City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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CHESTER, Pa. -- Over 48 years as a high school and college basketball coach, Speedy Morris passed a number of milestones—300 wins at one school, most wins in Catholic League history, 900 career wins.

When St. Joseph’s Prep beat Salesianum 49-43 on Wednesday in the Jameer Nelson Classic at Widener University, Morris put his name into the record books once again, becoming the first coach in Pennsylvania high school history to win 300 games with two different programs.

“Milestones are nice but you’ve got to be there a long time to get them,” he said. “I’ve been blessed with a lot of great kids. To be the first is always something special, to be the only coach in Pennsylvania to win 300 games at two schools.”

The feat was accomplished in its second attempt, after Prep lost to Abington in the first day of the event Tuesday evening.

After the final buzzer sounded, there was no big celebration—Morris and the Hawks gathered for a team photo, and a cake was brought out, though the team walked off the court largely before the longtime head coach noticed its arrival.

That’s Morris, after all, focused on what goes on between the sidelines and baselines and not much else.

“He’s just a winner, that’s what he is," sophomore guard Kyle Thompson said. "He may not seem like an intense guy, but in practice he’s very, very intense, he demands attention and you have to execute for him.”

“I think he’s always prepared, he’s got a plan,” senior forward Pete Gayhardt added. “Every practice there’s a practice plan, every game there’s a plan, what are we going to do to win this game? And I think that’s what’s made him so successful.”

Gayhardt was one big reason why Prep emerged victorious against a Salesianum squad loaded with young talent. The Notre Dame lacrosse commit finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds, even when matched up against 6-9 freshman Tariq Ingraham, who certainly looks the part of a high-major post player a few years down the road.

But the two-year starter said that the milestone, while the players were aware of it in the games days leading up to the Jameer Nelson Classic, they hadn’t used it as a motivational tool.

“He’s had a great career and everyone knows that, but I think what makes him so great is he’s focused on this season and our team,” Gayhardt said. “We weren’t like ‘let’s go out and win this for Speedy’, it was let’s win this because we want to win this for our record, going into Catholic League play.”

Thompson added 13 for Prep in the win, one in which the Hawks seized a lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to a buzzer-beating Thompson triple and never gave it up. They grew the advantage to as many as 12 in the second quarter before a 12-2 Salesianum run in the fourth made it a three-point game with under three minutes to play.

But some clutch foul shots by Chris Montie with under a minute to play sealed the victory for the Hawks, who improved to 5-3.

Ingraham had 10 points for Salesianum (0-3), the two-time defending DIAA champions, who start two freshmen and a sophomore and rely on several other underclassmen in its rotation.

As the head coach at Roman Catholic from 1967-81, Morris won 347 games, then won 238 at La Salle University between 1986-2001. He then returned to the high school ranks at Prep, where his 300 wins in 15 years have also made him the winningest coach in the history of arguably the most difficult hoops league in the state.

The game has certainly changed a lot in the five decades he’s been mentoring young men in Philadelphia on and off the courts, but Morris noted the biggest change has come in dealing with the players.

“The difference was, when I first started, the first 20 years, you’d tell a kid to do something and they’d do it,” he said. “Now they want to know, why—but as long as you have a good reason, they’ll do it.”

Not surprisingly, the 72-year-old isn’t focused much on his career accomplishments, even as the years go back.

There are still games to be played, after all.

“Maybe when I give it up and start thinking back on these things, it’ll be a little more different,” he said. “Right now, we’re playing Lansdale Catholic (next); I’m going to start thinking about Lansdale Catholic.”