Columbus North’s Kaylie Harmon, left, looks to pass while guarded by Columbus East’s Kenzie Cheek Dec. 18, 2025, at Columbus North High School.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Kaylie Harmon is about to reach a historic milestone.
The Columbus North junior is only five points shy of reaching the 1,000-point career scoring mark for the Bull Dogs and will likely achieve it on Friday when North takes on Whiteland in the girls basketball sectional semifinals at Columbus East.
“I’m very grateful. Basketball is really serious to me, and I take everything serious about it,” Harmon said. “It’s been a big part of my life. It’s nice to get the achievements for all my hard work and seeing the good come out of that.”
Basketball was in Harmon’s blood ever since she was born. She comes from a strong family background of basketball from both her mother and father’s sides of the family. Her father Mike was varsity girls basketball coach at Brown County from 2002-13 and coached at Eastern (Pekin) for four years prior to arriving in Nashville.
The youngest of four siblings, Kaylie has three older brothers — Reese, Rhett and Luke — that all played basketball for the Bull Dogs. Luke started on the North team that won the sectional title in 2023. Mike was a varsity assistant for the boys team when the three brothers played for North.
All good as her brothers were on the hardwood, they also excelled in baseball. Reese and Luke each won sectional titles in baseball and currently play at the collegiate level. Reese spent three years at Iowa Western, then spent one season at Division-I Seattle University and is spending his final year of eligiblity closer to home at Ohio University. Luke is entering his third season at Franklin College.
“Honestly, they put the ball in my hands,” Kaylie said. “It’s all I’ve ever known is basketball ever since I was little. My whole family has been around it. My dad’s siblings are all about it. Even my mom’s side of the family, too. Basketball has been my whole life.”
Columbus North’s Kaylie Harmon looks to pass the ball over Roncalli’s Brennah Cerny Friday at Columbus North High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
While Kaylie Harmon was honing her basketball skills at a young age, she also played softball until she was 8 years old and was on the cheer team, but she knew right away, basketball was the sport for her.
“Basketball is the only thing I’m ever focused on,” Harmon said. “I’ve been tempted with softball, but I think basketball is a little too crazy for me during the summer with AAU on the weekends. I thought I would be focused just on basketball.”
Kaylie said there was a lot of basketball played between her siblings, friendly and competitively, with plenty of “one-on-ones” and “two-on-twos.” She mentioned her parents would play in some of the games, as well.
It’s to safe to say that her family has been Kaylie’s biggest influence on basketball and has had a huge support system attending her basketball games. Kaylie attended her brothers’ basketball games when she was younger.
“I remember a few games of (Mike) coaching basketball like the boys team here. I came to every single basketball game. I don’t think I missed one,” Kaylie said. “Whether I’ve seen them or not, he talks about them all the time. It’s like I’m living it every day.
“Luke is only 30 minutes away, Rhett is an hour away and Reese is only a few hours away. It’s nice seeing them after the game and coming out of the locker room,” she added. “Whether it’s a bad game or good game, they’re always there to talk to me. I always have them there.”
Kaylie Harmon
When Kaylie arrived to the North girls basketball team as a freshman, she became the team’s starting point guard. It’s a big role to take on, and she excelled in the role from the start. This season, she leads the 17-6 Bull Dogs with 13.9 points and 3.3 assists a game.
“Kaylie has worked really hard to improve her game from year-to-year. She’s becoming a more well-rounded player for us,” North coach Brett White said. “Obviously, stepping right in as a freshman and being the point guard is a tough role to fill, and she’s now filled that role for almost three full years. I’m really proud of what Kaylie’s been able to accomplish, but it hasn’t been by accident. It’s been through a lot of hard work.”
While Kaylie is excited to approach a historic milestone, there is one thing missing in her career — a sectional title. North has been on a long drought with the last title being in 2017 when Harmon and her teammates were in elementary school. The journey begins Friday night.
“We’re going to have to stay focused and know what we want to accomplish,” Harmon said. “I think we all want it bad enough. We all want to have a sectional win. Everybody wants to be able to say that they won a sectional in high school, and I think we’re going to be able to accomplish that. We all know that we’re capable of it. We’re going to put our best foot forward.”
