LJ FB: Morrison leaves

Matt Morrison, who only coached one year

at La Jolla, seen at the Vikings' 43-0

win at Montgomery in Morrison's

season opener Aug. 26.

(Photo by Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

Francis Parker School hired Matt Morrison, La Jolla's one-year head football coach and a former All-CIF quarterback at Parker, to be the Lancers' new head coach, it was announced Feb. 27.

Paula Conway, La Jolla High Athletic Director, who hired Morrison last year after he served as Offensive Coordinator at La Costa Canyon, said Thurs., March 2, at the Vikings' track meet at home that an announcement was forthcoming on her school's new head football coach.

"Did you hear that Matt Morrison left?" Conway asked a reporter at the meet on the new football surface that Morrison's only LJHS team inaugurated last fall. The reporter asked her to repeat her question, not sure he had heard correctly.

"Francis Parker hired him for a full-time teaching position," the AD stated.

In his prep days, Morrison headed the Lancer offense under his father, Coach John Morrison. The team won a CIF title.

The elder Morrison attended most, if not all, of his son's games at La Jolla last season. He was a frequent presence on the team sidelines. He was interviewed on camera by KUSI's PPR and other programs.

In fact, Matt's younger brother, a sports reporter, interviewed his father and brother on camera at one of the La Jolla home games in a family moment for the archives.

Matt said of his playing days in high school, "After multiple knee surgeries, I was hardly mobile with my knees. I did a lot of handing off." The remark was typical of his modesty. He was liked by many in the La Jolla High family, and led La Jolla to its first winning season in several years during his lone year at the coastal school.