This article appears in the March 2020 edition of US Lacrosse Magazine. Don’t get the mag? Head to USLacrosse.org to subscribe.

In the day-to-day world of Duke assistant coach Ron Caputo, senior defenseman JT Giles-Harris is a pleasant force that can easily be taken for granted.

Giles-Harris was an advanced lacrosse student when he landed in Durham in the late summer of 2016 — an exceptional athlete who had explored Division I football opportunities, a tactician equally adept at covering skilled wide receivers or attackmen. He broke into the starting lineup at Duke immediately, never left and has been the model of consistency as a defensive fixture for three years.

The fact that Giles-Harris is the returning ACC Defensive Player of the Year and a USILA first-team All-American underscores the breadth of what the Blue Devils have known all along.

“I haven’t seen any [defender] as good as JT is at everything — stick work, the clearing game, on-ball and off-ball defense, the ability to see something coming and communicate it,” said Caputo, who has worked with the defense since the 2016 season. “He never misses class, never misses a lift and never gets hurt or sick. Even if he wasn’t this good, JT would still be a dream to be around.”

Giles-Harris is the undisputed dean of the Duke defense, which lost several mainstays to graduation. They included first-team All-America defenseman Cade Van Raaphorst, defensive midfielder John Prendergast and long-stick midfielder Jack Fowler. In addition, promising sophomore long pole Wilson Stephenson, who broke his leg in the Blue Devils’ NCAA quarterfinal victory over Notre Dame last May, will not play this season.

“This team is going to need more leadership [from me],” Giles-Harris said. “I used to look to seniors like Ethan Powley and Danny Fowler when I first got here. Those guys gave me the confidence to grow. Now I’m cherishing every day I have left with all of the guys.”

Giles-Harris grew plenty as a freshman, as he started all 18 games and helped Duke hold opponents to 8.39 goals per game — the fewest allowed by a Duke defense since 2009.

He provided more of the same as a third-team All-American in 2018, when the Blue Devils advanced to the NCAA final and wound up with the 12th-best scoring defense in the nation.

Last season, which ended in the semifinals when Duke lost in overtime to eventual champ Virginia, Giles-Harris was his disruptive best with a team-high 26 caused turnovers and 38 ground balls. In the first year of the shot clock era, the Blue Devils allowed 9.6 goals per game — seventh-best in Division I.

To watch Giles-Harris patrol the field as the heart of Duke’s top-tier defense is to watch a cool, calm, versatile anchor, able to do much while rarely trying to do too much. He can lock up a high-scoring attackman in the crease area or behind the goal as efficiently as he can bump up top to take away a midfield threat, depending on Duke’s matchup needs. His ground ball skills make him as valuable on the faceoff wings as he is at igniting the Blue Devils’ offense after a takeaway.

At 5-foot-10, 210 pounds, Giles-Harris has that package of stout strength and quickness that also translated well as an all-state high school cornerback on the football field, where his first true love of competition was born, in a family full of football players.

His father, John Harris, lettered three years at Southern Connecticut in the mid-1980s. His oldest brother, William, lettered four years at Division II Gannon.

His brother Joe, who is 15 months older, was an All-American linebacker at Duke. At 6-foot-2, 235 pounds, he recently wrapped up his rookie NFL season with the Jacksonville Jaguars after graduating from Duke a year early — with a degree in cultural anthropology — and making the Jags roster as an undrafted free agent.

“We always played on the same rec and high school teams [football and lacrosse],” said Joe Giles-Harris, who split time in 2019 on the Jaguars’ practice squad and 53-man roster.

“JT has been covering people his whole life. He’s always had good feet and good speed,” he added. “He didn’t luck out with the height, but he’s got the muscle and he’s very compact. He’s probably the most athletic one [of us].”

JT (James Thomas) Giles-Harris was conflicted about which collegiate sport to pursue while he was a two-sport star at St. Joseph Regional High School in New Jersey. He committed to Duke lacrosse as a sophomore, choosing the Blue Devils over Maryland, Syracuse and Virginia.

Early in his junior year, Giles-Harris decommitted from Duke, as lower-level football offers poured in. He considered Holy Cross, Lehigh, Albany, Towson and Navy. He recommitted to Duke lacrosse later that year.

“There was a bit of a tug of war,” John Harris said. “But just like Joe, with JT, it came down to getting a Duke education.”

Even now, football still holds sway. Giles-Harris said he is exploring the right fit where he can use his fifth year of eligibility to play on the Division I gridiron and work toward earning a master’s degree. Recently, Virginia's Dox Aitken announced he will play football next year at Villanova, and Maryland's Jared Bernhardt is also exploring the gridiron for his fifth year.

“Not too many people can run around me. And by not being particularly tall, I can keep smaller guys from getting under me,” Giles-Harris said. “I’ve gotten pretty good at shadowing people, which is like covering wide receivers. If you take one wrong step, it’s the difference between a completed pass and a knockdown.”

What separates Giles-Harris from many Division I defensemen, Caputo said, is both his ability to cover one-on-one and his high-level skill at using space effectively while navigating the countless picks and two-man offensive games that are prevalent in the sport now.

“J.T. knows how to play his man and half of another,” Caputo said, “by showing [a possible help move] and getting back to his man, like a yo-yo. That’s what Division I defense is about now.”

“JT is not satisfied,” said Duke head coach John Danowski, alluding in part to the fact that Duke has come close but has yet to win a national championship during Giles-Harris’ time in Durham. The Blue Devils were ranked No. 5 in the preseason.

“Like a lot of thoroughbreds, he doesn’t remember all of the good or great plays he makes, and he beats himself up over the plays he doesn’t make,” Danowski said. “That drives him. The thoroughbreds assume they’re going to make all of the plays.”