Featured Interview: Football Proving to be a Haven for Texas 2019 RB Michel Morris

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @RyanWrightRNG

Football in the U.S. has taken a fair share of hits in recent years with a national spotlight focusing on concussions at all levels of the game and with the thought exploitation of young men playing college football without compensation beyond tuition, room and board, and the perks associated with being on a given roster. While the game has its dark corners, on the other side of the conversation is the opportunities provided for those with a passion for the game coinciding with talent, a little bit of luck, and hard work in the classroom. For Michel Morris, football is opening up a world of opportunities beyond Texas’ Friday night lights while keeping him out of trouble.

There are no highlight reels of Morris’ accomplishments, yet, but be sure they are coming. Morris is a mix of speed and power standing 5-10, 205 pounds, with a clocked 4.6 40-yard dash. After missing nearly three years on the field fine-tuning his life off the gridiron, Morris is back at it with big expectations on his shoulders entering the 2017 season. After a 3-8 campaign in 2016, the Apollos are looking for an infusion of offensive talent that only a player with Morris’ gifts can provide. After an off-season in the Apollos’ system, Morris is penciled in as the starting running back ready to assert his will against 5A competition.

The heavy expectations for Morris are welcomed considering the opportunity for greatness nearly passed by him. In a story all too familiar, hanging with the wrong crowd nearly derailed Morris’ high school career. After growing up in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, Morris’ grandmother, his caretaker, passed away forcing him to move to Texas to live with his great aunt, his grandmother’s twin sister. Morris summarized his junior high days in the Houston area stating, “I had some new friends that were trouble. I was following my new friends, skipping school and started lying to my grandmother’s sister. One day I went to jail for not going to school and not being at home. When I came back home, I made the decision to make the right choices.”

After a couple of weeks, Morris once again was hanging with his friends with the same problems coming up again, “When I went back home, the same problems were there. I got in trouble again and had to go in front of one of the meanest judges in Houston. He said, ‘Michael, you were doing good, your grades are good, you are not fighting and not being mean. I want you to go back home but I don’t think you are ready to go back home’.”

That extra time away helped Morris find the change he needed, “One of my great aunt’s friends from church told us about a boy’s home called Youth Reach. We made the decision for me to go there and the judge agreed. But the judge told me then, ‘Son, you have to make the choice. If you leave and come back it will not be nice.’ Once he told me that I knew he was serious. I made the choice. I don’t know if it was God who helped me make the choice but I am grateful how it all turned out. I was at Youth Reach for over two years. I learned a lot there. I learned how to be a man. I learned about Jesus and the Bible too. I made some good friends there, friends I am still bonded with today.”

The focus for Morris after leaving Youth Reach was school and a return to the sport he loved – football. Growing up Morris played soccer but by the fifth grade had discovered American football. After a soccer practice, Morris noticed kids his age playing a different sport, “When I saw them playing football, I liked the game from there. The next day after soccer practice, I went over to the coach, introduced myself, and told him I was interest in playing. He told me to come back the next day to start practicing. I went home, signed some papers and then I was a part of the team. My new coach helped me get my equipment paid for and he picked up from school to practice and back home. That set up a great relationship. That is when I first got involved in football.”

After leaving Youth Reach, Morris enrolled at Sharpstown in November quickly joining the basketball team making the junior varsity squad. He also joined the varsity track team running the 100, 200, and 4×1 and threw the shotput showing his overall athleticism. The enthusiasm in Morris’ voice returns when asked about spring football practices, “Spring practices were great. We had full-pads on. It had been a while since I had on full-pads. I was looking forward to it but was also nervous. My teammates were kind of scared to go heads up with me, but we learned from each other.”

After knocking the rust off, Morris was a natural with the pigskin in his hands out of the backfield with “really good footwork and hitting the hole hard with speed and power.” To help bring his game up to speed, he spent part of the off-season playing 7v7 ball. The team approach to 7v7 ball was not lost on Morris adding, “The entire team learned that you have to work as a team and you have to do the little things to win. Playing 7v7 is about doing the little things to improve your skills. We learned a lot but we still have a lot of work to do to get better for the season.”

Despite having never played a down of varsity football, the Class of 2019 talent wasted little time trying to work his way up recruiting boards. Over the summer Morris attended camps at Texas, Houston, and Oklahoma with the Sooners’ camp being his best performance, “I ran my routes correctly and played hard. I wanted to shine and grind hard at Oklahoma’s camp. I wanted to make sure my routes looked nice and I showed them what I could do on the field.”

With fall camp starting in August, Morris is excited about the 2017 season, as one might easily guess – “I’m ready to run, hit people, and score some touchdowns. I’m just looking forward to the whole season. I am excited. I have put in a whole bunch of work this off-season. When I wake up in the morning I run, do footwork drills, and then go to the school to workout with my team. I have been putting in a lot of work this summer. I’m ready for the real deal.”

With his long journey back about to become a reality, the payoff moment is quickly approaching when he takes the field with his teammates, “At that moment – I look at it as a blessing. To have a second chance, it is amazing. I’m just thankful to be back. Being on the team and learning new stuff to better myself on and off the field is a blessing.”

Sharpstown opens the 2017 season on the road against Wheatley on Sept. 1 before returning home to square off against Worthing. All eyes will be on a smiling Morris ready to see what he can do on the field with the ball in his hands.

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Photo credit: Morris family; Michel Morris Apollos’ locker room (2017).

Photo credit: Morris family; Michel Morris (left) at Houston (2017).

Photo credit: Morris family; Michel Morris (left) at Texas (2017).