LJ FB: More transition

By Ed Piper, Jr.

First reaction to the word that Matt Morrison, La Jolla High head football coach, had left was disbelief.

Second reaction: It makes you want to cry.

When Athletic Director Paula Conway told me in passing at the Viking track meet at Edwards Stadium Thursday afternoon, March 2, that Morrison had left, I didn't grasp it clearly.

"Excuse me?" I said. "Did you hear Matt Morrison has left?" she repeated, patiently, kindly, with a smile on her face.

These are good days at La Jolla High--no more tension over Trey Enloe, the JV football player who suffered a concussion a couple of years ago.

Back then, somewhat understandably, every coach in Vikingville was reticent to talk to the media.

Now, let's just say it's like a fresh summer breeze at Windansea.

No, in fact--I hadn't heard.

I went on, at my furious pace, looking for athletes and coaches to interview as I supped at the table of plenty which was the La Jolla-Bishop's-Country Day tri-meet Thursday afternoon.

So many people to interview, and so little time.

La Jolla head track coach Paul Byrne, in fact, joked, "Ed, I've really set you up for a wonderful afternoon, with all three La Jolla high schools here." I was loving it!

Instead of one story, I could spin off at least most of three major stories, one on each of the three varsity girls and boys track squads cavorting on the beautiful Edwards surface--which Morrison's now-only football team baptized with its play last fall.

When the adrenaline from the afternoon rush of interviews and snapshots wore off, and I crashed to an early-evening nap, another stage of grief shortly moved in.

I woke up later in the evening, not yet ready to cry, but ready to document the popular Morrison's departure here on my blog. (See previous entry.) I Googled the event, and found KUSI's report Feb. 27 (though I didn't watch the video clip. I'm more a print guy.) (Luddite? Kids, Google it.)

Now, as I write, the sadness has set in. This change means more transition for the Viking football program, which has experienced more than most in the last couple of years:

First, long-time head coach Dave Ponsford retired. Then, Rey Hernandez, his successor, retired. Jason Carter, the hotshot offensive coordinator at La Jolla Country Day under Jeff Hutzler, came aboard four years ago. Selling his experience as a college star at Texas A&M and his pro playing years, Carter, a well-intended young coach, came in like a blaze.

The football team set up a whole new fund-raising arm. High ticket items were put up for supporters to contribute money toward: buying a giant football helmet the players could run through during pregame introductions was one of them.

A couple of families financed the smoke machine that spewed out the stuff and made for a dramatic pregame visual as players ran in from the southern gate.

The last year under Carter was difficult for many. The Enloe episode hung like a cloud. Carter, formerly the most friendly of interactors with media, was not easily found. (A Voice of San Diego reporter had recorded two contrasting phone interviews with Carter that showed him contradicting himself on the incident. The reporter, who I didn't know, also contacted me. Fortunately, I told him I didn't know much about football in general, and wouldn't be much help. He did not tell me that he was cooking up an expose/hatchet job on the LJHS football program.)

Then Carter, conflicted, resigned after the turn of the year in early 2016, putting the program behind on the calendar, with no head coach and Spring football looming in only a few months.

Into the breech stepped John McColl, Daniel and David's father, and his wife and their mother, Anastasia Thomas McColl. Where would LJHS football be without them? They are some incredible people. John, the picture of stability and continuity, helped organize offseason workouts while a new coach search was on.

Morrison, who did everything right in his brief year at La Jolla High, was hired in March. He finally was able to hold Spring football near the end of the school year.

When I went to Spring workouts, which Morrison welcomed me to and said "Come anytime," a good start for any media relationship, more than one of the assistants had just been brought on. "I'm just learning names of kids," one told me.

That was no fault of Morrison's. The hire, with Carter's tardy resignation announcement, couldn't take place until it did.

We lost the continuity that existed during Carter's three years with the record-setters: quarterback Collin Rugg, receivers Carlton O'Neal and Brandon Bonham.

Fortunately for the bright Carter, who didn't prefer the administrative side, he landed at Mission Bay in the fall as the Buccaneers' new offensive coordinator. That's his forte.

Meanwhile, Morrison, in contrast to the fiery Carter who encouraged his players to play on emotion, was a low-key, methodical presence. He speaks in a calm voice like a classroom teacher, which he is.

There's no lack of passion. Just watch him during a playoff game. He's right there. But I was impressed from the beginning with his talkability--a conversational, informative way of communicating.

At first, having just gotten off the emotional ride with Carter--when athletes after losses were often so choked up, even sobbing, that you couldn't get a postgame comment from them--I took Matt's calmness almost for mediocrity. Does this guy know what he is doing?

He did everything right, I've said before, it turns out, from all reports. He laid a foundation for the long term on the administrative side. He had the X's and O's--he told me that he was providing his offense (and defense) a high-level regimen that could unfold and grow over the next few years. A pro offense, he said.

The Parker job, at his alma mater and as one of his dad's successors, had to be a position he just couldn't pass up. I don't think he planned to leave La Jolla at all. He was settling in for the long run until that job came up. May he and his full-orbed approach prosper for years at Parker.

In fact, that was how Paula Conway informed me of Matt's departure. I said to her, in a conversation about head track coach Paul Byrne moving from Muirlands Middle School to the high school to teach math this year, "Now Matt Morrison needs to get a teaching credential" (so he can likewise be hired at La Jolla High to provide the benefit of an on-campus coach).

That's when Paula asked, "Did you hear (Morrison) left?" His way of doing things, as is Byrne's, is the right way. A view of the student athlete first as a student. Then an athlete. It's hard for walk-on coaches to incorporate that in their programs for the long run, since they're not involved with students in the classroom, no matter how sympathetic they are to high school athletics as extra-curricular activities real students with real homework take part in.

People, this view is: The kids' education comes first. Their long-term futures. Growth as individuals. Development toward maturity as people. (Not transferring among three schools in four years of high school in a mad quest for an athletic scholarship, then a pipe dream of playing sports professionally.)

While I'm in the sadness stage of the multiple stages of grief at Morrison's leaving and what the La Jolla High student athletes have to go through as a result, I'm also feeling that Paula and her crew will make the best hire possible--they had nothing to do with Matt leaving for his plum job--and with McColl's help again, everyone will move healthily forward.