Although Randall “Randy” Harvey had an idea he might be named Destrehan High School valedictorian this year, he still wasn’t as prepared for the news as he thought it might be.
Harvey missed the call at home and the school instead spoke to his parents. Soon after, they told him and he sort of went into another state of mind.
“At that moment, my entire school career just sort of flashed before my eyes,” Harvey said. “All the projects … all the homework … and knowing it was really paying off for me.”
If someone was writing a story about a fictional character who was supposed to be an all-around student of a local high school, Harvey’s real-life academic and extra-curricular achievements would be just the list accolades a writer would want to feature.
A four-sport athlete, who played football, baseball, soccer and ran track, maintained a 4.0 GPA, acted in drama shows, was named the Wendy’s Heisman winner of 2015, named class valedictorian and won full scholarship to Tulane University, where he will study architecture and place kick for the Green Wave football team.
Harvey said he “kind of owes it all” to his sister Desiree. “She was a strong athlete and looked out for me when we were kids,” he said. “She graduated from DHS a couple years ago and went on to college to play softball.”
Also, his father, Ray, ran hurdles in track in college and was good at it – third in the nation in 1975. He was defeated in a national meet by the two runners who competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Harvey played a lot of travel ball when he was young and by the time he got to high school he was ready to play everything he could get involved it. He ran the 400 meters and the 4×400 meter relay in track, he was an outfielder with the DHS baseball team, a defensive back and kicker for the football team and center back for the St. Charles Tornados soccer team.
Harvey also loves to draw, which is why he will be pursuing a career in architecture at Tulane University.
“Ever since I was a little kid I’ve always loved to draw buildings and such,” he said. “I just think it would really be cool to design something that will last for more than my lifetime. Something someone, one day might say, ‘Hey, look at that, Randy Harvey designed that.’”
Harvey said he would someday like to put his talent and education to work designing sports complexes, combining his love for sports and architecture into a career.
With a 4.0 GPA, Harvey applied to a few colleges, including Stanford University, which was Harvey’s first choice, but it doesn’t offer a degree in architecture.
But word got back to Harvey. Coach Curtis Johnson of Tulane University might be interested in him and had even came to one of his games.
“He never spoke to me, but I heard from one of my coaches he was there to watch me,” Harvey said.
This seemed great if he could go to school and play football as a walk-on, so he applied and received a half scholarship on his academic performance in high school.
But the best was yet to come.
Tulane accepts, legislative scholarship won and, after hearing about them, Harvey applied and was interviewed by Rep. Thomas P. Willmott, R-Kenner, who after a two-hour interview, granted Harvey the full scholarship. After that, Harvey said, there was nowhere else he wanted to go.
Coach Robicheaux arranged a meeting with Johnson and secured arrangements for Harvey to get a walk-on tryout.
As valedictorian, Harvey said he hopes to inspire his classmates with a speech that will do just that.
“I hope to prompt my classmates, to tell them what’s always worked for me … advice I got from my father, mother and sister,” Harvey said. “Strive to accomplish. Put forth your best efforts … to not be afraid to achieve and, if they do that, they will become successful in whatever they choose to do.”
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