As a young girl in elementary and middle school, Ladasia Harris had precious few athletic opportunities.

She wasn’t signed up for many activities because of transportation issues and responsibilities babysitting her siblings.

At George Wythe High School, she’s making up for lost time.

The slender junior with the bubbly personality is the girl for all seasons and many special occasions on the South Side campus.

Currently, she is reining Conference 26 Player of the Year for her deft handiwork as goalkeeper for Wythe’s upstart soccer squad.

The 17-year-old, 5-foot-8 daughter of Warren Harris and Thia Jones also runs cross-country, plays volleyball and basketball and says she’s “thinking about wrestling” for Wythe.

This spring, she’s juggling soccer with track and field.

“I start each day running four laps,” she said of her daily practice routine. “Then I alternate doing track and soccer drills. I finish up running another four laps.”

And that’s just for starters.

On top of that, she’s drum major of Wythe’s marching band and has received All-City recognition playing trumpet and baritone horn in the school’s concert band.

She never played an instrument before enrolling at Wythe.

In the classroom, she’s making sweet music, too, with a 3.5 GPA.

“I taught Ladasia in my history class and asked her to come out for soccer,” said Wythe soccer Coach Shawn Pickett. “She had no previous soccer experience — same as all our girls.

“She’s one of our stronger athletes in the school and she learned on the fly.”

Harris had 80 saves last year for Wythe and has added another 76 this season.

Wythe will compete later this month in the Conference 26 playoffs. The Bulldogs were runners-up in the event a year ago and advanced to the 3A Regionals.

A family move from Henrico County to South Richmond opened many doors for Harris. Growing up in the J.R. Tucker High School district, she did little outside attending school and helping around the house.

“We lived too far from everything. Getting a ride was always a problem,” she recalled.

“Once we moved to the city, I could walk wherever I needed to go. I live just across the street from Wythe now, so that makes it easy.”

An exciting new world opened up with easier access to extracurricular activities.

“I know that if I’d gone to Tucker, I might have just played one sport — that’s it,” said Harris.

Wythe re-introduced girls’ soccer last year with the financial and motivational help of Bulldogs alumnus Bobby Ukrop and his son, Rob Ukrop. 

Bobby Ukrop played basketball at Wythe in the mid-1960s and went on to become a grocery store executive. Rob Ukrop played professional soccer and is the Richmond Kickers’ all-time scorer.

Rob Ukrop now serves as girls’ soccer coach at Collegiate and directs teams in the Kickers’ travel program. Rob Ukrop invited the Wythe girls to Collegiate for a training session.

Wythe and Huguenot, that play a combination of varsity and JV games, are the only city schools with girls’ and boys’ soccer teams.

Armstrong and Thomas Jefferson have boys’ soccer teams but no girls’ teams.

John Marshall has no soccer teams.