Q&A with Coach Morris

In his eighth year as Athletic Director and 22nd year working in the Academy’s Athletic Department, Coach Rob Morris has now undertaken a new job: Head Coach of the Big Red varsity football team.  His hopes and expectations for his players are that they would fully commit themselves to the team and to always keep their heads in the game. JAY LEE: What has your experience been during your eight years as Athletic Director? ROB MORRIS:  My experience has been wonderful. I love my job. I’m someone who cares about sports, and embraces all those positive things that you get from sports, and I think there are a lot of benefits from sports. The job is challenging, it’s different every day; I get to work with coaches, student athletes, facilities people, athletic directors of the schools, referees and officials. It’s an exciting job. JL: This is your first year as varsity football coach. How has your experience with the team been thus far? RM: I coached varsity football my first nine years here, and then for the next 12 years, I was JV coach, and now I am back to varsity as the head coach. I think my experience coaching at the JV level made me a better coach, a better teacher of the game, and so far, it’s been great. I’ve got a wonderful coaching staff that I’m lucky enough to work with.  I’ve also got great kids, and the challenge is to put your own mark on things, and at the same time, to give the kids an appreciation of the past. JL: Many people regard Athletic Director and Varsity Football Coach as two of the busiest positions in the Athletic Department.  How do you balance these two jobs?RM: As my time as Athletic Director has gone on, I’ve gotten better and more efficient at it. I have a support team that works closely with me, and we’ve gotten more efficient together. It’s all about managing your time and compartmentalizing.  I have a time during the day that I devote to my duties as the Athletic Director, and I have a time during the day that I devote towards getting ready for practice and creating plans for practice.  I chip away at things at night, and I work even before I leave the house to get a head start. If you love what you’re doing, if you’re passionate about what you’re doing, it doesn’t even feel like work. It’s just what I do. JL: How has your transition been from working mainly as the Athletic Director to now also coaching the varsity football team? RM: The transition has been seamless so far. The fall is, as Athletic Director, the season with the fewest issues; then, there are the fewest cancellations and snow days, and there are a lot of play days when most teams play at one single school.  The winter and spring are quite not like that.  The other thing is that when you are a football coach, you have one game a week. So fall is one of the easier seasons and thus more conducive to athletic administration. The transition is so far so good. JL: Which job do you prefer – Athletic Director or varsity football coach? RM: I don’t think that I like one more than another. I’ve been coaching football so long that I feel like I would not even realize what fall would even feel like without football. Football is what I’ve done every fall since when I was eight years old. Football’s just a natural. Also, the job of Athletic Director is, as I said previously, very exciting. I love both jobs. JL: How do you hope to coach the varsity football team in your first year as head coach? RM: I coach varsity football the same way as I coach JV and anything else I’ve ever coached. I want the kids to have the time of their lives.  There is nothing better than high school football. There is nothing better than your high school sport experience. So I want them to enjoy it. I want them to get better individually, while they get better collectively. I want them to have a deeper appreciation and understanding of the game.  Of course we want to win, but that isn’t the bottom line, what it’s all about.  I want them to look back on their experience playing football here as one of the best experiences of their life. As far as football goes, we try to be a team that is very detail-oriented, prepared and grounded in fundamentals. We worry more about the process; because if we have more process, we tend to get more points than the other team. JL: What are your expectations for the team? RM: I want them to jump in with both feet. When it’s football time, I want them to leave their worries of school behind and devote that time to getting the most out of the situation. I expect effort and hustle and hard work. I want them to come together as a team. Those are the big expectations, to commit to the team and to put their mark on the team. JL: How much longer will you work with the football team and the athletic administration? RM: I’d like to do it as long as I’m wanted. I’ve been here for a long time, but I’m still young and I still got a long time to go here.  I’m not going anywhere else; this is where I am, this is where my family grew up and I have no aspirations to be anywhere else. I feel like I have my dream job; I’ve got the job that  I always wanted, and I want to have it for as long as I can.