs.
He practices almost as if making up for lost time.
“It’s really just knowing I’m capable of doing great things,” he said. “The pain is an obstacle and in the past two years I’ve gotten over things. I had a really good year. I’ve learned everything that’s happened is part of the process. It doesn’t push me away at this point.”
He trains near Cal State Northridge under the guidance of former US Olympic high jumper and longtime track and field commentator Dwight Stones. Stones, who won two bronze medals in the Olympics, and Harel have met only twice this year. But Stones is always a phone call, video call or text away from critiquing his disciple.
“He wasn’t as much about running the curve but focused on very specific cues,” Harel said. “He’d watch me jump and make small tweaks. He was the only coach I felt that took me to the next level.”
Stones sees Harel’s potential to have a successful college career and perhaps compete in the Olympics.
Harel has options, too. He could he could compete for the U.S., or represent Israel by birthright through Oren and with his grandparents being from Israel. Oren lived in Israel from the ages of 12 to 21 after being born in Houston.
Harel could also represent Australia, the birthplace of his mother Lucy.
One thing is certain, Harel has plenty of believers and that includes Stones.
“There’s nothing more enjoyable than working with a kid that has talent, but there are lots of kids with talent,” Stones said. “Josh has talent and is coachable and will do the things necessary to do to get better. He understands how the event works, he understands his strengths and weaknesses, and when I give him a suggestion, he responds immediately. It makes my job easier.”
When Stones speaks, Harel listens.
“Stones is always telling me I have a different type of athleticism,” Harel said. “He says I can do crazy things and believes I can do 7-3 off a six step.”
Harel was named the Male Athlete of the Year by the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
But with the accolades, medals and resume he has, there’s still plenty more to achieve.
The sport of high jumping has taught Harel perhaps the most important lesson of all. Failure occurs at some point in high jumping. An athlete gets three tries to hit a mark. No matter how high Harel flies, there will always be another level for him to achieve.
But chasing the height and working in the heat is exactly what fills his competitive appetite.
Being good isn’t enough. Harel wants to be the best ever in high jump.
“It’s a battle of me against myself more than competing against others,” Harel said. “I know there’s always more I can do.”
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