Jeff Morris and the Power of Perham

The national champ Perham boys team.  Morris is the first person
on the left side of the back row.  Photo by John George. 

In eleven years Perham's Jeff Morris has developed a cross country powerhouse in the nearly 3,000 person community in Minnesota's lake district.  In 2012 the country took notice in the form of recognizing Morris as NHSCA coach of the year and ranking Perham High School as the number one boys Division II XC team in the US.

When Morris arrived in Perham in 2002, notes Gabriele Anderson, who was one of only five on the girls' team, there were only 14 to 15 kids in the entire XC program.Today 50 to 60 kids are on the teams.  The boys have won four state titles, and Morris serves as the race director for several events during the year, including the February Freeze Your Face 5K, that help raise money for the school.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Morris was a part of a state championship team at West Henderson HS in Ashville, NC and was an All Conference distance runner at the Division I Campbell University Camel's cross country team.  He was also a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and it was on mission trip to the Czech Republic that he met his wife to be, Kay Fuller, who was then at the University of Minnesota.  Kay was from Verndale, MN, which is how Morris ended up at Perham after they moved to Minnesota to be closer to her parents.

Morris got a job math and technical integration at Perham along with the track and cross country coaching jobs.  Jeff and Kay have several children and Kay has worked as children's and youth coordinator at their local church where Jeff also spends time in youth ministry.  So it didn't take long for the family to become absorbed in the local community.  Creating a "culture" or "community" around the cross country and track teams took a little longer. But Morris had a clear vision of what he wanted to do and the energy and commitment to execute that plan.

Two words Morris often uses to motivate his team is telling them that they should "dream big."  Just because they live in a small town, doesn't mean they are defined by that town.  "Dream Big," like Anderson who finished fourth in the US Olympic Trials last summer and his now focusing on moving up at least one place in 2016.  "I was a little bit skeptical," said Anderson of her initial reaction to Morris.  "I had already had success.  But (Morris) came here with Division I running experience.  He brought that perspective.  He opened my eyes to the national scene.  Helped us kids to dream a little bit bigger."

The key for her, she said, was her senior year.  She wanted to win a State Championship.  She had been part of the four by 800 meter relay team as a junior that was runner-up, and thought that was her best chance.  She was also a contender in the open 800. Morris had Anderson focus on the 800 all year because it was "a race that would give me a chance to win."  One other girl had a faster time going into the event, but Anderson had a shot.

Morris didn't add to the pressure.  It was her last open event in her high school career, so Morris gave it a different focus.  "He made me really believe I had the tools to win," Anderson said.  "I'd done the preparation. I wasn't just getting confidence out of thin air. He told me 'You've had a great year.  Just end on a positive, a celebration of what you've done (this year).'"  That helped go out and put it all on the line.  The race plan was to go on the last lap.  "With 300, 400 to go, I just went for it," said Anderson.  "I just didn't look back."  She won her State Championship.

"Without him I don't think I would have won that State Championship," says Anderson.  Winning that Championship had other benefits in that "it gave me the confidence to 'walk on' at the University of Minnesota."  The rest, the cliche goes, is history.  A history Anderson continues to build upon as she continues to "dream big."  Other words  Morris uses often to describe his program is the "culture of the team,   ownership, accountability."

It was important, Morris said, "to find those kids to build the program around."  Every upper class member of the team has a "little brother," a younger team member who heor she adopts, mentors.  This team building from within facilitates the "culture of the team" being handed down from one generation to the next, and gives the individual team members "ownership" of the team and "accountability" to each other.

"We'll all go farther as a team than any of us could go as an individual,"  Morris tells them.  He's also careful to be inclusive, that the team is not just for the top runners.  "You're going to be accepted no matter what your ability level."  Academics and "what you do with the other 22 hours of your day" are as important if not more important that what the team members do at practice, Morris preaches.  He's proud, if not prouder, of the fact that the girls team had a collective GPA of 3.98 with the boys not being far behind.  In other words, the goal of the program is to develop well rounded individuals, not merely potential Olympic or college-scholarship caliber athletes.

Morris summed it up when a radio interviewer asked him about how he felt being shifted to the role of spectator/cheerleader when the XC team ran in the NXN Regional qualifier in South Dakota last Fall, he said: "It makes it pretty special that you can let them go."  The ultimate test of the concept that the team is more than any one individual, even if that individual is the coach.

For more on Perham written by members of the boys' team XCNation has two stories HERE and HERE.