“It was probably two weeks after my dad had passed away,” Morris said. “So, I texted Brandon [Childs]. I texted Jason [Childs]. I told [my girlfriend] Brittany, and I told my mom and left the beach, went back to the car to hop on the call with the Athletic Director, and he offered me the job. I thought, ‘You don’t need to think about it. Take this job.’ I said, ‘I'm going to go ahead and take this job if you’ll have me.’ And at that moment, I felt like my dad was sitting in the car with me.”
As one of the few Black head coaches in college lacrosse, Morris sees a way forward to bring more Black players into the game, and it’s the opposite of what you may think.
“I think representation matters,” said Morris. “There’s a [constant] conversation between coaches, and it often goes to the fact that there’s not enough Black players. It’s this vicious cycle of [people saying] there’s not enough Black players, so there aren’t enough black coaches. And I really think it’s the opposite. There aren’t enough black coaches. When you look at the guy who’s coaching you and he doesn’t look like you, there’s a different trust level. There’s a different belief factor.”
The majority of coaches learn and adapt their philosophies and systems from other programs. Morris’ influence has a surprisingly upstate flavor.
“I am a big fan of Hobart,” Morris said. “I think the way they play the game with the [number] of assisted goals that they get is the way I like to play the game. And in order to do that, you’ve got to have a ton of really high IQ kids who are willing to give the ball up. So, unselfish lacrosse is really what I’m about. I think teams that rely on one guy get themselves into trouble because you can game plan to slow down that one guy. In five years if you asked me, ‘Are we playing the game like Hobart?’ I’d like to be able to say, ‘Yes.’”
Oglethorpe is a STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) school that plays in the Southern Athletic Association, which is home to teams like Rhodes, Berry and Sewanee. Located in an area about 20 minutes from downtown Atlanta, Oglethorpe isn’t quite urban or suburban. The skyline of Atlanta is still visible at an overlook minutes from campus.
The school has won just one conference game, in 2016 against Millsaps College, during its brief history, but Morris believes the program is closer to matching or eclipsing that goal sooner rather than later.
“I think we’re really close, to be honest with you,” Morris said. “You know the guys that we have right now, and I’ll give Zach Taylor credit; he brought in guys that had high ceilings. The fact of the matter is that we have to do a better job coaching these guys up. We’ve got a ton of guys who are athletic. We’ve got a ton of guys who are willing to learn, and we’ve got to put them in a better position to succeed.”