University of Massachusets Athletics
Morris Shows His Patience
April 28, 2003 | Men's Lacrosse
April 28, 2003
For two years people forgot about Sean Morris. Then it took one game for everybody to remember why. Why he was named Massachusetts state Player of the Year out of high school. Why he played both sides of the ball in football. Why Rutgers thought he could bring them a championship in lacrosse. Why his coach Greg Cannella isn't telling people about him.
In his first competitive lacrosse game in two years, Sean Morris used his roadrunner speed and Wayne Gretzky game sense to score three clutch goals in UMass' 10-9 win over ninth-ranked Navy.
He was the top scorer in the game and afterward, a small assemblage of reporters asked him why?
"I just tried to be patient," Morris said.
Patience hasn't come easy for Morris in recent years. Tabbed the best lacrosse player in the Commonwealth after his senior year at Marshfield, Morris knew wherever he went to college, he wouldn't have to wait to get on the field.
When signing day came he chose Rutgers over UMass. Scarlet Knight coach Bill Diriggl told Morris he would win a National Championship, then before he ever played a game, Diriggl bolted for perennial power Loyola (Md.).
Morris, like many of his teammates, was not happy. He felt he had been mislead and decided to transfer. The first call he made was to Cannella, who had wished him well when he turned down the Minutemen. Morris told him he wanted to come back to Massachusetts, and Cannella welcomed him with open arms.
Rutgers, however, was not so happy. They could've released Morris from his scholarship, allowing him to play during UMass' run to the NCAA quarterfinals last season.
But they chose not to release him, forcing Morris to sit out the whole season, plus fall ball scrimmages.
Morris is not the type of player that takes sitting down, well, sitting down. He wanted to be involved anyway he could.
"I tried to treat practices like my game days," he says. "And when we were playing, I wasn't doing much sitting."
In practice, Morris tested himself against the likes of All-American Matt McFarland. And while UMass was making its run to the tourney, Morris was anything but calm. He would jump up and down on the sideline with every goal and pace up and down the sideline with almost every possession.
In last year's match against Brown, he tried to do the game tape just to keep himself busy. But he was so excited when the Minutemen made a late comeback to win that he couldn't keep the camera still. Needless to say he never did tape again. When spring came around he was finally ready to begin his freshman year. But a hamstring pull kept him out of UMass' 2-0 start. Luckily, he healed up in time for game three against the Midshipmen.
It was the first sunny day of lacrosse season and many of his friends from the Marshfield area were on hand for Morris' rousing debut.
On his second collegiate possession, Morris took the ball from up top, dashed past a defender like a Top Gun fly-by, and shelved a shot past the goalie on his first collegiate shot.
He finished the day with a hat trick on five shots, using his ridiculous first step to beat his man on each possession. The only way Navy could defend him was by sliding another man to him after Morris left the first defender with his ankles twisted.
And with All-Americans Kevin Leveille and Chris Fiore garnering most of the attention in the midfield, Morris will have a whole year to toy with shortstick defenders.
"We've watched him do that sort of stuff in practice for a year now," Cannella says. "He's a big advantage for us."
After the game against Navy, Morris stood in the dusty hallway outside Cannella's office. With his hair still soaked with sweat, he talked to reporters about being patient.
This from the kid who couldn't hold a video camera still or keep his feet on the ground on the sidelines last year. It was almost two years ago when Morris was tabbed as one of the best players in Massachusetts high school history.
That was before he was told he couldn't play. Still, he manages to go out on the field for his first college game, in front of his friends, in the state he grew up in and not force things. He let the game come to him and when it did, he dominated.
"It's real hard," Morris says of staying calm in a situation like that.
But the rookie - that's right, he's got four years of eligibility - kept his emotions in check and gave fans an early look of the next in line among UMass lacrosse greats.
The Amherst campus hasn't seen a freshman debut like this since Brendan Glass scored seven in his first game. But many All-Americans have come through Garber Field, and few have had a start such as Morris'.
Not even Leveille and Fiore, arguably the best pair of midfielders in the country right now, did what Morris is doing right now. That's not to say Morris is guaranteed to become a great one. Like Cannella says, he has a lot of work in front of him.
But, "he comes to play every day," Cannella says. "He's not afraid to work hard. And he's tough."
The former high school running back and safety isn't afraid to mix it up.
"We went down to see him play football," Cannella says. "He was just running over guys."
That football experience came in handy in his second game against a hard-hitting Brown team. The Bears were a little more knowledgeable of Morris' ability. To counter his speed they dropped a longstick back to rough him up when he got past the first man.
Result: three goals including a highlight reel tally that saw him bull past Brown's strongest defender, throw a stick fake on the crease then score past the helpless goaltender.
He showed strength, speed, agility and game sense to get into a position to score on that play. But the ability that enabled him to finish past a goalie that is renowned for his reactions, was patience.
