Morrissey named FHS boys basketball coach

This story took third place for spot news story in the 2011 Minnesota Associated Press Sports Association Awards.

Twenty minutes after Scott Morrissey found out the interim tag had been removed from his title as Faribault High School boys basketball coach on Friday, he struggled to find the words.

"It's very exciting," he said exuberantly. "It's been a long waiting process and it's all worth it. It's hard to put it into words. It's a dream come true for me, actually and a wonderful opportunity for me professionally."

 

Morrissey took over for Steve Lansing before the 2010-11 season after four years as an assistant coach. While the season was bumpy, and ended in the first round of sectionals with a 6-20 record, it did nothing to discourage him from going after the job he had in his sights since he turned down the head girls basketball coaching job at Bethlehem Academy five years ago to start coaching at FHS.

"It's very fitting," Morrissey said. "I believe everything happens for a reason."

Morrissey's first step is working to create a feeder system to keep youths playing basketball from an early age up through high school. The new program, called Little Falcons, will start in the fall.

"Right now, we have basically nothing in place so we're excited about starting," he said. "We need to get our basketball players younger and make sure they're playing basketball at a young age. We're really excited about catching up to the other sports. Wrestling and hockey have done a nice job of this."

Morrissey's dedication to building a sustainable program is part of what encouraged FHS athletic director Ken Hubert to offer Morrissey the job.

"Scott did some really good things this past year," Hubert said. "He worked to develop relationships with coaches at all levels. He's working with those coaches to start the Little Falcons program, doing things to build long-term. That's one of the things we really want to see is someone who can develop a total program."

Hubert's search started with 24 candidates, although several dropped out when there wasn't a teaching position in the district to go with the coaching opening.

"Our school district isn't in a position to create a teaching position because we want someone to coach," Hubert said. "That's one of the challenges you face."

Morrissey is a special education teacher at Lincoln Elementary. He has also worked at Divine Mercy Catholic School and the Rice County Day Treatment Center. He was co-interim softball coach in 2010 when Tricia Johnson was on maternity leave. He has been an assistant boys basketball and softball coach for four years at FHS. Before that he was head softball coach at BA for eight years, turning around a program from a one-win season to a Gopher Conference championship. He was also assistant girls basketball coach at BA under two head coaches.

"Scott is very qualified and we believe a coach who brings many positive things to the table," Hubert said.

Morrissey's first task will be starting a rebuilding process after losing much of his scoring from last year when Michael Emge and Chad Hansen graduated.

"I want people to be patient," he said. "We're definitely rebuilding. We have some nice young classes coming through the system. We're going to be developing basketball players and having a lot of fun."

Morrissey has his team running a dribble-drive offense, but he is adamant he will change schemes depending on the talent he has each year.

"You have to have the right players," he said. "Right now, I think we do. We have three or four guards who can get in the lane and create. But we will run some flex, some motion. What we're really lacking is a big man. We don't have a 6-foot-6 Chad Hansen. We might have to have a 6-foot-2 post player. We're really going to have to be creative with our offenses."

The boys basketball position was the last head coaching vacancy at FHS. Earlier this summer, Steve Gravgaard was named girls hockey coach, Mark Bongers was named boys cross country coach and Jessica Swenson was named girls tennis coach.