Meet the local American Ninja Warrior contestant ahead of the season 14 semifinals

This season of NBC’s "American Ninja Warrior" features the return of five-time American Ninja Warrior contestant and Greater Cincinnati native DeShawn Harris, 30.

After making it to stage one of the Season 13 finals, Harris is back to claim the title of "Last Ninja Standing." Harris finished in 20th place during round one of the San Antonio, TX qualifiers on June 6.

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Harris sat down with The Enquirer to discuss his journey on the popular competition show, his stint in college football, his work as a special needs educator, and his thoughts on the controversial Cincinnati-style chili debate.

Here are a few highlights that stood out from the Q&A. These excerpts have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Can you start by telling me a bit more about yourself? Where are you from? What's your athletic background?

A: My name's DeShawn Harris, originally from Cincinnati, a small town called Wyoming.

Graduated in 2009, and the class was probably 150 kids. So very small school, very tight-knit, and the community’s amazing. It’s a very athletic and obviously academic school, being the number two school in the state at the time that I actually was there attending the school, and I left there on a full-ride football scholarship to go to Tennessee Tech to play and I played there for two years. Came back to University of Cincinnati to play football, and within two weeks of the season, I tore my ACL and stopped playing football.

I guess injuries in the sport are kind of what took me out...I started feeling, I guess, a little down that I wasn't playing football anymore. I wasn't really doing sports like I used to and really missed the competitive nature of sports. So, I was looking around for like different things that I can do with all the injuries that I had, and still, be safe, and also find my way to be competitive on a big stage. And then one day I was just flipping through the TV and saw Ninja Warrior.

Q: I saw that you are a four-time contestant of American Ninja Warrior. I also saw that you made it to the semi-finals and then the live finals in Season 13. How does it feel to be back competing on the ANW stage?

A: It's actually amazing. Actually, this year was my fifth year competing. I didn't think after three years that I would continue, but working with the kids that I work with and definitely working with the special needs community, I've always helped them to continue to push themselves and not give up, and to continue to strive for excellence and never let anything in life, any of the barriers, get in your way.

So, I was like, if I'm preaching that, I know that I'm getting older, I know that injuries are a part of life, why would I let that stop me?

Q: To my knowledge, if you win or are declared the "Last Ninja Standing," you will be the first person from Cincinnati, and I believe Ohio, to ever win American Ninja Warrior? What do you have to say to that? How would that make you feel?

A: You just ignited a whole new fire, oh my God. That is so amazing. Now I'm even more fueled to continue to push in the sport.

I would love to be the first person from Ohio and Cincinnati. Hopefully, put more of Cincinnati on the map. We're continuously growing in all different endeavors, music, art, hopefully sports. Obviously, you can see our sports are really doing well. Hopefully, the Reds can also follow suit.

But that would be amazing to bring a ninja warrior to Cincinnati, bring it to the forefront and hopefully get some more gyms and show that this sport has a lot more to offer than just the TV show.

Q: You've mentioned being a special needs teacher and a trainer. So what do your students and clients have to say about your appearances on American Ninja Warrior?

A: If I had to quote my rambunctious student from Ninja Fit, Aiden, he always says, “Let's go!”

Whenever we walk in the door, whenever we're doing obstacles, it's amazing to see the excitement on the kid's faces and not only the kids.

I actually just had a family come in yesterday to the gym, and I was talking to the kid (he's the one doing ninja), and I was like, "Did you watch the show?" He was like, "Yeah." I was like, "Did you see me?" He was like, "I fell asleep." I was like, "Oh, okay."

And then his mom comes up; she was like, "Oh my God, I saw you on the show," and I was like, "My heart just melted."...It's amazing to see how this sport really resonates with people and really lights a fire in people to get out there, do more with their lives and do more with their kids.

Q: What keeps you motivated after a big loss or a major injury?

A: The community is what drives me in this sport, the community is what has kept me in the sport, and the community is why I want to continue to build this sport. If we can model what the community is here (in Ninja) in all of society, I feel like a lot of other things and other problems that we go through as Americans will start to melt away.

So, that is definitely, probably my biggest driving force.

Like I said, I got injured on the show my first season, and it was the community that helped rebuild me back up as a ninja and rebuild my confidence to even continue to do sports.

Q: What advice would you give to someone who has dreams of competing on American Ninja Warrior?

A: Stop dreaming and live it.

That's something, actually, that I've been doing in my own life. I feel like a lot of us dream, and that's it. You know, we expect the dreams to just come to fruition, but you got to put the work in.

So if someone has the dreams to actually be a ninja warrior, take the steps and look up a ninja gym near you. And if there isn't a ninja gym, look up some different workouts that you can do to help yourself out, do some pull-ups, do some push-ups, do some handstands, go around and look for monkey bars at different parks.

Just push yourself to actually make the first step to becoming a ninja warrior.

Q: We've done a couple of stories about some athletes, Joe Burrow and some other Bengals players, who have not been a huge fan of Skyline and other Cincinnati-style chili. So, I was going to ask your thoughts on that and see if you wanted to weigh in on that chili debate?

A: First off, big, big Bengals fan. Big Joe Burrow, big (Ja'Marr) Chase fan. I want to see if Burrow and Chase could do what I do: Ninja Warrior. So first off, if they don't like Skyline, let's make a bet. If you can do Ninja Warrior, do a full six obstacle course, I will say that Skyline is not the best chili in Cincinnati.

But if you can't do a full six obstacle course, then we are going to Skyline, and you have to eat a full three-way and a coney...Maybe we can also get on the field. I challenge them to my sport, which is ninja now, then they can challenge me to football.

Season 14 of American Ninja Warrior airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on NBC.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: American Ninja Warrior has a chili challenge for Bengals' Joe Burrow